The Spanish j is never the j in "jam". Once you know that, a lot of names and food words suddenly sound right.
J is a breathy h
The Spanish j is made at the back of the mouth: air rubs past the raised back of the tongue. In Mexico and the Caribbean it's soft, close to an English h. In Spain it's raspier, like the "ch" in Scottish "loch".
Listen: ojo mujer joven jalapeño fajitas.
This is why the names are pronounced the way they are: José is hoh-SEH, Jesús is heh-SOOS, Juan is HWAHN, and Jorge is HOHR-heh.
G has two sounds
- Before e or i, g makes the same breathy sound as j: gente, general, página.
- Everywhere else it's a hard g, as in "go": gato, grande, gracias, agua.
Gue, gui and güe
To get a hard g before e or i, Spanish adds a silent u: Guillermo is gee-YEHR-moh and Miguel is mee-GEHL, with no w sound. Two dots on the u (ü) mean you do pronounce it: pingüino, bilingüe.
The x in México
X usually sounds like "ks": examen, taxi, éxito. But some place and family names kept an old spelling where x stood for the j sound. That's why México is MEH-hee-koh and Oaxaca is wah-HAH-kah. The same goes for Texas in Spanish, Xavier, Ximena and Xalapa.
In a few names from Nahuatl, the x sounds like s instead: Xochimilco (soh-chee-MEEL-koh) and Taxco (TAHS-koh).
Quick check
Try these in a row, then press play to compare: Guadalajara, Tijuana, guerrilla, gigante.