Spanish · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "mal" in Spanish?

Q: How do you pronounce mal in Spanish?

mal is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /mal/. It means “badly.” mahl, one syllable — a wide-open "ah" and a bright, forward l.

mahl, one syllable — a wide-open "ah" and a bright, forward l.

mal /mal/

One beat, with nowhere else for the stress to go. "Mal" is the shortened form that appears before a masculine noun or as an adverb, while "malo" is the full adjective with the beat on MA. Since "mal" ends in l, any longer word ending the same way — like "final" — takes the stress on its last syllable by default.

Listen: mal

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Sound it out

ma A normal m and a wide-open "ah" as in "father". Not the flat vowel of English "mal" in "malformed".

l A bright l with the tongue tip just behind the upper front teeth. English darkens its l at the end of a word — feel what happens in "mall" — and Spanish never does. Keep the tongue forward and the body low.

Hear it in a sentence

Me siento mal hoy.

I feel bad today.

Listen: Me siento mal hoy.

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"Me siento mal hoy" uses the reflexive "me siento" for how you feel, which is what distinguishes it from plain "siento" meaning I am sorry. "Siento" packs the ie into one beat, SYEN-to, and "hoy" is a single syllable with a silent h.

Where English speakers slip

The l is the giveaway: English speakers pull the tongue back and produce "mahw", swallowing the consonant into the vowel. Keep the tip forward against the teeth ridge. The vowel then wants flattening toward the English "mal". And grammatically, "mal" is the adverb while "malo" is the adjective — "me siento mal" is right, "me siento malo" is not.