Spanish · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "las vacaciones" in Spanish?

Q: How do you pronounce las vacaciones in Spanish?

las vacaciones is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /las ba.kaˈsjo.nes/. It means “vacation / holidays.” lahs bah-kah-SYOH-nehs — it starts with a b sound, and the word is always plural.

lahs bah-kah-SYOH-nehs — it starts with a b sound, and the word is always plural.

las vacaciones /las ba.kaˈsjo.nes/

Four syllables, va-ca-CIO-nes, beat on the second-to-last, the placement the default rule gives for a word ending in s. The singular "vacación" would need an accent, but you will almost never use it — Spanish treats holidays as an inherently plural thing, so "las vacaciones" is the normal form, with plural verbs and adjectives.

Listen: las vacaciones

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Sound it out

las A bright forward l, a wide "ah", and a hissing s. The plural article, unstressed.

va The v is a b sound — Spanish makes no distinction between the letters — followed by a wide-open "ah".

ca A hard k with no puff of air and a second wide "ah".

cio Before an i, the same letter c is a plain "s", then the i glides into the o as a y. One beat, "syoh", carrying the stress. The word uses c twice, two different ways.

nes A clean n, a short "eh", and a final hissing s.

Hear it in a sentence

Nos vamos de vacaciones en julio.

We're going on vacation in July.

Listen: Nos vamos de vacaciones en julio.

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"Nos vamos de vacaciones en julio" uses the reflexive "irse" for going away, and "de vacaciones" is the fixed phrase — never "en vacaciones". "Julio" opens with the throaty j and fuses its io into one final syllable: HOO-lyo. Months are not capitalised.

Where English speakers slip

A buzzed v and a hardened second c between them give "va-ca-KYO-nes". Make the v a b and let the c before i be an s. Grammatically, the plural is the thing to remember: "mi vacación" sounds distinctly odd, and adjectives must agree in the plural — "unas vacaciones largas".