Spanish · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "la hora" in Spanish?

Q: How do you pronounce la hora in Spanish?

la hora is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /la ˈo.ɾa/. It means “hour / time (o'clock).” lah OH-rah — the h is silent, so the article runs straight into the vowel.

lah OH-rah — the h is silent, so the article runs straight into the vowel.

la hora /la ˈo.ɾa/

Two syllables in the noun, HO-ra, beat on the first, which is the default placement. Note that "hora" keeps the feminine article "la" even though it starts with an a-like sound — the rule that swaps in "el" applies only to nouns beginning with a stressed a, and here the stress is on the o.

Listen: la hora

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Sound it out

la A bright forward l and a wide-open "ah". The article is unstressed and leans onto the noun.

h Silent. Because the noun begins with a mute h, the article and noun fuse in speech: "la hora" is heard as one unbroken run, la-O-ra, with no break between them.

o A pure "oh" carrying the stress.

ra A single tapped r and a wide-open "ah" to close.

Hear it in a sentence

¿A qué hora abren?

What time do you open?

Listen: ¿A qué hora abren?

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"¿A qué hora abren?" is the practical form of this word, and it chains three vowel-adjacent items: "qué hora abren" runs as keh-O-ra-A-bren with no pauses, since both the h and the word boundaries are transparent to the flow. "Abren" is stressed A-bren, second-to-last, with a soft b.

Where English speakers slip

Pronouncing the h gives "la HOR-a", which is the reflex from English "hour" — ironically, English also has a silent h there, but learners still voice the Spanish one. The r then wants an English curl. And be careful with the two meanings: "hora" is both a clock hour and the time of day, so "¿qué hora es?" asks what time it is, not how many hours have passed.