Spanish · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "si" in Spanish?

Q: How do you pronounce si in Spanish?

si is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /si/. It means “if.” see, one syllable — the same sound as "sí" (yes), but with no accent because this one means if.

see, one syllable — the same sound as "sí" (yes), but with no accent because this one means if.

si /si/

One unstressed syllable. This is the real difference between the pair: "si" (if) is a conjunction that slides by without a beat, while "sí" (yes) is emphatic and takes stress in the phrase. So although they share a sound, they do not share a rhythm, and a native listener hears which one you mean partly from that.

Listen: si

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Sound it out

s A voiceless hiss, tongue near the ridge behind the upper teeth. Spanish never voices this into a z.

i A tight, tense "ee" as in "see", short and bright. Identical to the vowel in "sí" — the words are indistinguishable by ear.

Hear it in a sentence

Si llueve, me quedo aquí.

If it rains, I'll stay here.

Listen: Si llueve, me quedo aquí.

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"Si llueve, me quedo aquí" uses the present tense after "si" where English would too — Spanish never puts a future tense directly after this word, a rule learners break constantly. "Llueve" opens with the double l as a y sound and packs ue into one glide: YWEH-veh, with that v pronounced as a soft b.

Where English speakers slip

Nothing about the sounds is hard; the trouble is entirely orthographic and grammatical. Writing "sí llueve" instead of "si llueve" turns a conditional into an odd affirmation. And the tense rule catches almost everyone: English says "if it will rain" only rarely, but learners still reach for "si lloverá", which no Spanish speaker would say. Present tense after "si", always.