>Syllable that does not have stress or emphasis

>when the letter a is in front of a word it normally means without​

Atonic syllable

> Syllable that has the stress or emphasis

Tonic syllable

When talking about syllables...

​The fancy word for dividing a word into syllable is syllabification

> When a word ends in a consonant (except n or s) the tonic syllable goes on the last syllable

Rule 2

>​ When a word ends in a vowel, n, or s, the tonic syllable goes on the second to last syllable.

Rule 1

Las Reglas

Las Reglas cont.

Rule 3

> When a word has an accent mark (la tilde) the tonic syllable is the one with the accent mark.

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> This rule gives you permission to ignore rules 1 and 2. ​

When to break up the syllables

When a word starts with a vowel

> Normally when a word starts with a vowel it is its own syllable

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>The exception to this rule is if the vowel is followed by the letter L​

​*Many times these exception words come from Arabic roots

When to break up the syllables

​Consonant Plus Vowel

>Whenever possible, you should break up words so that each syllable contains a consonant followed by a vowel.

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>A consonant between two vowels belongs to the syllable with the second vowel.

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>The goal is to end a syllable with a vowel whenever possible.

When to break up the syllables

Two Consecutive Consonants

> Will generally belong to separate syllables.

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> However, if the second consonant in a consonant pair is r or l, the consonant pair is not separated into different syllables.

Words that begin with prefixes often violate the above rules. For example the syllabification of enloqueceris en-lo-que-cer.

When to break up the syllables

Three Consecutive Consonants

> the first one will generally belong to a separate syllable.

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> the second two will stay together ​

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Diphthongs & Hiatus

>break b/n 2 vowels; not in same syllable

Hiatus

>2 vowels in a single syllable

​Diphthong

Diphthong & Hiatus

Strong and Weak Vowels

​Spanish has both strong vowels (a, e, o) and weak vowels (i, u).

> Two weak vowel together form a diphthong and are not separated into different syllables. Example: fui

>An unaccented weak vowel followed by a strong vowel form a diphthong and are not separated into different syllables.

Examples: Juan, viento Vien/to

>A strong vowel followed by an unaccented weak vowel form a diphthong and are not separated into different syllables.

Examples: causa, veinte Cau/sa Vein/te

Strong and Weak Vowels

​Spanish has both strong vowels (a, e, o) and weak vowels (i, u).

>Two strong vowels together form a hiatus and are separated into different syllables.

Example: Leo Le/o

>A weak vowel and a strong vowel form a hiatus when the weak vowel is the stressed vowel (la tilde) they are separated into different syllables.

Examples: raíz, María, laúd

Ra/íz Ma/rí/a La/úd

>Two identical vowels that appear one after the other (or separated only by the letter h) form a hiatus and are separated into different syllables.

Examples: poseer, azahar

​ Po/se/er. A/zah/ar