PRONUNCIATION. THE ALPHABET. THE Spanish alphabet has twenty-seven letters, of which the following are the names: K and w are not Spanish letters, but are used in foreign words. All the letters are feminine in Spanish. The vowels are a, e, i, o, u, and y when it stands by itself, or at the end of a word, or of a syllable immediately followed by a consonant. They must be fully and distinctly pronounced, and are never silent, except u in the syllables gue, gui, que, qui. When the u is to be sounded in them, it is marked with two dots over it; thus, argüir (ar-goo-ir), agüero (ah-goo-er'-oh). The consonants must be fully sounded, particularly at the end of the words. BC before a, o, u, l, r, and when it is at the end of a syllable, sounds like k in English; as, C before e ori sounds lisped, like th in the English words theft, thin : 4. Ch, as in chair, chain (never as in the French word chaire): charco, small lake. chocolate, chocolate. When ch is followed by a vowel marked with a circumflex accent, it must be pronounced as k; as, Charibdis. 5. D, as in English, but it must be pronounced very dis tinctly in the words terminating in ado, ido, &c.: 6. E is pronounced as e in the words bed, fed; as, 8. G before a, o, u, l, r, sounds as in English: before e and i, it sounds as the English h aspirated: |