Is the Spanish alphabet the same as the English one?

Almost: the same twenty-six letters plus ñ, which is a separate letter with its own place in the dictionary after n. Ch and ll used to be counted as letters and no longer are.

When does a Spanish word carry an accent mark?

When the stress falls where the default rule would not put it – words ending in a vowel, n or s are stressed on the second-to-last syllable, all others on the last – or to distinguish two words that are spelled alike (él he, el the).

Which Spanish pronunciation does the course teach?

A neutral Spanish understood everywhere, pointing out the differences where they matter: the c/z sound, vosotros against ustedes, everyday vocabulary that differs between Spain and Latin America.

The Spanish alphabet: 27 letters, read as written

The Latin alphabet plus ñ – and a language pronounced exactly as it is spelled.

Spanish uses twenty-seven letters: the twenty-six of English and ñ, which is a letter of its own (año, year, is not ano). Five vowels, each with one sound that never reduces – a e i o u – are the reason Spanish is read the way it is written: once you know the letters, you can pronounce any word you see.

A few letters behave differently from English: h is always silent (hola), j is a throaty h (jamón), g before e or i sounds the same as j (gente), c before e or i is th in Spain and s in Latin America (cena), z is the same, ll and y sound alike (calle), and rr is rolled (perro against pero). The acute accent (á é í ó ú) marks stress or tells two words apart (sí yes, si if); ü appears in a handful of words (pingüino).

Handwriting follows the same stroke order as English, so the chart below is mostly a pronunciation map – tap a letter to see it written and to trace it. The A0 level of the course covers the alphabet, the five vowels, ñ and the accent mark in twelve lessons; A1 opens with greetings and the verb to be.

The chart

Tap a character to watch it being written and to trace it yourself.

Letters

Say the five vowels a hundred times – short, pure, never diphthongs. Every other sound is easier after that.
Practise the pairs that change meaning: pero/perro, caro/carro, and c/z before e and i in words you know.
Read menus and street names aloud. Spanish rewards reading aloud more than almost any language: what you see is what you say.

The lessons that teach it

The A0 level of the course, free: the letters, their sounds and the first words, with the same stroke animations and tracing exercises.

The Spanish Alphabet

Writing the letters and the five vowels that never change.

Sounds and First Words

The last letters, the letter pairs, and your first Spanish words.

The whole course: Learn Spanish together

Questions

Is the Spanish alphabet the same as the English one?: Almost: the same twenty-six letters plus ñ, which is a separate letter with its own place in the dictionary after n. Ch and ll used to be counted as letters and no longer are.
When does a Spanish word carry an accent mark?: When the stress falls where the default rule would not put it – words ending in a vowel, n or s are stressed on the second-to-last syllable, all others on the last – or to distinguish two words that are spelled alike (él he, el the).
Which Spanish pronunciation does the course teach?: A neutral Spanish understood everywhere, pointing out the differences where they matter: the c/z sound, vosotros against ustedes, everyday vocabulary that differs between Spain and Latin America.