1. ¡Aprendamos a dividir palabras en sílabas!

As you know Spanish is phonetic, the consonants and the consonant groups have specific sounds with each one of the vowels, and only the vowels have a sound by themselves. In order to pronounce words correctly, you need to know how to divide the word into syllables so that you are able to identify the stress of the word. Spanish words are syllabified according to some very rigid rules.

Let analyze the next words for the number of the vowels and the number of the syllables that we have:

amigo è has a, i, and o  è then the word amigo has three syllables.

profesora  è has o, e, o and a  è It has four syllables.

verde  è has two e  è It has two syllables

hombre  è has o, and e  è It has two syllables.

estudiar   è has e, u, and ia (diptongo) è It has three syllables.

transporte  è has a, o, and e  è It has three syllables.

construir   è has o, and ui (diptongo)  è It has two syllables.

After you define the number of syllables that the word has, you have to follow the next 4 simple rules:

1. A simple consonant or consonant group goes with the following vowel. You can NEVER have a consonant without a vowel in a syllable, but one vowel can be a syllable.

amigo à a-mi-go tres sílabas.

profesora à pro-fe-so-ra cuatro sílabas.

tarea à ta-re-a tres sílabas (“ea” no es diptongo = dos sílabas.) Why?

A diphthong is comprised of a strong + a weak vowel or two weak vowels. “E” and “A” are considered strong vowels and hence can be separated into syllables.

2. Two consonants are usually separated; except when you have an S and a consonant, the S goes with the syllable before. Remember a consonant group never is divided.

verde à ver-de dos sílabas.

estudiar à es-tu-diar tres sílabas (“ia” diptongo = una sílaba).

3. Three consonants are usually divided after the first one, unless the second is an S:

hombre à hom-bre dos sílabas.

transporte à trans-por-te tres sílabas.

4. It is uncommon in Spanish to have four consonants between vowels, the rule is always divided after the second.

construir à cons-truir dos sílabas (“ui” diptongo = una sílaba).

Now you need to divide some of the words of your vocabulary in syllables. We recommend that you read aloud each one of the syllables. It is important that you control the sound of each consonant with the vowel. Like we studied before, the sound of each consonant in Spanish depends on the vowel. In Spanish, we cannot read consonants alone. We read the consonant with the vowel. If you have good control of the sound of the vowels with each consonant, you will have good Spanish pronunciation. Remember pronunciation in Spanish depends on the vowels.

You may think that this exercise is tedious but it will be crucial for your pronunciation, for your spelling and also, for you to be able to write correctly the orthographic stress. For each word, write the number of vowels, diphthongs and triphthongs that it has. This number is the number of syllables that the word has. You will write the word divided in syllables in the last column. See the example apellido: it has 4 vowels, then we divide the word in four syllables.

As you complete the exercise below and have a question, go back to review the rules above.

Remember diphthongs or triphthongs = 1 vowel grouping.

	La palabra	El número de sílabas	Las sílabas de la palabra
1	apellido	4 vocales = 4 sílabas	a-pe-lli-do
2	mujer
3	alcohol
4	nueve
5	corazón
6	seis
7	guante
8	Europa

Recordemos la acentuación en español:

As we studied in Unidad uno, the stress (acento) is the prominence given to certain syllables. The stressed syllable is the sílaba tónica. All Spanish words have a sílaba tónica; but it is important that you remember that some Spanish words need an orthographic stress (acento ortográfico) on the stressed syllable. As you remember, the orthographic stress is a little tilde that we write only on the vowel of the stressed syllable: á, é, í, ó, ú that did not follow the stress rules learned in Unidad 1. In Spanish not all the words need an orthographic stress and there are specific rules for the orthographic stress. To apply these rules, it is important that you know how to divide a word into syllables and identify the stressed syllable. Before we study the rules for writing the tilde or orthographic stress, do you remember the rules that we studied to know where the stressed syllable is in the word? Please write the stress rules below (you will find them in unidad 1):

*Note: The stress rules (which you write below) are not the same as the syllable division rules.

