Spanish · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "tres" in Spanish?

Q: How do you pronounce tres in Spanish?

tres is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /tɾes/. It means “three.” trehs, one syllable — the r is a single quick tap, not an English curl.

trehs, one syllable — the r is a single quick tap, not an English curl.

tres /tɾes/

A single syllable, so stress has nowhere to go. The word matters for the rule anyway: because "tres" ends in s, its longer relatives inherit that ending and follow the default — "trescientos" lands on tres-CIEN-tos with the beat on the second-to-last syllable.

Listen: tres

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Sound it out

t Dental and dry: tongue tip on the upper teeth, no puff of air. This matters more than usual here because the t and r are joined.

r One flick of the tongue tip against the ridge behind the upper teeth. Coming right after a t, it feels almost like the "tr" in American "metro" said quickly. The tongue moves forward, never backward.

es A short "eh" as in "bed", closed by a hissing s. Keep the vowel from being coloured by the r before it.

Hear it in a sentence

Son las tres de la tarde.

It's three in the afternoon.

Listen: Son las tres de la tarde.

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"Son las tres de la tarde" shows Spanish telling time with a plural verb and a plural article — "son las" because three is more than one. Only one o'clock takes "es la". The phrase "de la tarde" is how Spanish marks p.m., and its d sits between vowels in running speech, softening toward a th sound.

Where English speakers slip

The "tr" cluster is the whole difficulty. English speakers produce "tresh" or "chres", because in English a t before r turns into something close to "ch" — listen to how you actually say "tree". Spanish keeps the two sounds separate and distinct: a dry dental t, then a single forward tap. Slow it down to t-eh-res and speed it up gradually, and the cluster sorts itself out.