The GCSE Spanish Pronunciation Checklist
📋 The GCSE Spanish Pronunciation Checklist
⭐ 10 SSC Rules for Papers 1 and 2
- Vowels are PURE — no glide. Each of a / e / i / o / u has exactly one sound. casa = /kasa/, never /keɪsə/.
- h is ALWAYS silent — hablar = /ablar/; hola = /ola/; hacer = /aser/.
- ll = /y/ — like 'y' in 'yes'. llamo = /yamo/; calle = /kaye/.
- ñ = /nj/ — like 'ny' in 'canyon'. España = /Espanya/; mañana = /manyana/.
- j and g(e,i) = /x/ (guttural, back of throat — like Scottish 'loch'). jamón = /xamon/; gente = /xente/.
- c(e,i) and z = /s/ — cenar = /senar/; zapato = /sapato/. (AQA follows Latin American convention.)
- v = b (identical sounds) — vivir = /bibir/. Never try to distinguish v from b in speech.
- rr (and initial r) = trill — a rolled r. perro, río. Mid-word single r is a flap, not a trill.
- qu = /k/, u silent — que = /ke/; quiero = /kyero/.
- Stress rules — penultimate syllable if the word ends in a vowel, n, or s; final syllable if it ends in any other consonant; a written accent always overrides both rules.
AQA Paper 1 (Listening) includes a dictation section where you hear a sentence and must write it exactly. Three plays are standard. Use each play for a specific purpose.
Earn the mark scheme marks
⚠️ Two Classic SSC Dictation Errors
These are the errors that recur most often in AQA Paper 1 dictation. Both cost marks that are fully avoidable.
❌ Error 1: Writing ola for the greeting
✅ Correcto: hola — the greeting always starts with a silent h.
Por qué importa: ola (without h) means "wave" — as in a wave of the sea. It is a real Spanish word, but it is not a greeting. The examiner cannot credit ola as the greeting. Because h is silent, students hear /ola/ and naturally write ola. Context fixes this: if someone is saying hello, the word is hola. Add the h even though you cannot hear it.
❌ Error 2: Writing jente instead of gente
✅ Correcto: gente — the guttural /x/ sound before e is spelled with g, not j.
Por qué importa: Both j and g (before e/i) make the same /x/ guttural sound, so students cannot tell them apart by ear. The rule to memorise is: j makes /x/ before any vowel; g makes /x/ only before e and i. When you hear /xente/, that e after the guttural sound tells you to write g — because g before e = /x/. Writing jente is not a Spanish word and scores zero.