LingoDrop
Spanish · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "la derecha" in Spanish?
lah deh-REH-chah — a single tapped r, and the ch is as in English "church".
Three syllables in the noun, de-RE-cha, beat on the second-to-last, which is the default placement. The ch counts as a single consonant for syllable division. As an adjective it becomes "derecho" for masculine nouns, and that masculine form also works as a noun meaning a right or a law — same stress, different job.
Listen: la derecha
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
La farmacia está a la derecha.
The pharmacy is on the right.
Listen: La farmacia está a la derecha.
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"La farmacia está a la derecha" uses estar for location and needs "a la" before the direction. "Farmacia" is three beats with the ia fusing into one final syllable: far-MA-sya. Say "a la derecha" and the vowels link right through with no breaks between the words.
Where English speakers slip
The r in the middle gets the English curl, which colours both vowels around it and turns the word into "duh-RAY-chuh". It is a single forward flick with clean "eh" sounds either side. The two unstressed e's then get reduced, and the final a wants to become "uh". This word is far easier than "izquierda", so the errors here are all about vowel quality.