Galician/Lesson 1/Alphabet

The Galician alphabet has 23 letters as well as 6 digraphs.

Let's see a list of the 23 letters:

Letter	Name of the letter	IPA Pronunciation	Sound compared to English	Example	Example translation
A a	a	[a]	a as in father	amor	love
B b	be	[b]	as in bee	beber	to drink
C c	ce	before e and i [θ], everywhere else [k]	as in thin, as in account	cea, casa	dinner, house
D d	de	[d]	as in dance	dedo, deda	finger, toe
E e	e	[e], [ɛ]	as in met	peto	pocket
F f	efe	[f]	as in fan	feliz	happy
G g	gue	[g]	as in get	gañar	earn
H h	hache ('agá' before new RAG rules in 2003)	[ʔ]	silent	home	man
I i	i	[i]	as in see	igual	equal
L l	ele	[l]	as in light	lugar	place
M m	eme	[m]	as in mat	mundo	world
N n	ene	[n]	as in nine	nadar	swim
Ñ ñ	eñe	[ɲ]	as in venue	raíña	queen
O o	o	[o], [ɔ]	as in boat or as in lot	todo	all
P p	pe	[p]	as in pot	por	for
Q q	que	[k]	as in cat	que	what
R r	erre	[ɾ], [r]	no English equivalent	rato	mouse
S s	ese	[s͇]	a slightly softer 'sh' sound	menos	less
T t	te	[t]	as in tail	tempo	time
U u	u	[u]	as in do	lugar	place
V v	uve	[b]	as in bone	verdade	truth
X x	xe	[ʃ], [ks͇]	as in leash	xantar	lunch
Z z	zeta	[θ]	as in thunder	razón	reason

The letters j (iota), k (ca), w (uve dobre), and y (i grego) don’t appear in native Galician words and aren’t an official part of the Galician alphabet, with the exception of loan words such as walkie-talkie, jazz or yiddish.