【英文版西语语法】Spanish Syllables and Syllabification Rules

 Overview

 

Knowing how to separate a word into syllables can help you pronounce and spell Spanish words correctly, as well as help you decide if a word needs a written accent or not.

 

General Syllabification Rules

 

The fancy word for dividing a word into syllables is syllabification. Here are some general rules for Spanish syllabification.

 

Consonant Plus Vowel

 

Whenever possible, you should break up words so that each syllable contains a consonant followed by a vowel. A consonant between two vowels belongs to the syllable with the second vowel. The goal is to end each syllable with a vowel.

 

Word Syllabification

sábana

 

sá-ba-na

gato

 

ga-to

casa

 

ca-sa

mano

 

ma-no

oro

 

o-ro

mesa

 

me-sa

Two Consecutive Consonants

 

Two consecutive consonants will generally belong to separate syllables. However, if the second consonant is a 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 enloquecer  is en-lo-que-cer.

Word Syllabification

cuando

 

cuan-do

alcanzar

 

al-can-zar

costa

 

cos-ta

sombrillo

 

som-bri-llo

clave

 

cla-ve

trabajo

 

tra-ba-jo

aplicar

 

a-pli-car

frequente

 

fre-quen-te

hecho

 

he-cho

amarillo

 

a-ma-ri-llo

carro

 

ca-rro

merengue

 

me-ren-gue

In Puerto Rico and most of Spain, the consonant cluster tl is divided into separate syllables. For example, the syllabification of atlántico  is at-lán-ti-co.

In most of Latin America, especially Mexico and other countries with words of Nahuatl origin, as well as the Canary Islands of Spain, the consonant cluster tl is not divided into separate syllables. For example, the syllabification of atlántico  is a-tlán-ti-co and the syllabification of tlacuache  (possum) is tla-cua-che.

Three Consecutive Consonants

 

When three consonants appear together, the first one will generally belong to a separate syllable.

 

Word Syllabification

inglés

 

in-glés

compresar

 

com-pre-sar

panfleto

 

pan-fle-to

ombligo

 

om-bli-go

constante

 

con-stan-te

Strong and Weak Vowels

 

Spanish has both strong vowels (a, e, o) and weak vowels (i, u). Here are some rules on how the combinations of these vowels are divided into syllables.

 

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

A weak vowel and a strong vowel together form a diphthong and are not separated into different syllables. Example: Juan  

Two strong vowels together form a hiatus and are separated into different syllables. Example: Leo  

A tilde placed over a letter changes the above pronunciation rules, and the accented letter must be separated from any surrounding vowels. Example: mío  

Word Syllabification

toalla

 

to-a-lla

feo

 

fe-o

iguana

 

i-gua-na

reina

 

rei-na

tío

 

tí-o

ciudad

 

ciu-dad

creer

 

cre-er