Spanish · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "la vida" in Spanish?

Q: How do you pronounce la vida in Spanish?

la vida is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /la ˈbi.ða/. It means “life.” lah BEE-thah — it starts with a b sound and the d in the middle is soft.

lah BEE-thah — it starts with a b sound and the d in the middle is soft.

la vida /la ˈbi.ða/

Two syllables — VI-da — with the stress on the first, as the rule for this ending requires. The plural "vidas" keeps it. Note the related verb "vivir" moves the stress to the end because of its r ending — so the noun is front-heavy and the verb is back-heavy, from the same root.

Listen: la vida

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Sound it out

la A bright l and a wide "ah", unstressed and leaning onto the noun.

vi The v is a b sound — Spanish makes no distinction between the letters — followed by a tight "ee" as in "see" carrying the stress.

da A soft d between vowels, close to the th of "those", plus a wide-open "ah".

Hear it in a sentence

La vida aquí es tranquila.

Life here is peaceful.

Listen: La vida aquí es tranquila.

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"La vida aquí es tranquila" links "vida aquí" across two vowels with no break. "Tranquila" has a silent u after the qu and a single tapped r in its opening cluster: tran-KEE-la. And "aquí" needs its accent to hold the beat on the final í.

Where English speakers slip

Fix the v before anything else: buzzed with the teeth it gives "VEE-da", which is the single most common Spanish consonant error for English speakers. Make it a b. The d then gets hardened when it should be a soft brush near a th, and the final a gets reduced. The phrase "así es la vida" is worth practising as a whole — it drills all three habits at once.