Spanish Spain (es-ES)

This documentation was updated on October 31, 2023.

Creating grammars

The following subsections describe key issues for working with grammar documents in the Spanish language. For detailed information on creating grammars, see your product documentation.

Character encoding

You can create your grammars using UTF-8 or Latin-1 (also known as ISO-8859-1) character encoding. For example, your grammar header might be:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<grammar xml:lang="es-ES" version="1.0" root="test">
  

If you do not have access to a keyboard for your target language, you can use the Windows character map. (Choose the "System" font and the "Latin-1" subset.)



Start _- > _ __ Program Files _- > _ __ Accessories _- > _ __   System Tools _- > _ Character Map

Below are codes for writing some common Spanish characters. These are useful if you do not have access to a Spanish keyboard, and are typed by pressing the ALT key while entering digits on your keyboard (after typing the last digit, the desired character appears on your screen when you release the Alt key):

Alt/0225 = á Alt/0250 = ú
Alt/0233 = é Alt/0252 = ü
Alt/0237 = í Alt/0241 = ñ
Alt/0243 = ó

alphanum_lc built-in grammar

The alphanum built-in grammar recognizes a connected string of up to 20 digits and lower case alphabetic characters.

For example, this grammar could be used to recognize a product code or user id. The “lc” in the name of this built-in means lowercase.

Characters are the letters a-z and includes the ñ character. The character sequences “ch” and “ll” can be spoken as two separate letters, as in “c h” and “l l” or as single letters, as in “doble ele” and “doble erre.”.

Digits are 0-9.

Note : This grammar replaces the alphanum built-in grammar.

alphanum built-in grammar

The alphanum built-in grammar recognizes a connected string of up to 20 digits and alphabetic characters.

For example, this grammar could be used to recognize a product code or order number.

Characters (both upper and lower case) are the letters a-z and includes the ñ character. The character sequences “ch” and “ll” can be spoken as two separate letters, as in “c h” and “l l” or as single letters, as in “doble ele” and “doble erre.”

Digits are 0-9.

boolean built-in grammar

The boolean grammar collects an affirmative or negative response.

Properties

The y and n parameters let you associate any two touchtone buttons as synonyms for yes and no.

Parameter Description
y Desired DTMF digit to be equivalent to “sí” (default = 1)
n Desired DTMF digit to be equivalent to “no” (default = 2)

Examples

Caller says… MEANING key
sí true
no false

ccexpdate built-in grammar

The ccexpdate grammar understands the expiration date on a credit card. Expiration dates are usually a month and a year, and are often embossed on a credit card in the form “mm/yy.” The grammar recognizes variations on the date, for example, “septiembre 2007,” “doce cero siete,” “ocho treinta y uno de cero siete,” “doce diagonal cero siete,” etc.

creditcard built-in grammar

The creditcard grammar understands a caller saying a credit card number, optionally preceding the number with the credit card name or the word “cuenta.” For example, a caller can say, “visa cuenta cuatro cero uno siete…,” “tarjeta mastercard cinco cero cero dos…,” or “cinco cero cero dos….”

currency built-in grammar

The currency grammar collects currency amounts using euros and céntimos.

Return keys/values

MEANING Contains a string in the following form: currencymain_unit_amount.subunit_amount If the caller explicitly says “euro,” then a currency value of EUR is added as a prefix If the caller does not explicitly indicate the currency type, or if they say “céntimos,” then no prefix is added. If the caller omits the main unit or subunit amount, then that field is zero. The string contains a leading zero if the subunit amount is collected without the main unit.
SWI_literal Contains the exact text that was recognized.

Examples

Caller says MEANING
cinco euros EUR5.00
cinco céntimos 0.05
cinco euros y cinco céntimos EUR5.05
cinco euros y veinticinco céntimos cinco euros y veinticinco EUR5.25
seiscientos veinticinco mil cuatrocientos sesenta y cuatro euros EUR625464.00
cuatrocientos doce mil quinientos sesenta euros con diez céntimos EUR412560.10

date built-in grammar

The date grammar accepts a date spoken in any of several formats.

Recognized phrases include “cuatro de junio,” “cuatro de junio de dos mil uno,” “lunes cuatro de junio,” and “el lunes cuatro de junio.”

The grammar also accepts “anteayer,” “ayer,” “hoy,” “mañana,” and “pasado mañana” which return values of -2, -1, 0, +1, and +2 respectively into the MEANING key.

