Spanish · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "la flor" in Spanish?

Q: How do you pronounce la flor in Spanish?

la flor is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /la floɾ/. It means “flower.” lah flohr — one syllable, with a bright l and a single flicked r.

lah flohr — one syllable, with a bright l and a single flicked r.

la flor /la floɾ/

The noun is one beat, so the rule has nothing to do here. The plural "flores" adds a syllable and lands its beat on FLO, the second-to-last, straight from the default rule. Note the noun is feminine despite ending in a consonant, so it is "la flor" and "las flores" with feminine adjectives throughout.

Listen: la flor

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Sound it out

la A bright forward l and a wide "ah", unstressed.

fl A normal f running straight into a bright, forward l with no vowel between them.

or A pure "oh" and a single tap of the r. The vowel finishes fully before the tongue moves — English would merge them into a long "or".

Hear it in a sentence

Esta flor huele muy bien.

This flower smells very good.

Listen: Esta flor huele muy bien.

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"Esta flor huele muy bien" uses "oler", one of the odder Spanish verbs — it grows an h in the stem-changed forms, giving "huele" with a silent h and a ue glide: WEH-leh. "Bien" packs its ie into a single beat.

Where English speakers slip

Curl the r and the word turns into something close to "floor", with the vowel stretched backward. Spanish keeps a pure "oh" and adds one forward flick. The l then wants darkening after the f. And the gender is worth noting: everything about the consonant ending suggests masculine, but "flor" is feminine.