Read Oaxaca off a menu in the US and you'll probably say "ox-AH-kah." The people who live there say "wah-HAH-kah." That X is the raspy Spanish jota, the sound in jamón, and the O at the front melts into a "w."
Then you take a cab to Xochimilco, and that X is an "s." Book a day at Xcaret on the Riviera Maya, and it's "sh." Ask for a taxi and it's finally the "ks" you expected all along. That's the letter X in Spanish: one letter, four sounds.
Below is a rule that gets most words right, the handful of famous names you simply have to memorize, and the 500-year-old spelling habit that makes México look the way it does.
Which of the four sounds does this X make?
Take Oaxaca, Xola, xilófono and taxi, and run each one down this table, stopping at the first row that fits. The rows follow the Real Academia Española's Diccionario panhispánico de dudas entry for X, the usage guide the Spanish-language academies publish together.
| Where the X sits | Sound | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| In one of a few old names, places or people | jota (a raspy "h") | México, Oaxaca, Texas, Xalapa, Ximena |
| In any other Nahuatl or Maya name | usually "sh"; sometimes "s", "ks" or jota | Xola, mixiote, Xcaret; Xochimilco, Tlaxcala |
| At the very start of an ordinary word | "s" | xilófono, xenofobia |
| Between vowels or at the end | "ks" | taxi, examen, éxito, relax |
| Before a consonant | "ks" in Latin America, usually "s" in Spain | extremo, experto |
The first row is the one that catches English speakers. Learn it as a list. Most of those names also turn up spelled with a J (Méjico, Tejas, Jalapa, Jimena), and that J spelling is a free hint: it was written that way because that's how the word sounds. Oaxaca has no common J form, so it just goes on the list.
How to pronounce Oaxaca, México and Texas
Oaxaca is "wah-HAH-kah," with the stress on the middle syllable. The X is a jota, and the opening "Oa" glides together into one "wa" sound. The RAE writes it [oajáka] and lists "oaksáka" as a mistake. People from Oaxaca are oaxaqueños, "wah-hah-KEH-nyos," and the jota survives into that word too.
México is "MEH-hee-koh." Mexicano is "meh-hee-KAH-noh."
In English, "Mexico" with a "ks" is perfectly correct. It's an English word. Inside a Spanish sentence, though, the "ks" version is a giveaway.
México keeps an old spelling. The X is read as a jota.
Texas in Spanish is "TEH-hahs," with the same jota. The name goes back to a Caddo word meaning "friends," which Spanish writers recorded as tejas, tayshas and several other ways (Texas State Historical Association). The RAE's entry for Texas still accepts both Texas and Tejas, said the same way.
A note on that jota. In Madrid it's a scrape at the back of the throat, like the end of Scottish loch. In Mexico it's softer, and in wide areas of Latin America it relaxes into something close to an English h. So "wah-HAH-kah" with a plain h will be understood everywhere. For the full articulation, there's a whole post on how to pronounce the Spanish J and soft G.
Why Mexico spells a jota sound with an X
In medieval Spanish, X was the "sh" sound. The RAE describes it as "muy similar a la de la sh inglesa": dixo was "DEE-sho," and it later became dijo.
The most famous fossil is Cervantes' knight. He was Quixote, originally "kee-SHOH-teh," and English kept the old spelling in the word "quixotic." Spanish moved on to Quijote.
When the Spanish arrived in central Mexico, the Nahuatl name for the city was Mēxihco, pronounced roughly "meh-SHEE-koh" (Wikipedia). An X was the natural way to write that "sh."
Then, starting in the 1500s, the Spanish "sh" drifted back in the mouth and became the jota. Every Spanish word spelled with that X, like dixo and Quixote, changed its sound. Most of them changed their spelling to J as well.
Mexico's name didn't. According to BBC Mundo's report in El Universal, the RAE's 1815 spelling rules told writers to replace that X with J, just as Mexico was fighting for independence from Spain. Mexico kept the X. UNAM philologist Juan Nadal told the BBC that the Academia Mexicana has "never, never, never" accepted México with a J.
Is "Méjico" wrong?
No, but it isn't what Mexicans write. The RAE's entry for México says the J forms are also correct. It recommends the X because that's the spelling used in Mexico itself and in most of Latin America. It also notes that Spain used Méjico and mejicano until fairly recently, and that's where you're most likely to see them now.
