Spanish · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "uno" in Spanish?

Q: How do you pronounce uno in Spanish?

uno is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈu.no/. It means “one.” OO-noh, two syllables with the beat on the first — and both vowels stay pure.

OO-noh, two syllables with the beat on the first — and both vowels stay pure.

uno /ˈu.no/

Two syllables, U-no, weight on the first. The word ends in a vowel, so the default rule stresses the second-to-last syllable and no written accent is needed. Note that when "uno" comes directly before a masculine noun it shortens to "un" — one syllable, same stress logic, nothing to mark.

Listen: uno

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Sound it out

u A pure "oo" as in "boot", lips rounded from the start and held steady. Spanish u never says "yoo" the way the English letter name does.

n A clean n with the tongue tip at the upper teeth. Nothing exotic, but keep it short — it belongs to the second syllable, not the first.

o A single unglided "oh". Unstressed, but still a full vowel; do not let it collapse into the "uh" English gives to final syllables.

Hear it in a sentence

Uno de mis hermanos vive en Lima.

One of my brothers lives in Lima.

Listen: Uno de mis hermanos vive en Lima.

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"Uno de mis hermanos vive en Lima" uses the full form because there is no noun immediately after it — say "un hermano" and the o drops. The h in "hermanos" is silent, so it is er-MA-nos, and "vive en" links the two vowels together into VEE-veh-en with no break between the words.

Where English speakers slip

English speakers who know the word "uno" from the card game usually say it correctly by accident, but two habits creep in from spelling. The first is reading the u as the English letter name, giving "YOO-no". The second is the unstressed final o sagging into "uh", so the word lands as "OO-nuh". Spanish keeps every vowel at full value regardless of stress — quieter, yes, but never blurred.