Spanish speaker here: when you are a child you are taught "M plus A sounds MA", no further explanation needed. Obviously we have a good bunch of exceptions to the regularity of the language:

  * B and V sounds exactly the same.
  * ll + vowel and Y + vowel sound he same.
  * Y can work as the vowel I.
  * C, K, Q and Z share and overlap pronunciation:
    + CA, CO, CU = KA, KO, KU
    + CE, CI = ZE ZI (these later two are not valid combinations)
    + QUE, QUI = KE KI. (All other Q combinations are not valid).
  * H is always mute!, except for ch + vowel which always sounds like in chocolate.
  * G and J:
    + Strong: JA JE JI JO JU, GE, GI.
    + Soft: GA, GUE, GUI, GO, GU. This makes the sounds GU followed by "E" or "I" need a special writing: GÜE
    + Ñ: no comments.

Blessing and damnation: the stressed syllable is always encoded in the word.

Bonus point: the word "sal+le", imperative of go and indirect subject of the action is the third person, can not be written as it would be said, as the two consecutive L wold become the sound of Y.