Spanish · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "la palabra" in Spanish?

Q: How do you pronounce la palabra in Spanish?

la palabra is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /la paˈla.βɾa/. It means “word.” lah pah-LAH-brah, three beats with a soft b and a single tapped r.

lah pah-LAH-brah, three beats with a soft b and a single tapped r.

la palabra /la paˈla.βɾa/

Three syllables, pa-LA-bra, beat on the second-to-last, as the rule for this ending requires for a vowel-final word. The plural "palabras" keeps it. The related "palabrota" adds a syllable and shifts the beat to RO, once again second-to-last — the rule is doing all the work.

Listen: la palabra

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Sound it out

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

pa An unaspirated p and a wide-open "ah", unstressed but fully open.

la A second bright l and another wide "ah", this one stressed. Three of the word's four vowels are the same sound.

bra A soft b between the vowel and the r, running straight into a single tap, then a final wide "ah".

Hear it in a sentence

No encuentro la palabra correcta.

I can't find the right word.

Listen: No encuentro la palabra correcta.

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"No encuentro la palabra correcta" pairs the noun with a feminine adjective. "Encuentro" shows a stem change with ue in one beat, and "correcta" has a trilled double r — which contrasts with the single tap inside "palabra", giving you both r sounds in one sentence.

Where English speakers slip

Four a vowels in one phrase, and English wants to reduce three of them. All must stay wide open, differing only in loudness. The br cluster then gets an English r that pulls the tongue back and muffles the b, when it should be a soft b plus one forward flick. And the p wants an English puff.