Spanish · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "mañana" in Spanish?

Q: How do you pronounce mañana in Spanish?

mañana is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /maˈɲa.na/. It means “tomorrow.” mah-NYAH-nah — the ñ is one fused sound, and all three a's stay wide open.

mah-NYAH-nah — the ñ is one fused sound, and all three a's stay wide open.

mañana /maˈɲa.na/

Three syllables, ma-ÑA-na, beat on the second-to-last, as the rule for this ending requires. The ñ counts as a single consonant for syllable division. Note the word does double duty — tomorrow as an adverb, morning as a feminine noun — with identical stress in both roles; only the article tells them apart.

Listen: mañana

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Sound it out

ma A normal m and a wide-open "ah", unstressed but at full value.

ña The ñ is a single palatal nasal: the flat middle of the tongue presses against the roof of the mouth and the sound comes out through the nose. It is one movement, not an n followed by a separate y. Then a wide "ah" carrying the stress.

na A plain n at the upper teeth and a third "ah". The word deliberately contrasts ñ and n side by side, which makes it the best possible practice word for the difference.

Hear it in a sentence

Mañana tengo una cita.

Tomorrow I have an appointment.

Listen: Mañana tengo una cita.

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"Mañana tengo una cita" uses the adverbial sense, and Spanish uses the present tense for a scheduled future event where English needs a future or a progressive. "Cita" has a soft c before i and a dental t: SEE-ta. Compare "la mañana" in another sentence, where the article makes it the morning instead.

Where English speakers slip

Most learners approximate the ñ as two separate sounds — "man-YAH-na" — where one continuous palatal nasal belongs. Say the middle of the English word "onion" and freeze there. Then all three a vowels get differentiated, with English reducing the first and last into schwas; they must all stay wide open. And omitting the tilde in writing gives "manana", which is simply not a word.