How to Pronounce 'Por Favor': Spanish Pronunciation Guide

Q: How do you pronounce por favor in Spanish?

por favor is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /poɾ faˈβoɾ/. It means “please.” por fah-VOR, but the v is really a soft b — lips close gently, no teeth involved.

How do you pronounce "por favor" in Spanish?

por fah-VOR, but the v is really a soft b — lips close gently, no teeth involved.

por favor /poɾ faˈβoɾ/

The weight falls on the last syllable, fa-VOR. "Favor" ends in r, a consonant other than n or s, so the default rule sends the stress to the final syllable — exactly where it is, so no accent is written. Contrast the English noun FAVor, stressed on the first syllable; the Spanish word flips it.

Listen: por favor

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Sound it out

por A pure "oh" — not the English "por" of "porridge" — closed by a single quick tap of the tongue tip. The r flicks once and releases.

fa A normal f, then an open "ah". Unstressed, but do not let it slide to "fuh".

v Here is the surprise: Spanish v and b are the same letter to the ear. Between vowels, as here, the lips come close but never fully meet and the air hums through — a soft sound with no contact between lip and teeth at all.

or The stressed beat: a pure "oh" plus another single tap of the r. Two taps in the phrase, both quick, neither trilled.

Hear it in a sentence

¿Me ayudas, por favor?

Can you help me, please?

Listen: ¿Me ayudas, por favor?

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"¿Me ayudas, por favor?" tucks the phrase at the end after a comma, which is where Spanish most often parks it. Notice "me ayudas": the e of "me" runs straight into the a of "ayudas" so the two words share one breath, meh-ah-YOO-thas, and that y is a consonant "y" sound like in "yes".

Where English speakers slip

Almost everyone lands the v with the top teeth on the bottom lip, English-style, producing "fah-VOR" with a buzzing v. Spanish has no such sound anywhere: pull the teeth out of it and let the two lips do the work, loosely. The stress is the second thing to watch — English speakers import the shape of their own word "favor" and say "FAH-vor", which sounds distinctly foreign. And that final r is a light tap, not the drawn-out English r that colors the whole vowel before it.