Examples

Caller says MEANING key
el cinco de enero de dos mil siete 20070105
ayer -1
anteayer -2
hoy 0
mañana +1
pasado mañana +2
el cuatro ??????04
el miércoles (Phrase not recognized)
miércoles doce ??????12
el cuatro de junio junio cuatro ????0604
el cuatro de junio de mil novecientos noventa y siete junio cuatro de mil novecientos noventa y siete 19970604
el cuatro de junio del noventa y siete junio cuatro del noventa y siete ??970604
miércoles el cuatro de junio de mil novecientos noventa y siete 19970604
el seis ??????06
diez, doce (Phrase not recognized)
diez, doce, noventa y siete (Phrase not recognized) ->

digits built-in grammar

Valid characters are the digits 0-9.

number built-in grammar

The number grammar recognizes whole numeric numbers (the caller must not speak the individual digits).

Examples

Numbers from -999,999,999.99 to 999,999,999.99 are recognized, but by default the minallowed parameter is set to zero, which limits recognition to positive values.

Caller says MEANING key
veinticinco 25
doce mil trescientos cuarenta y cinco 12345
menos dos -2
tres punto uno cuatro uno seis 3.1416

phone built-in grammar

The phone grammar accepts 9-digit Spanish phone numbers.

Additionally, as stipulated in the VoiceXML specification, the caller may specify an extension, for example, “nueve cuatro dos tres cinco seis cinco siete dos extensión dos mil.” By default, extensions of one to four digits are supported. Natural numbers are allowed for phone numbers and for extensions.

Examples

Caller says MEANING
seis cinco uno cuatro dos cinco cero seis uno 651425061
seis cinco uno cuatro dos cinco cero seis uno extensión uno dos tres 651425061x123
nueve cinco cuatro dos tres cinco seis cinco siete extensión dos mil 954235657x2000

Properties

Property Description
minextension Minimum numeric value allowed for an extension.
maxextension Maximum numeric value allowed for an extension. Set this to -1 to disallow extensions. -> ->

time built-in grammar

The time grammar recognizes a time of day.

Examples

For each entry, the values returned in the MEANING and QUALIFIER keys are shown. (Not shown are the values of the HOUR, MINUTE, and AMPM keys.)

Caller says MEANING QUALIFIER
ahora (Phrase not recognized) --
en media hora (Phrase not recognized) --
a mediodía 1200p exact
a media noche 0000? exact
antes del mediodía 1200p before
después de las trece treinta 1330? after
veinte veinte 2020? exact
a las ocho y veinte de la mañana a las ocho de la mañana con veinte minutos 0820a exact
ocho en punto 0800? exact
ocho y cuarto 0815? exact
ocho y media 0830? exact
a las siete y cuarto por la tarde 0715p exact
cuarto para las ocho al cuarto para las ocho cuarto antes de las ocho quince antes de las ocho 0745? exact
cinco antes de la una 1255? exact
al diez para la una 1250? exact
a las siete y cuarto de la tarde 0715p exact
alrededor de las trece horas 1300h approx ->
a las veinticuatro horas 0000h exact

zipcode built-in grammar

The zipcode grammar recognizes valid Spanish postal codes (“código postal”) in five-digit format. The caller can use digits as well as natural numbers.

Vocabulary items and pronunciations

This chapter describes considerations for vocabularies and their pronunciations in Spanish (es-ES).

Spanish pronunciations

This section provides detailed reference information to help create pronunciation dictionaries. It is intended for people who have sufficient knowledge of the Spanish language as spoken in Spain. It provides information about transcription and pronunciation.

The type of pronunciation used in SAMPA and the Spanish dictionary conforms to the standard non-regional European Spanish pronunciation, or Castilian (castellano).

As reference pronunciation dictionary we use:

SGEL: Gran Diccionario de la Lengua Española. Madrid: SGEL (Klett) 1993. (ISBN 84-7143-299-4)

If you are not sure how a certain word is pronounced you can refer to the IPA transcriptions given there and then convert them into the SAMPA symbols, listed in The Spanish symbol set in alphabetical order .

The Spanish phoneme system

The Spanish phoneme system can be conveniently divided into three groups:

  • Consonants
  • Vowels
  • Semi-vowel

Furthermore, it is possible to define seven different types of consonants:

  • Plosives
  • Fricatives
  • Affricates
  • Nasals
  • Laterals
  • Taps
  • Trills

Spanish spelling is very regular. This means the relationship between spelling (grapheme) and sound (phoneme) is easy to define since the orthography is very regular and correlates very well with pronunciation. Nevertheless, there are some pronunciation variants, mostly regional variants, that will be explained further in Multiple pronunciations (variants) .

