GCSE Spanish: Sounds and Spelling for the Dictation

Since the reformed GCSE in Spanish (first exams in 2026), the listening paper ends with a dictation: you hear short Spanish sentences and write them down exactly, with credit for accurate spelling. In AQA's version, for example, the dictation is at least 20 words at Foundation tier and 30 words at Higher tier, each sentence is heard three times (whole, then in short sections, then whole again), and a couple of words come from outside the vocabulary list, so you have to spell them from their sound alone. The same sound-spelling knowledge also helps you in the reading-aloud task of the speaking exam.

This material trains the sound-symbol correspondences listed in the DfE subject content for Spanish. The quiz gives you a word as it sounds, with its meaning, and asks which spelling is right: qu for the k sound before e and i, gu for a hard g before e and i, ge and gi sounding like j, ll sounding like y, the single letter ñ, the tapped r and the rolled rr, soft c against z, b and v sounding the same, and the silent h that you must still write. Two Higher-tier questions practise the stress rule and written accents, and another shows how an accent can change a word, as with tu and tú. Each answer comes with an explanation of the rule, so a wrong guess still teaches you something.

The flashcards set out one rule per card, with example words from the GCSE vocabulary list and their meanings: the five pure vowels, each consonant pattern, the stress rule, when a written accent is needed, accents that change the meaning, question words, and a reminder of how the dictation task works.

The written sheet is printable and marked question by question. You correct a student's dictation that sounds right but is spelt wrongly, write sentences down from a sound-by-sound transcription, explain the stress and accent rules with examples, and describe a strategy for using the three hearings of a dictation. Model answers list the points a good answer contains.

Use the flashcards first to learn the patterns, then take the quiz until you can explain every answer, and finish with the written sheet under timed conditions. The material works for both tiers; the questions on stress and written accents are marked as Higher tier because the rules for stress positions are Higher-only in the specification.

• Spell Spanish words correctly from their sound, using the sound-symbol correspondences in the GCSE subject content
• Choose between c, qu, z, g, gu and j according to the vowel that follows
• Recognise sounds that give no clue to spelling (b and v, silent h) and rely on knowing the word
• Apply the Spanish stress rule and decide when a written accent is needed (Higher tier)
• Use accents that change meaning (tú/tu, él/el, sí/si) and the accents on question words
• Use the three hearings of a dictation to check spelling, accents and agreement

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the DfE GCSE modern foreign languages subject content (2022), Spanish sound-symbol correspondences, and the dictation task as described, for example, in AQA's GCSE Spanish specification (8692, version 1.0).