The 2010 Ortografía treats both as valid and is clear that the X "debe pronunciarse como una jota," must be said as a jota (Universidad de Piura).
If you're writing to someone in Mexico, use the X. You'll never be wrong with it.
Try it in Conversa
Practice with AI characters who adapt to your level and give real-time feedback.
Try Conversa FreeWhen X sounds like "sh": Xochimilco, Xcaret and other Native names
Xola is a street in Mexico City, and it's "SHOH-lah." Mixiote, meat steamed in a wrap of maguey membrane (parchment these days), is "mee-SHYOH-teh." For words that come from Nahuatl or Maya, the RAE's X entry says the X is "sh" in most cases. These are the words where Spanish kept the sound the X was invented to spell.
The same holds on the Riviera Maya. Yucatec Maya borrowed colonial Spanish spelling, X for "sh" included. So the parks every US tourist books are Xcaret, "shkah-RET," and Xel-Há, "shel-HAH."
Most isn't all, though. Xochimilco and Tlaxcala settled on "s."
Native names lean toward sh, but some well-known ones settled on s. Learn those by name.
How to pronounce Xochimilco
Xochimilco is "soh-chee-MEEL-koh," four syllables with the stress on MEEL. The RAE transcribes it [sochimílko], and adds that you still shouldn't write it "Sochimilco."
In Nahuatl the X was a "sh," and you may occasionally hear "shoh-chee-MEEL-koh" from someone who knows the language. One Mexico City speaker on a Nahuatl linguistics mailing list put it plainly: on radio, on TV and in normal conversation, it's "sochimilco." Say the "s."
What about Xóchitl?
Xóchitl is also a first name (the politician Xóchitl Gálvez is the best-known example), and the Spanish pronunciation is "SOH-cheetl," with the X as an "s" just as in Xochimilco (Wikipedia). Someone named Xóchitl may prefer the Nahuatl "sh." With a person's name, ask them. It takes two seconds and nobody minds.
In everyday words, X is still "ks"
Taxi is "TAHK-see." Examen (exam) is "ek-SAH-men." Outside of names, X between two vowels or at the end of a word is plain "ks," the sound you already make.
Don't overcorrect. Once you've learned that México has a jota, it's tempting to start putting jotas everywhere, and "TAH-hee" will get you a blank stare.
Only old names like México get the jota. In ordinary words, X between vowels is ks.
That éxito is a double trap: it sounds like "exit," and it means "success." It's one of the Spanish false cognates that catches people at work.
Exacto and auxiliar are the exceptions inside the rule. They're usually said with a plain "s" ("eh-SAHK-toh"), even in careful speech, and the RAE accepts that. Before a consonant, as in experto or extremo, Latin America keeps the "ks" and Spain mostly says "s": "eks-PEHR-toh" in Mexico City, "es-PEHR-toh" in Madrid. Pick the one that matches the Spanish you're learning.
The last case is an X at the very start of an ordinary word: xilófono (xylophone) is "see-LOH-foh-noh." The RAE calls the "ks" version affected.
Xalapa, Ximena and the X names you already know
The jalapeño is named after Xalapa, the capital of Veracruz, also spelled Jalapa and pronounced "hah-LAH-pah" (Wikipedia). So you've been saying a Spanish X for years. Swap the spelling, keep the sound.
Names of people follow the same rule. The RAE lists Ximena, Ximénez and Mexía as old spellings that keep the jota: "hee-MEH-nah," the same as Jimena. If you know someone named Ximena who goes by "ksee-MEH-nah" in English, that's their call. In Spanish, the jota is standard.
One sentence that uses three of the four sounds
Voy a Oaxaca y luego a Xochimilco en taxi. "I'm going to Oaxaca and then to Xochimilco by taxi." That's a jota, then an "s," then a "ks," all written with the same letter.
Say it slowly once: "wah-HAH-kah... soh-chee-MEEL-koh... TAHK-see." Then say it at taxi speed. Watch the second word: right after the jota in Oaxaca, your mouth will want to make Xochimilco a jota too.
Get through it clean three times in a row and you've got the rule. You'll still meet names that break it, like Tlaxcala, and the honest fix for those is to listen to how locals say them and copy.