Within the vowel group, a distinction can be made between vowels and semivowels. Furthermore, diphthongs represent an additional characteristic among the group of vowels. Spanish has two groups of diphthongs, increasing diphthongs and decreasing diphthongs.

Note that for Spanish we have reduced the vowel set, which is explained further on in the subsection Single vowels (monophthongs) .

Spanish symbol set grouped by phoneme classes

Phoneme class SAMPA IPA Examples of usage
Consonants Plosives b b / β
p p paso /paso/
g g / ɣ gusto agua /gusto/ /agwa/
k k casa quitar /kasa/ /kitar/
d d / ð donde juzgado nada /donde/ /xuTgado/ /nada/
t t nata /nata/
Fricatives T θ cinco
s s / z casa mismo /kasa/ /mismo/
x x gente jaca /xente/ /xaka/
f f fama /fama/
Affricates tS ʧ mucho
Nasals m m / ɱ malo convento confuso
n n / ŋ nota tengo manco /nota/ /tengo/ /manko/
J ɲ año /aJo/
Laterals l l lento
Tap r ɾ puro
Trill rr r perro
Vowels Single vowels a a
e e / ɛ meseta llover /meseta/ /jober/
i ɪ / i mina /mina/
o o / ɔ oficina ojo /ofiTina/ /oxo/
u u pluma /pluma/
Semi-vowels j j / ʎ piel calle
w ʊ / w cual /kwal/
Decreasing diphthongs aj ai aire
ej ɛi veinte /bejnte/
oj ɔi boina /bojna/
aw aʊ áureo /awreo/
ew ɛʊ̆ éustilo /ewstilo/
ow ɔʊ bou /bow/
Increasing diphthongs ja ja cambiar
je je pie /pje/
jo jɔ piojo /pjoxo/
ju ju viuda /bjuda/
wa wa cuadro /kwadro/
we we puerto /pwerto/
wi wi cuidar /kwidar/
wo wo cuota /kwota/

Spanish consonants

The standard Spanish consonant system is generally considered to have:

  • Six plosives
  • Five fricatives
  • One affricative
  • Three nasals
  • One lateral
  • One tap
  • One trill

The sample words given below demonstrate the different contexts in which the sounds can appear. A short explanation is also given.

Plosives

There are three voiced and three voiceless plosives in Spanish, which can be arranged in pairs as shown below:

Voiced Voiceless
/b/ basura invierno wáter
/g/ guisar ángulo
/d/ donde andar caldo
Fricatives

There are five fricatives in Spanish, /T/, /s/, /x/, /f/, and /j/:

/T/ cero acceder pez /Tero/ /akTeder/ /peT/
/s/ sal arsenal dos /sal/ /arsenal/ /dos/
/x/ gente caja boj /xente/ /kaxa/ /box/
/f/ fama fiel /fama/ /fjel/
/j/ yodo reyes /jodo/ /rrejes/
Affricates

In the Spanish SAMPA symbol set there is one affricate, /tS/. Affricates are in SAMPA always represented by two single phonemes.

/tS/ chucho cacharro /tSutSo/ /katSarro/
Nasals

There are three nasals in Spanish, /m/, /n/, and /J/:

/m/ mano ambos convento confusión tándem /mano/ /ambos/ /kombento/ /komfusjon/ /tandem/
/n/ nota antes carne canción /nota/ /antes/ /karne/ /kanTjon/
/J/ ñoño año /JoJo/ /aJo/
Laterals

There is one lateral in the Spanish SAMPA set, /l/:

/l/ lento palco alar leal /lento/ /palko/ /alar/ /leal/
Tap and trill

Spanish has one tap and one trill; both are pronounced with the tip of the tongue: /r/ and /rr/.

/r/ cero parar artificio /Tero/ /parar/ /artifiTjo/
/rr/ ratón carro alrededor enrubiar desrizar /rraton/ /karro/ /alrrededor/ /enrrubjar/ /desrriTar/

Spanish vowels

Single vowels (monophthongs)

Generally, the Spanish language has nine distinguishable monophthongs:

  • The vowel /a/
  • Two representations for each of the vowels <e>, <i>, <o>, and <u> (formed basically as a long and a short variant)

Since these vowels have similar pronunciation, and the different phonemes do not carry important information to convey the meaning of a word, it was decided to use only one phoneme for each vowel. Subsequent speech recognition testing has shown very good results for this practice. The main advantage for transcription is that it reduces the amount of phonemes to be considered and, at the same time, reduces a possible error source.

