Pronouncing the Spanish L

You may not have noticed, but the L in English has two sounds that are quite different from each other — and if you can remember that, you can easily learn the sound of the L in Spanish. The two L sounds occur in the word little — and the sound of the Spanish L is basically the same as the first L but not the second (a sound, by the way, that native Spanish speakers often find quite difficult). In other words, the Spanish L is always pronounced with the tongue at the front of the roof of the mouth similar to the L in words such as love and alike. It is never pronounced with the vowel-like sound found in words such as ball or cell. Phrases used by native speakers in our audio lesson on pronouncing the L are lo siento mucho, hola,  ¿quà © tal? and igualmente, gracias. The pronunciation of the L should not be confused with that of the LL, which used to be a separate letter of the alphabet.