LingoDrop
Spanish · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "la mesa" in Spanish?
lah MEH-sah — the s stays a clean hiss even between vowels.
Two syllables, ME-sa, beat on the first, following the default rule for a vowel-final word. The plural "mesas" keeps it. Note the diminutive "mesita" moves the beat to SI, and the related "meseta" (plateau) does the same — the rule handles all of them without a written accent.
Listen: la mesa
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Hear it in a sentence
La mesa es de madera.
The table is made of wood.
Listen: La mesa es de madera.
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"La mesa es de madera" uses "ser de" to express what something is made of, which is a fixed construction. "Madera" is three beats stressed on DE, with a soft d between vowels and a single tapped r. And "es de" links the s straight into the d.
Where English speakers slip
The s between vowels gets voiced into a z, giving "MEH-za", because English does that automatically. Keep it hissed. The stressed e then wants stretching into "ay", and the final a wants reducing. Three small vowel-and-consonant habits, and correcting them makes a very common word sound right.