Diphthongs + Hiatus

Diptongos e hiato
Share / Tweet / Pin Me!

Diptongos e hiato

When a Spanish word has two vowels side by side, various pronunciation issues come into play: syllable division, diphthongs, and hiatus.

In terms of syllable division, Spanish vowels are divided into two categories:

  1. Strong vowels:  A, E, O
  2. Weak vowels:  I, U

To pronounce Spanish correctly, you need to understand strong and weak vowels and how they affect pronunciation.

1) Two strong vowels

Pronounced as a hiatus* with normal rules of word stress:

empleado
estéreo
europeo
impermeable

2) Strong vowel + weak vowel

Pronounced as a diphthong* with emphasis on the strong vowel. This is the most common combination.

australiano
baile
estudioso
fuerte
guasón

3) Two weak vowels

Pronounced as a diphthong with emphasis on the second vowel

suizo
cuidado

 Exceptions

When the pronunciation of a word does not follow these rules, an acute accent is placed on the stressed vowel.

frío
jardinería
miércoles
patriótico
televisión

 * Notes

Hiatus: Two vowels pronounced as two distinct syllables.

Diphthong: Two vowels pronounced as a single syllable. When this happens, the unstressed weak vowel has a special sound: the letter I sounds like Y (as in yet) and U sounds like W (as in will).

 When the letter U’s purpose in a word is to make a consonant hard rather than soft, as in portugués and guisantes, it does not count as a vowel and thus the above rules do not apply.

  
Please note that this lesson is only a guideline for the Spanish that I know, which is Castilian Spanish. There are many regional variations in Spanish pronunciation.

 Related lessons

Learn French En français

 Share / Tweet / Pin Me!

Spanish diphthongs and hiatus

Questions about Spanish?

 Visit the Progress with Lawless Spanish Q+A forum to get help from native Spanish speakers and fellow learners.

More Lawless Spanish

 Subscribe to my free, weekly newsletter.

Support Lawless Spanish

  This free website is created with love and a great deal of work.

If you love it, please