Spanish Spelling Bee Game – Basic Level 1

Practice Spanish with our little cute bee and this Spanish Spelling Bee Game! This is for elementary or basic level learning, this is the part one of a Spanish Spelling Bee series for beginners, both kids and adults.

Instructions of this Spanish Spelling Bee

Click “Start” to begin. On the screen you will see three buttons: Word, Sentence and Definition.
If you click on “Word”, you will hear the word you must write correctly in the gap. But if you need more clues, click on the “Sentence” and “Definition” buttons; in the first one you will hear a sentence that includes the word. And if you click on the “Definition” button, you will see a definition of that word.
If you spell the word correctly, the little bee will be happy and you will be able to move on the next one, until you finish the whole exercise. If you provide an incorrect answer, don’t worry, you can try again as many times you need. ☺

Use the special character buttons whenever you need.
However, the basic level Spanish spelling bees usually do not requiere the use of upper and lower case or other special characters, unless otherwise stated. In fact, this Spanish Spellig be is case insensitive, so you don’t need to worry about this now.

More Spanish Spelling Bee Practice ?

Capital letters in Spanish

We are going to see in which cases we must use the capital letter in Spanish, and we’ll also see in which cases we shouldn’t use it. The capital letter in Spanish is called mayúscula. Although sometimes it is not given the importance it deserves, this is a relevant topic because not all languages follow the same rules when it comes to capitalization. Sometimes it is assumed that the rules for capitalization in Spanish are the same as in English, but there are several differences.

Uses of capital letters in Spanish

We use the capital letter in the following cases:

1) Proper names

We will use the capital letter in the names of people, and also in the names of animals that have a proper name.
✏ Me llamo Ana Gutiérrez.
✏ Mi perro se llama Toby.

2) Titles

We use the capital letter in titles.
Sr., Sra.
Dr., Dra.

3) At the beginning of a sentence or a letter

We use the capital letter at the beginning of a sentence o a letter.
Hoy es mi cumpleaños.
✏ Estimado Sr.
     Le comunico que…

4) After full stop

We use the capital letter in the first word after period/full stop.
✏ Esta es mi hija. Se llama Gloria.

 

5) Geographical names

We use capital letters in the names of continents, countries, cities, islands, seas, lakes, oceans…
España
    México
    Uruguay
    Estados Unidos
    Madrid
    Los Ángeles
    Mar Mediterráneo
    Ibiza
    Lago Tahoe
    Océano Atlántico

6) Entities, universities...

Museo del Louvre
Universidad de Harvard

7) Titles of movies, books, magazines, newspapers...

La metamorfosis
✏ The New York Times

8) Brands, companies

✏ Su sueño es tener un Lamborghini.

 

When to use lower case letters in Spanish

We have seen the main uses of the capital letters in Spanish. Now you may wonder, what about the days of the week? Or the months of the year? Aren’t they on this list? Exactly, they are not, because they are not capitalized in Spanish, unlike English.

So now we are going to see in which cases you must not use the capital letter in Spanish.

 

Days of the week. Do not use capital letters in the days of the weeks in Spanish. Use lower case: lunes, martes, miércoles, jueves, viernes, sábado y domingo.

Months of the year in Spanish are also in lower case: enero, febrero, marzo, abril, mayo, junio, julio, agosto, septiembre, octubre, noviembre y diciembre.

❌ And seasons with lower case too… primavera, verano, otoño e invierno.

The cardinal points: norte, sur, este y oeste. And also their combinations: noroeste, sureste and so on.

Religions also in lower case, e.g. Ella es musulmana y él es budista.

❌ Use lower case in languages: español, inglés, italiano, chino… e.g. Mi hermano habla cuatro idiomas: francés, inglés, español e italiano.

Nationalities, e.g. Mi hermano es mexicano, pero vive en Canadá.

The Spanish Alphabet

The Spanish alphabet has 27 letters

The first column, Letter, shows the alphabet letter in capital and small letters. The second column is the name of the letter in Spanish. The following column, the third one, it is about the pronunciation of the name of these letters with audio. The last column on this table includes different examples of words that contain the sound of the letter on the same row. You can hear the pronunciation of some of those examples on the video after this table.

Letter Letter name Letter name pronunciation Examples

A, a


a

amor, manzana

B, b

be

burro, Barcelona, jabón

C, c

ce

camiseta, cepillo, ciruela, coche, cuello

D, d

de

dedo, Madrid

E, e

e

fresa, Ecuador, México, estrella

F, f

efe

jirafa, Francia, frío

G, g

ge

gato, gente, girasol, paraguas, gorra

H, h

hache

hospital, zanahoria

I, i

i

isla, delfín, limón

J, j

jota

Japón, rojo, caja

K, k

ka

kilo, kiwi, kiosko

L, l

ele

sol, lazo, lobo, televisor

M, m

eme

mariposa, mesa, camiseta

N, n

ene

nariz, mano, cantante

Ñ, ñ

eñe

España, año, mañana

O, o

o

oso, tomate, perro

P, p

pe

patata, pingüino, pimiento, mapa

Q, q

cu

queso, paquete, bosque

R, r

erre

ratón, cara, fresa

S, s

ese

sofá, casa, mesa

T, t

te

gato, tomate, tortuga

U, u

u

uvas, mundo, puerta

V, v

uve

vuelo, vida, velocidad, vitamina

W, w

uve doble

sándwich, Washington

X, x

equis

xilófono, éxito

Y, y

i griega / ye

yegua, mayonesa, mayo

Z, z

zeta

zumo, taza, cazuela

Exercises related to the Spanish alphabet