SAMPA Examples
/a/ amar desatar boca
/e/ enano camelar célebre
/i/ icono desinflar tití
/o/ olor déspota campo
/u/ humano reputación menú
Semi-vowels

In this Spanish SAMPA Phoneme Inventory, two semi-vowels are to be found, /j/ and /w/. For example:

/j/ ciudad cambiar piel piojo /Tjudad/ /kambjar/ /pjel/ /pjoxo/
/w/ agua tuerto /agwa/ /twerto/

/j/ is used as a fricative consonant as well. For example:

/j/ yema llanto calle /jema/ /janto/ /kaje/
Diphthongs

In Spanish diphtongs are normally formed by the combination of a vowel and a semi-vowel. The vowel forms the nucleus of the syllable. The reduced vowel set (see Single vowels (monophthongs) ) also applies to the diphthongs.

Take care with hiatus. They are also formed as a conjunction of two vowels, but each vowel forms the nucleus of a different syllable. For example:

pi-a-no /piano/
con-ti-nú-a /kontinua/

In the Spanish language six decreasing /aj/, /ej/, /oj/, /aw/, /ew/, /ow/, and eight increasing diphthongs /ja/, /je/, /jo/, /ju/, /wa/, /we/, /wi/, /wo/ can be distinguished.

Decreasing diphthongs

Decreasing diphthongs have the first vowel as the nucleus of the syllable. The vocal organs move from an open position into a closed position.

/aj/ aire desairar hay /ajre/ /desajrar/ /aj/
/ej/ veinte rey /bejnte/ /rrej/
/oj/ boina voy /bojna/ /boj/
/aw/ áureo /awreo/
/ew/ éustilo /ewstilo/
/ow/ bou /bow/
Increasing diphthongs

Increasing diphthongs have the second vowel as the nucleus of the syllable. The vocal organs–especially the tongue–move from a closed into an open position.

/ja/ cambiar /kamb ja r/
/je/ pie /p je /
/jo/ piojo /p jo xo/
/ju/ viuda /b ju da/
/wa/ cuadro /k wa dro/
/we/ cuenca /k we nka/
/wi/ cuidar /k wi dar/
/wo/ cuota /k wo ta/

Specific pronunciation transcription methods

Initial <h>

The initial h should always be ignored in transcription as it is not pronounced in Spanish. For example:

h otel /otel/
a h ora /aora/
Transcription of the trills /r/ and /rr/

The trill /r/ appears in the middle of a word between two vowels, between a vowel and a consonant and between a consonant and a vowel other than <n>, <l>, or <s>. It also occurs at the end of a word. For example:

cero /Tero/
artificio /artifiTjo/
apresar /apresar/

The trill /rr/ appears in the middle of a word as <rr> between two vowels, preceeded by the letters <n>, <l>, or <s>, or as initial <r>. For example:

carro /karro/
enrubiar /enrrubjar/
alrededor /alrrededor/
desrizar /desrriTar/
ratón /rraton/
Transcription of the nasals /J/ and /n/

The Spanish letter <ñ> is always represented by the Spanish SAMPA symbol /J/. For example:

año /aJo/
muñeca /muJeka/

The Spanish nasal /n/ appears before the phonemes /g/, /k/, and /x/. For example:

tengo /tengo/
donjuanesco /donxwanesko/
nunca /nunka/
inquirir /inkirir/
Assimilation

In Spanish only the /n/ can be assimilated:

nb /mb/ convento /kombento/
nf /mf/ confuso /komfuso/
nv /mb/ invita /imbita/

Pronunciation of foreign words

To transcribe foreign words, you must use the Spanish SAMPA symbols.

If you use a different symbol set your system will be incapable of understanding the input.

Every language has a different phoneme inventory, so you may have problems in covering each and every sound. In order to get a Spanish transcription which is closest to the transcription in the original language, the Spanish SAMPA symbols that most resemble the SAMPA symbols of the foreign languages are the ones to be used.

For example:

bordeaux /bordo/

The original transcription ‘bORDo’ cannot be realized because the French symbols ‘O’, ‘R’, and ‘D’ do not belong to the Spanish SAMPA symbol set. Therefore, these symbols have to be replaced by the Spanish symbols which are closest to the French ones. In this case /o/ replaces ‘O’, /r/ replaces ‘R’, and /d/ replaces ‘D’.

