The Letter 'B' in Spanish

The letter 'B' is the second letter in Spanish alphabet. It represents a consonant sound.

Uppercase form	B
Lowercase form	b
Letter name	be
Allophones	/b/ ~ /β/

How to pronounce 'B'

'B' is pronounced as the sound /b/. However, there are distinctions in its pronunciation based on the position of the letter within the word, leading to two allophones.

When 'B' is Pronounced as /b/

This is the main phoneme that is similar to how the sound is pronounced in English words such as "bank" or "border". In Spanish, this happens when the sound occurs at the beginning of the word, or after the sound /m/. Here are some examples:

Example

barco → /barko/

boat

bomba → /bomba/

bomb

cambio → /kambjo/

change

también → /tambjen/

also

When 'B' is Pronounced as /β/

The variant (/β/) is produced by making a softer sound. This happens when the letter 'b' appears after vowels and consonants other than /m/. For example:

Example

saber → /saβer/

to know

subir → /suβir/

climb

obtener → /oβtener/

obtain

alba → /alβa/

dawn

B vs V

In Spanish, the letter 'v' is also pronounced as /b/ and also reflects the pronunciation variation observed with 'b'. For example, the words 'baca' and 'vaca' are pronounced similarly: /baka/.