X, Y, Z The final three letters of the Roman alphabet and yet again there are discrepancies between their pronunciation in both the Spanish and Portuguese alphabets.

Spanish pronounces X as "eh-keess" but this letter is pronounced differently depending on where it appears in a word. For instance, it follows the English "eggs" sound of "exam" when the Spanish equivalent "examen" is spoken. However, "experto" likewise follows the English "expert" by using the softer sounding "ecks", or even in the Spanish word for "sixth", "sexto".

Of course, depending on where the Spanish speaker is from there may be more consistent pronunciation of the "eggs" sound and the "ecks" sound throughout the spoken language. Spanish also has a further pronunciation of X and that is the same as the Spanish letter J which requires the guttural "ch" sound like that in many Scottish words.

In the Portuguese alphabet the letter "x" is "sheesh", however Portuguese pronunciation of the alphabet goes a little further than Spanish or English with 'x' having four primary sounds. Firstly, in 'xícara', Portuguese for cup, x is pronounced as "sh" as in "shop", the word xícara being pronounced shee-kah-rah with emphasis on the first syllable.

However, the letter does adopt a more familiar sound, that of "ecks" in a word such as "fênix" or "fénix", meaning phoenix. The "ecks" sound of the Portuguese "x" is softened somewhat when it precedes a consonant and "contexto" is an example of this. This softer pronunciation is also heard in some other words such as the Portuguese for "next" which is "próximo".

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