Learn Spanish

Your child speaks Spanish at home. School taught them to write in English.

COOLPHABETS teaches children to read and write all 27 Spanish letters by hand, with an on-device AI coach that checks every stroke.

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Spoken every day. Written almost never.

In Spanish-speaking families living in English-speaking countries, the children usually speak Spanish well. It is the language of the kitchen, of abuela and abuelo on the phone, and of being told it is time for bed.

Writing it is another matter. School teaches them to read and write in English, and Spanish is left to the ear. The letters look familiar, so everyone assumes it will sort itself out. It rarely does: the accents go missing, the ñ becomes an n, and a note to a grandparent is written in English instead.

Many parents tell us this is what they worry about most. A child who cannot read Spanish cannot read a card from a grandparent, a sign on the next visit, or the stories their parents grew up with. And if one generation stops writing the language, the next has nobody at home to learn it from.

Most language apps

  • Teach speaking and listening
  • Tap the right answer
  • Made for someone starting from zero

COOLPHABETS

  • Teaches reading and writing
  • Write every letter by hand
  • Made for children who already speak it at home
The alphabet

The Spanish alphabet: 27 letters your child will learn

Spanish has 5 vowels, called vocales, and 22 consonants, called consonantes. It shares 26 letters with English and adds one of its own, ñ. The name under each tile is what the letter is called when children recite the alphabet.

Vowels vocales 5

  • A a a
  • E e e
  • I i i
  • O o o
  • U u u

Consonants consonantes 22

  • B b be
  • C c ce
  • D d de
  • F f efe
  • G g ge
  • H h hache
  • J j jota
  • K k ka
  • L l ele
  • M m eme
  • N n ene
  • Ñ ñ eñe
  • P p pe
  • Q q cu
  • R r erre
  • S s ese
  • T t te
  • V v uve
  • W w uve doble
  • X x equis
  • Y y ye
  • Z z zeta

Spanish is written much as it is spoken: once the letters are known, most words can be read aloud straight away. The accent marks are taught with the vowels.

Spanish alphabet chart: 5 vowels, 22 consonants, each with how to say it The Spanish alphabet chart All 27 letters on one A4 page. Open it to save, or print it for the fridge door.
The hard parts

What makes Spanish hard to write

A child who reads English already knows the shapes of most Spanish letters. What catches them out is everything English leaves off.

  1. The letter English does not have

    ñ is a letter in its own right, with its own place in the alphabet, not an n with a decoration. It is in niño (child), mañana (tomorrow) and señor. The wavy mark on top is called a tilde, and leaving it off changes the word.

  2. Accents that change the word

    A small stroke over a vowel, á é í ó ú, shows which part of the word is stressed. papá is father; papa is a potato. Children who write Spanish by ear leave the accents off, and the AI coach notices.

  3. Letters that sound alike, or not at all

    b and v sound the same in Spanish, so vaca (cow) is often written with a b. h is silent: hola begins with a letter nobody hears. These are spellings a child has to see, not hear.

  4. Marks that open a sentence

    Spanish puts an upside-down mark at the start of a question or exclamation as well as the end: ¿Cómo estás? and ¡Hola!. Children used to English forget the one at the front. Words and sentences in the app are where these come into practice.

First words

Five Spanish words to write first

Short words a child says every day, each with one thing to notice when writing it.

  • mamá ma-MA mother

    The accent on the last a puts the stress there. Without it, the word is read differently.

  • papá pa-PA father

    The same accent, the same reason.

  • casa CA-sa house

    Four letters, read exactly as they are written.

  • niño NI-nyo child

    The ñ in the middle, with its tilde.

  • flor flor flower

    One syllable, and a rolled r at the end.

"I'm so glad we discovered COOLPHABETS."

Sowmya Ramanan, Parent of two. New York City.
How it works

One letter at a time, written by hand.

  1. 1

    Watch. The letter draws itself, stroke by stroke, in the right order.

  2. 2

    Write. Your child writes it with a finger. No tapping on answers, no typing.

  3. 3

    Get checked. CoolphaSense scores the strokes they actually made, on the device.

  4. 4

    Hear it. A native voice says the letter. Or yours, if you record it.

After the letters come words, sentences and games. See everything COOLPHABETS does.

On-device AI

How CoolphaSense checks Spanish handwriting

Spanish uses the same letters as English, so the differences are in the small marks: the tilde on ñ, the accents on vowels, the dots on ü. CoolphaSense has a model trained on Spanish letter shapes, so ñ is judged as the letter it is, not as an n with a stray mark, and a missing accent is noticed.

  • Instant feedback

    The check runs on the phone or tablet itself, so your child sees the result as soon as the letter is finished.

  • Checked on your device

    Handwriting is checked right on your phone or tablet. There is no call to a central AI model.

  • Works offline

    On a flight or a long drive, the coach keeps working without internet.

  • Tiny and patented

    Each language has its own small model, built into the app. CoolphaSense is covered by multiple patents.

Questions

What Spanish parents ask us

My child already reads English. Is Spanish not the same alphabet?

Almost. Spanish shares 26 letters with English and adds ñ. The shapes are familiar, but the sounds, the accents and the spelling rules are not, and that is what COOLPHABETS teaches. A child who reads English has a head start, not a finished job.

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