Tildes 2/5: Hiatos, diptongos, triptongos

Shortcuts:

S - Strong vowel

W - Weak vowel

Strong vowels: a, e, o

Weak vowels: i, u

1. Any SS pair is treated like two separate syllables

le•er, se•se•o, i•de•a, a•é•re•o

2. Any WS/SW pair is treated like a diphthong, WSW like a triphthong (one syllable)

:small_orange_diamond: The letter h is silent and doesn’t have any impact on the pronunciation

:small_blue_diamond: If the syllable has to take an accent mark, it goes on the strong vowel

au•men•to, ahi•ja•do ahu•ma•do, des•pués, es•táis, en•viáis, reu•nión, res•pon•dió

:large_orange_diamond: Warning:

:small_blue_diamond: The letter h marks the beginning of a syllable before the diphthong /u/ + vowel

al•ca•hue•te, ca•ca•hue•te, chi•hua•hua, co•rre•hue•la

3. If a W has an accent mark, it’s treated as a strong vowel and is accentuated

An•da•lu•cí•a, rí•o, cre•í, Hung•rí•a, ma•íz*, bú•ho*

* – Otherwise they’d be one-syllable words, also:

hay ≠ a•hí

aun ≠ a•ún

4. Any pair of 2 different weak vowels is treated as a diphthong (one syllable). If it has to take the accent mark, it goes on the second one

ciu•dad, fuis•te, cuí•da•te

:large_orange_diamond: If it’s the same vowel twice, there are two syllables

ti•i•to, di•i•ta, chi•í

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