Spanish · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "la escuela" in Spanish?

Q: How do you pronounce la escuela in Spanish?

la escuela is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /la esˈkwe.la/. It means “school.” lah-es-KWEH-lah, three beats in the noun — the ue glides into one sound.

lah-es-KWEH-lah, three beats in the noun — the ue glides into one sound.

la escuela /la esˈkwe.la/

Three syllables, es-CUE-la, with the weight on the second-to-last because the ue counts as one diphthong. The plural "escuelas" keeps it. Note the related word "escolar" drops the ue entirely and moves the beat to the end because it finishes in r — the diphthong appears only under stress.

Listen: la escuela

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Sound it out

la A bright l and a wide "ah". Because the noun starts with a vowel, the article links straight in with no break.

es A short "eh" and a hissing s, run together tightly.

cue A hard k with no aspiration, then the u glides into the e as a w. One beat, "kweh", carrying the stress.

la A bright forward l and a wide-open "ah", the feminine ending.

Hear it in a sentence

Mis hijos van a la escuela.

My kids go to school.

Listen: Mis hijos van a la escuela.

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"Mis hijos van a la escuela" uses "van a", where the preposition is compulsory after a verb of motion. "Hijos" has a silent h and a throaty j: EE-hos. Say "a la escuela" and all three words run together as a-la-es-KWEH-la with no breaks.

Where English speakers slip

Two opposite habits collide here: "es-koo-EH-la" splits the ue apart, while "eh-SKWEH-la" props up the opening cluster with a vowel that does not exist. Neither is right: es- runs together, and ue is one glide. The final a then wants reducing. Three habits, and the word goes from four mangled beats to three clean ones.