Moreover, there has been a re-adaptation of the Spanish phoneme /tS/ in order to get the phoneme ‘S’. The phoneme ‘S’ does not exist in Spanish as a single phoneme although it does exist in combination with the plosive /t/ to form the affricate /tS/. In other words, there has been a reinterpretation of /tS/ to get the phoneme ‘S’ to match the transcription of foreign words containing the ‘S’ phoneme.

For example:

beige beS
beige<bejs> bejs
beige<bejx> bejx

In this example, the base form contains the ‘S’ phoneme and is closest to the original transcription, while the other two variants show other phonetic variations closer to the Spanish pronunciation.

For the most common cases we offer transcription examples. In some of the cases we provide one transcription whereas in other cases, a second or even third variant are introduced. The need of these variants show that the Spanish speaker pronounces the foreign word using the Spanish phonetic set.

French <g> and <j>

Try to apply a pronunciation that has been adapted to Spanish, for example:

collage kolas
déjà_vu desabu
rouge rrus

The original transcriptions ‘kolaZ’, ‘deZavy’, and ‘RuZ’ cannot be realized because the French symbols ‘Z’, ‘v’, ‘y’, and ‘R’ are not part of the Spanish SAMPA symbol set.

Double <l> in foreign words

The grapheme <ll> can be well represented by the Spanish SAMPA symbol /l/. For example:

Nelly neli
Nelly<neji> neji
allegro alegro
Foreign vowels

Even with English vowels you have to try to apply a pronunciation that has been adapted to Spanish, for example:

buggy bagi
buggy<bugi> bugi
cross-country kroskantri

The original transcriptions ‘bVgI’ and ‘krQskVntrI’ cannot be realized because the English symbols ‘V’, ‘I’, and ‘Q’ are not part of the Spanish SAMPA set.

French nasals

Try to apply a pronunciation that has been adapted to Spanish, for example:

Bonbon /bonbon/

The original transcription ‘bo~bo~’ cannot be realized because the French symbol ‘o~’ is not part of the Spanish SAMPA symbol set.

Multiple pronunciations (variants)

The type of pronunciation used in SAMPA and the Spanish dictionary conforms to the standard non-regional European Spanish pronunciation, or Castilian (castellano). Other varieties of European Spanish can of course also occur in an application. If they markedly differ from the standard form, they should be transcribed as separate variants in the format below:

cansado kansado
cansado <kansao> kansao

In this section, the most common pronunciation variants of the Spanish language are listed. In some regions it may be helpful to consider different ways of pronunciation.

Aspiration of the /s/ (Andalusian variant)

The sound /s/ disappears (Elision). For example:

camiones /kamiones/ versus /kamione/
mosca /moska/ versus /moka/
Seseo (Andalusian variant)

Pronunciation of the sound /T/ for the grapheme <c> or <z> as the sound /s/. For example:

zapato /Tapato/ versus /sapato/
cinco /Tinko/ versus /sinko/
Ceceo

Pronunciation of the sound /s/ as the sound /T/. For example:

casa /kasa/ versus /kaTa/
resumen /rresumen/ versus /rreTumen/
  • Confusing the sounds /T/ and /s/ can lead to anomalies. This means that words with different meaning have the same pronunciation. For instance, /kaTa/ for casa and caza or /koser/ for coser and cocer. This phenomenon does not usually lead to misunderstandings because of the context during a conversation. So you have to consider carefully whether to insert a Ceceo variant or not.
Reduction of -ado (such as in Galicia)

Words ending with -ado are sometimes reduced to -ao. For example:

jorobado /xorobado/ versus /xorobao/
cansado /kansado/ versus /kansao/

The Spanish symbol set in alphabetical order:

SAMPA IPA Examples of usage
a a mano
aj ai aire
aw aʊ áureo
b b / β basta cabo
d d / ð donde juzgado nada
e e / ɛ meseta llover
ej ɛi veinte
ew ɛʊ̆ éustilo
f f fama
g g / ɣ gusto agua
i ɪ / i mina
j j / ʎ yema piel calle
J ɲ año
ja ja cambiar
je je pie
jo jɔ piojo
ju ju viuda
k k casa quitar
l l lento
m m / ɱ malo convento confuso
n n / ŋ nota tengo manco
o o / ɔ oficina ojo
oj ɔi boina
ow ɔʊ bou
p p paso
r ɾ puro
rr r perro
s s / z casa mismo
t t nata
T θ cinco
tS ʧ mucho
u u pluma
w ʊ / w cual
wa wa cuadro
we we puerto
wi wi cuidar
wo wo cuota
x x gente jaca