How to Pronounce 'Negro': Spanish Pronunciation Guide

Q: How do you pronounce negro in Spanish?

negro is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈne.ɣɾo/. It means “black (color).” NEH-groh, stress on the first syllable, with a soft g and one flicked r.

How do you pronounce "negro" in Spanish?

NEH-groh, stress on the first syllable, with a soft g and one flicked r.

negro /ˈne.ɣɾo/

Two syllables, NE-gro, weight on the first. It ends in a vowel, so the default rule applies without a written accent. Note the feminine "negra" and plurals "negros" and "negras" all keep the same first-syllable beat, since every one of them still ends in a vowel or s.

Listen: negro

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Sound it out

ne A clean n, then a short "eh" as in "bed". This is the stressed beat, so hold it slightly longer than the second syllable.

g A hard g in principle, but sitting between vowels it softens: the back of the tongue rises toward the roof of the mouth without quite touching, so the air keeps flowing. It is gentler and hazier than the g in English "grow".

ro A single tap of the tongue tip, then a pure "oh". One flick only — the trill belongs to rr and to word-initial r, not here.

Hear it in a sentence

El gato negro duerme en la silla.

The black cat sleeps on the chair.

Listen: El gato negro duerme en la silla.

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"El gato negro duerme en la silla" places the colour after the noun, the normal Spanish order. "Duerme" holds the ue glide in one beat, DWEHR-meh, and "silla" gives you a double l, pronounced as a y sound across Latin America — SEE-ya, never "sill-uh". The whole sentence is a good test of keeping unstressed e and a vowels wide open.

Where English speakers slip

This word looks so much like its English cousin that speakers import the whole English shape, hardening the g into the plosive of "grow" and curling the r back. Between vowels the Spanish g is a soft, almost breathy sound, and the r is a single forward flick. The final o also tends to drift into "oh-w"; keep the lips still. A cultural note: in Spanish this is simply the colour word, used freely for objects, and carries none of the charge its English lookalike does.