Spanish · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "saber" in Spanish?

Q: How do you pronounce saber in Spanish?

saber is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /saˈβeɾ/. It means “to know (a fact or how to).” sah-BEHR, stress at the end, and the b in the middle is soft — lips barely touching.

sah-BEHR, stress at the end, and the b in the middle is soft — lips barely touching.

saber /saˈβeɾ/

Two syllables, sa-BER, stressed on the last because it ends in r. The conjugated forms wander a long way from the infinitive: "sé" for I know needs an accent purely to distinguish it from the pronoun "se", and the past "SU-pe" changes the stem vowel completely. The infinitive is the only regular-looking form this verb has.

Listen: saber

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Sound it out

sa A hissing s and a wide-open "ah". Unstressed, so it goes quickly, but the vowel stays open rather than reducing.

be Between two vowels, Spanish b never fully closes: the lips come near each other and the voice hums through the narrow gap. Then a short "eh", stressed. This soft b is the same sound the letter v makes in the same position — the two letters are interchangeable to the ear.

r A single flick of the tongue tip to end the word cleanly.

Hear it in a sentence

¿Sabes dónde está el banco?

Do you know where the bank is?

Listen: ¿Sabes dónde está el banco?

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"¿Sabes dónde está el banco?" uses "saber" for knowing a fact, which is the whole point of the word — knowing a person would take "conocer" instead. "Dónde" carries an accent marking it as a question word, not moving its stress; and "está el" links across the boundary, giving es-TA-el in one flow.

Where English speakers slip

Pop the b with the lips snapping apart and you get a hard "sa-BAIR", where Spanish wants a soft hum between the vowels. Between vowels the Spanish b is a soft, continuous sound with no closure at all — let the air keep moving. The other slip is stress: English speakers say "SAY-ber", borrowing the shape of a familiar English word, when the beat belongs on the final syllable.