Spanish · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "la hija" in Spanish?

Q: How do you pronounce la hija in Spanish?

la hija is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /la ˈi.xa/. It means “daughter.” lah EE-hah — same shape as "hijo" but ending in the feminine a.

lah EE-hah — same shape as "hijo" but ending in the feminine a.

la hija /la ˈi.xa/

Two syllables — HI-ja — with the stress on the first, as the default rule prescribes. The final a is the only thing separating this word from "hijo", so it carries a full grammatical load in a single unstressed vowel — all the more reason not to let it reduce.

Listen: la hija

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Sound it out

la A bright l and a wide "ah". The silent h means the article runs straight into the noun's vowel: la-EE-ha.

h Silent. No breath, no sound — the word begins on the i.

i A tight "ee" as in "see", carrying the stress.

ja A throaty rasp at the back of the mouth, then a wide-open "ah" — the vowel that marks the word feminine.

Hear it in a sentence

Mi hija estudia medicina.

My daughter studies medicine.

Listen: Mi hija estudia medicina.

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"Mi hija estudia medicina" links three words across vowels: "mi hija" runs as mee-EE-ha thanks to the silent h, and "hija estudia" pushes the a into the e. "Estudia" packs its ia into one final syllable, es-TU-dya, and "medicina" has a soft c before i.

Where English speakers slip

Because "hija" and "hijo" differ by one unstressed vowel, English reduction is genuinely costly here — say "EE-huh" and you have blurred a daughter into something ambiguous. Keep the final a wide open. The h then wants voicing and the j wants softening into an English j; resist both, since the two letters do opposite things in this word.