Spanish Words That Start With Y (30 Essentials)
🇪🇸 Spanish · 30 cards · B1 · by Lucía Herrera
Y is a thin letter in Spanish, but the words behind it are oddly assorted. I open with the three you cannot avoid — y, yo, ya — then move through kitchen and family words (yema, yogur, yerno), practical nouns like yeso and yodo, and end with the literary and regional side: yacer, yugo, yermo, plus yuyo and yapa, which my Argentine and Peruvian students say every day and my students in Spain have never heard. Two traps worth marking in your notes: the spelling pairs yerba/hierba and yerbabuena/hierbabuena, and the fact that the conjunction y becomes e before an i- sound. Read every example out loud.
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All 30 cards
| # | Spanish | English | Example | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | y Becomes 'e' before a word starting with the i- sound: padre e hijo. Stays 'y' before hie-: agua y hielo. | and | Compré pan, queso y fruta. I bought bread, cheese and fruit. | |
| 2 | yo Usually omitted; using it adds emphasis or contrast. | I | Yo no dije eso. I didn't say that. | |
| 3 | ya With a negative it means 'no longer': ya no fumo (I don't smoke anymore). | already, now, no longer | Ya terminé la tarea. I already finished the homework. | |
| 4 | yogur Masculine. Spelled 'yogur' in Spain, often 'yogurt' in Mexico and much of Latin America. | yogurt | Desayuno un yogur con fruta. I have a yogurt with fruit for breakfast. | |
| 5 | yema Feminine. 'La yema del dedo' = the fingertip. | egg yolk; fingertip | Separa la yema de la clara. Separate the yolk from the white. | |
| 6 | yate Masculine: el yate. Pronounce the y- as in 'yes', not like English 'j'. | yacht | Alquilaron un yate para el fin de semana. They rented a yacht for the weekend. | |
| 7 | yoga Masculine: el yoga. The y- sounds like English 'y' in 'yes', never like 'j'. | yoga | Voy a clase de yoga los martes. I go to yoga class on Tuesdays. | |
| 8 | yerno Masculine. The female counterpart is 'nuera', not 'yerna'. | son-in-law | Mi yerno cocina mejor que yo. My son-in-law cooks better than I do. | |
| 9 | yegua Feminine. In several Latin American countries it is also a crude insult aimed at a woman, so use it only for the animal. | mare | La yegua acaba de tener un potro. The mare has just had a foal. | |
| 10 | yeso Masculine. In Spain the medical cast is usually 'escayola'; 'yeso' is the normal word in Latin America. | plaster; plaster cast | Me pusieron un yeso en la pierna. They put a cast on my leg. | |
| 11 | yodo Masculine. The variant 'iodo' exists but is rare. | iodine | Le pusieron yodo en la herida. They put iodine on the wound. | |
| 12 | yuca Feminine. A staple root in Latin America; in Spain the word mostly names the ornamental plant. | cassava, yuca | La yuca frita está riquísima. The fried cassava is delicious. | |
| 13 | yarda Feminine. Heard mainly in US sports coverage and in Mexico and the Caribbean; Spain uses metres. | yard (0.91 m) | Avanzaron diez yardas en esa jugada. They gained ten yards on that play. | |
| 14 | yoyó Masculine. Also written 'yoyo'; in 'yoyó' the stress falls on the last syllable. | yo-yo | El niño juega con un yoyó en el patio. The boy is playing with a yo-yo in the courtyard. | |
| 15 | yendo Irregular gerund of 'ir': always y-, never 'iendo'. | going (gerund of ir) | Voy yendo para allá, llego en diez minutos. I'm on my way there, I'll arrive in ten minutes. | |
| 16 | ya que Introduces a reason both speakers already know; more conversational than 'puesto que'. | since, seeing as | Ya que estás de pie, tráeme agua. Since you're up, bring me some water. | |
| 17 | yerba mate Feminine. Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay; 'hierba' is the general word for grass or herb. | yerba mate (the leaves used for mate) | Se acabó la yerba mate, hay que comprar. We're out of yerba mate, we need to buy some. | |
| 18 | yerbabuena Feminine. 'Hierbabuena' is the commoner spelling overall (and the usual one in Spain); both are correct. | mint, spearmint | El té de yerbabuena calma el estómago. Mint tea settles your stomach. | |