Regla número uno: ____________________________________________________

Regla número dos: ___________________________________________________

Regla número tres: ___________________________________________________

Regla número cuatro: ____________________________________________________

In the next chart, you have some of your vocabulary words divided by syllables and the stressed syllable is marked with red and bold letters. Now you need to write the rule number that was applied for the specific stressed syllable. For example, in the word a-ma-ble la sílaba tónica es “ma” porque se aplica la regla número uno: Words ending in vowel, n, or s are stressed on the next to the last syllable.

Palabras:	Regla	Palabras:	Regla
a-ma-ble	1	es-ta-dou-ni-den-se
a-zul		pro-du-ce
a-zu-les		gus-tar
ba-jo		ha-cer
bo-ni-to		ser
cas-ta-ño		te-ner
chis-to-so		bai-lar
ge-ne-ro-sa		le-ga-li-za-ción
gran-de		es-cu-char

Remember bring your questions to your next class!

Success in our in class practices requires that you take ownership of learning by doing the required readings, learning the vocabulary and studying the lectures online and in your book before each class!

In our vocabulary, we have the next words bolígrafo, números, atlético, simpático y dieciséis. All these words have an orthográphic stress, can you tell us why? What is the rule that we apply to know that these words need el acento ortográfico? _________

When the rules number one and number two are not followed, we use the written accent, the orthographic stress. Regla número tres.

This is the tricky part! You need to know how the word sounds!

Remember, when we write a stress, it is because the word is not following rules 1 or 2.

Analyze each example:

Palabra : bolígrafo

Número vocales: 4

Número de sílabas: 4

División silábica: bo-li-gra-fo

Sílaba tónica: La regla 1: Words ending in vowel, n, or s are stressed on the next to the last syllable. Boligrafo ends in vowel. We don’t say: Bo – li – gra – fo… We say: bo – lí – gra –fo.

It is a word that doesn’t follow rule 1! We need to write the stress to indicate that the pronunciation of the word is not following the rules. This applies to the next two examples as well.

Palabra : números

Número vocales: 3

Número de sílabas: 3

División silábica: nú-me-ros

Sílaba tónica: La regla 1: Words ending in a vowel, n or s are stressed on the next to the last syllable.

We don’t say: nu – me – ros… We say: nú – me – ros.

Palabra : atlético

Número vocales: 4

Número de sílabas: 4

División silábica: a-tlé-ti-co

Sílaba tónica: La regla 1: Words ending in a vowel, n or s are stressed on next last syllable.

We don’t say: a – tle – ti –co… We say: a – tlé – ti – co.

Notice how these examples did not follow rule 1 and as a result we wrote the stress above the appropriate vowel!

These kinds of words are exceptions. We want you to keep these in mind so you learn the correct pronunciation of the words. For now, we want you to remember this:

“Some words have an orthographic stress because they don’t follow the rules so I need to take more time to practice and learn those words.”

Now let’s concentrate on la regla número cuatro in which written accents are also used to differentiate between words that are pronounced the same but have different meanings. Usually these words are monosyllabic, words with only one syllable. You need to learn these words. We call this special stress el acentro diacrítico because it differentiates between the words such as tú (you) vs tu (your).

¡Practiquemos los acentos!

Here are some of your vocabulary words and some expressions in Spanish that we are studying. We want you to write the stress of the words that need an orthographic stress and the stress of the words that need a diacritic stress. In the next column you need to write the kind of stress that you use. Follow the examples and use your vocabulary lists to find the answers:

#	Expression in Spanish and vocabulary words	Type of stress
1	Por favor	No acento ortográfico
2	Perdón.	Acento ortográfico
3	¿Qué tal?	Acento diacrítico
4	(Muchas) gracias.
5	Yo tambien.
6	Buenos dias.
7	Veintidos.
8	Buenas noches.
9	¿Como esta usted (Ud.)?
10	Veintitres.
11	¿Como se llama?
12	Me llamo (Jose).
13	Jugar al futbol.
14	Escuchar musica.
15	¿Cuantos años tienes?

We will review answers to this exercise in class so please make sure you complete it beforehand.