LingoDrop
Spanish · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "la mañana" in Spanish?
lah mah-NYAH-nah — same word as tomorrow, but the article makes it the morning.
Three syllables, ma-ÑA-na, with the weight on the second-to-last, the placement the default rule gives — identical to the adverb meaning tomorrow, since they are the same word. Only the article and the preposition around it tell you which sense is meant, and the stress never budges either way.
Listen: la mañana
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
Por la mañana tomo té.
In the morning I drink tea.
Listen: Por la mañana tomo té.
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
"Por la mañana tomo té" uses "por la mañana" for in the morning, which is the standard construction. Strip the article and "mañana tomo té" would mean tomorrow I drink tea — the article is the entire difference. "Té" carries an accent distinguishing it from the pronoun "te".
Where English speakers slip
The ñ and the outer vowels give way together: "man-YAH-na" splits one sound into two, and the first and last a sounds collapse into schwas. But the error that changes meaning is dropping the article: "mañana voy" is tomorrow I go, while "por la mañana voy" is in the morning I go. Learners who treat the two as interchangeable end up making appointments for the wrong day.