| 19 | yacer Literary and formal, typical of gravestones. For everyday 'lie down' use 'acostarse' or 'estar tumbado'. | to lie, to lie buried | Aquí yace un poeta olvidado. Here lies a forgotten poet. | |
| 20 | yacimiento Masculine. 'Yacimiento arqueológico' is the standard term for a dig site. | deposit (mineral, oil); archaeological site | Encontraron un yacimiento de gas en la costa. They found a gas deposit on the coast. | |
| 21 | yunque Masculine. Also the name of one of the bones of the middle ear. | anvil | El herrero golpea el hierro sobre el yunque. The blacksmith strikes the iron on the anvil. | |
| 22 | yugo Masculine. Literal (for oxen) and figurative; the figurative use is far more common in the press. | yoke; oppression | El país se liberó del yugo colonial. The country freed itself from the colonial yoke. | |
| 23 | yugular Feminine as a noun (la yugular); also an adjective: la vena yugular. | jugular (vein) | El corte casi le alcanzó la yugular. The cut almost reached his jugular. | |
| 24 | yermo Adjective and masculine noun. Formal, mostly written. | barren; wasteland | Tras la sequía, el campo quedó yermo. After the drought, the land was left barren. | |
| 25 | yelmo Masculine. Historical or literary only; a modern helmet is 'casco'. | helm, helmet (medieval) | El caballero se quitó el yelmo y sonrió. The knight took off his helm and smiled. | |
| 26 | yuxtaponer Formal. Conjugated like 'poner': yuxtapongo, yuxtapuso, yuxtapuesto. | to juxtapose | La película yuxtapone la guerra y la infancia. The film juxtaposes war and childhood. | |
| 27 | yanqui Informal and often mildly derogatory; 'estadounidense' is the neutral word. | Yankee, American (from the US) | Se fue a estudiar a una universidad yanqui. He went to study at an American university. | |
| 28 | yuyo Masculine. Southern Cone and Andes; in Peru it can mean edible herbs. Spain says 'mala hierba'. | weed; wild herb | El jardín está lleno de yuyos. The garden is full of weeds. | |
| 29 | yapa Feminine, from Quechua. Andean countries and the River Plate area; Mexico says 'pilón'. | a little extra thrown in for free | El verdulero me dio dos limones de yapa. The greengrocer threw in two lemons for free. | |
| 30 | yeísmo Masculine, linguistic term. Yeísmo is now the majority pronunciation in the Spanish-speaking world. | yeísmo (pronouncing ll like y) | Por el yeísmo, 'haya' y 'halla' suenan igual. Because of yeísmo, 'haya' and 'halla' sound the same. |
Native Spanish speaker from Valencia, now in Mexico City. I tutor Spanish online and keep a notebook of the words my students trip over. Every deck here comes from that notebook.
Questions about this deck
- Why are there so few Spanish words that start with Y?
- Because initial y- only arose in a handful of ways. Some words come from Latin i- or ge-/gi- (yugo from iugum, yerno from gener, yema from gemma, yegua, yeso, yunque, yacer); others from indigenous American languages (yuca, yuyo, yapa), from Greek or English borrowings (yodo, yoga, yate, yarda), or from old spelling variants of hi- words (yerba). The result is a short, very mixed list, which is why this deck jumps from breakfast to archaeology.
- How do you pronounce Y at the beginning of a Spanish word?
- Like a firm English 'y' in 'yes', with the tongue close to the palate: yo, yema, yuca. In Buenos Aires, Montevideo and much of Argentina and Uruguay it sounds like the 'sh' in 'shoe' (roughly 'sho', 'shema'). On its own, the conjunction 'y' is simply pronounced 'ee'.
- Is it yerba or hierba, yerbabuena or hierbabuena?
- Both spellings are correct. 'Hierba' is the general word for grass or herb everywhere, while 'yerba' survives above all in 'yerba mate' in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. For mint, 'hierbabuena' is the more frequent spelling and the usual one in Spain; 'yerbabuena' is common in parts of Latin America. The pronunciation is practically identical.
- When does the conjunction y change to e?
- Before a word whose sound begins with i-: padre e hijo, aguja e hilo, Ana e Irene. It does not change before hie- (agua y hielo, cobre y hierro), because that sequence sounds like 'ye', and it stays 'y' in questions such as '¿Y Inés?'.
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