Five vowels and the first written words

Spanish uses a Latin alphabet of twenty-seven letters, including ñ. Its five written vowels are a, e, i, o and u. Start with the capital print models A, E, I, O and U, then recognize their lowercase partners a, e, i, o and u in words. The course uses capitals for tracing clarity; everyday Spanish does not require every word to be in capitals.

Keep each vowel relatively steady: a like ah, e like eh, i like ee, o like a rounded oh and u like oo. These English comparisons are only an aid. Copy the Spanish model and do not add English vowel glides. In our phrase guides, hyphens separate approximate syllables and capitals mark stress. The vowel letters keep their Spanish values, and h stands for the breathy Spanish j sound, as in ME-hi-ko for México.

Watch the guide, trace it, and then write with the outline hidden. Keep letters on a common baseline and leave space between words. Your handwriting can differ a little from the model as long as each letter is clear. A photo of your paper shows the finished letters, but it cannot show your stroke order.

Say each vowel while tracing it twice, then copy the five capitals from memory. Read agua, aire, uno and oso with the audio even where their consonants are not yet tracing targets. Write the lowercase words on paper after copying the capitals. Compare your shape and spacing, then select one letter to practice again.