2.4 Spanish fricatives
| Phoneme | Allophone | Orthography | Articulation | Context |
| /f/ | [f] | f | voiceless labiodental fricative | all |
| /θ/ | [θ] | z, ce, ci | voiceless dental fricative | all – in Central and Northern Peninsular Spanish only |
| partially voiced | before voiced consonants (hazme) | |||
| /s/ | [s] | s, in most dialects also z, ce, ci | voiceless alveolar fricative (might be apical, dorsal, dental, etc.) | all except voiced consonant |
| [z] | s, in most dialects also z, ce, ci | Voiced alveolar fricative | before voiced consonants | |
| /x/ | [x] | j, ge, gi (x in archaically spelt words like México, Texas) | voiceless velar fricative | all |
| [χ] | voiceless uvular fricative | in Northern Peninsular Spanish, especially before back vowel (joven) | ||
| [h] | voiceless glottal fricative | in vast areas of America and Southern Spain | ||
| /ʝ/ | [ʝ] or [j] | y (ll) | voiced palatal fricative | all |
| [Ɉ] or [ʤ] | voiced palatal affricate | utterance-initially and after a nasal or a lateral |