Spanish · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "nueve" in Spanish?

Q: How do you pronounce nueve in Spanish?

nueve is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈnwe.βe/. It means “nine.” NWEH-veh — but that v is a soft b made with both lips, not teeth on lip.

NWEH-veh — but that v is a soft b made with both lips, not teeth on lip.

nueve /ˈnwe.βe/

Two syllables, NUE-ve, stress on the first. It ends in a vowel, so the default rule covers it without an accent. When the word stretches to "noventa" (ninety) the u disappears from the spelling and the beat moves to no-VEN-ta, staying second-to-last.

Listen: nueve

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Sound it out

nue An n, then the u glides into the e as a w: "nweh", all in one beat. Do not split it into "noo-eh".

v Spanish v and b are the same sound, and between vowels — as here — that sound is a soft one: the two lips come close but never fully meet, and the voice hums through the gap. Your top teeth should not touch your bottom lip at all.

e A short "eh" as in "bed", unstressed but held at full quality.

Hear it in a sentence

Mi hija tiene nueve años.

My daughter is nine years old.

Listen: Mi hija tiene nueve años.

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"Mi hija tiene nueve años" is the standard Spanish way of giving an age: you have nine years rather than being them. "Hija" starts with a silent h and has that throaty j, so it comes out EE-ha. And "años" needs its ñ — "anos" with a plain n means something anatomically unfortunate, which makes this one of the highest-stakes tildes in the language.

Where English speakers slip

The v is the sound to fix. English speakers put teeth to lip and buzz, which produces a consonant Spanish simply does not have. Let both lips do the work loosely and the word softens instantly. The second problem is the opening cluster stretched into three syllables, "noo-EH-veh" — the u is a glide, part of the first beat, not a syllable of its own.