LL and Y sound the same
In almost all Spanish-speaking regions the letters LL and Y are pronounced as one and the same sound. This is called yeísmo.
The spelling is the trap. In English a double l is still just an l (call, silly), so the eye wants to read calle as kal-eh. In Spanish ll has its own sound, and that sound has nothing to do with L.
Words with LL
llamar
to call
calle
street
llave
key
pollo
chicken
silla
chair
Before a vowel Y is a consonant and sounds exactly like LL, the same y you use in yes, yellow, young.
Words with Y (consonant)
yo
I
ya
already
playa
beach
ayer
yesterday
Regional variants
In Argentina and Uruguay, LL and Y become the sh of she: yo sounds like sho, calle like ca-she. In a few small areas of Spain and the Andes, LL stays a separate sound (ly); you do not need to practise it. All variants are proper Spanish, and the spelling never changes.
Y as a vowel
At the end of a word and as a word on its own (y = and), Y is not a consonant but a vowel. It sounds like a Spanish i, like the ee in see, and forms a diphthong with the vowel in front of it.
Do not let English my, why, shy take over: a final Spanish y is never the ai of eye. Muy is mwee, not mwy.
hoy
today
muy
very
hay
there is, there are
soy
I am
tú y yo
you and I
Before a word that starts with an i sound, the word y becomes e: español e inglés (Spanish and English).
