Spanish · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "todos" in Spanish?

Q: How do you pronounce todos in Spanish?

todos is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈto.ðos/. It means “everyone / all.” TOH-thohs — a real t at the front, a soft d in the middle, and a hissing s at the end.

TOH-thohs — a real t at the front, a soft d in the middle, and a hissing s at the end.

todos /ˈto.ðos/

Two syllables, TO-dos, with the weight on the first. The word ends in s, so the default rule points at the second-to-last syllable and nothing is written. The feminine "todas" works the same way, and Spanish uses the masculine plural for any mixed group — so "todos" covers everyone regardless of who is in the room.

Listen: todos

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Sound it out

to A dry dental t with the tongue against the upper front teeth, no puff of air, then a pure "oh" carrying the stress.

dos A soft d between vowels, close to the th of "those", plus a second "oh" identical to the first and a final voiceless hiss.

Hear it in a sentence

Todos están en la cocina.

Everyone is in the kitchen.

Listen: Todos están en la cocina.

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"Todos están en la cocina" takes a plural verb, and "están" needs an accent to hold the stress on the final syllable against its n ending. "Cocina" has a hard c before o and a soft c before i, giving ko-SEE-na — the same letter twice, two sounds, decided by the vowel after each.

Where English speakers slip

The intervocalic d gets hardened into a full English d, which stiffens the whole word. Let it soften almost to a th. Both o vowels then get differentiated the way English would, and the final s gets voiced into a z. There is also a usage point: "todos" means everyone as a pronoun but all as an adjective, and in the adjective role it needs an article after it — "todos los días", not "todos días".