3. Recordemos cómo dividir palabras en sílabas

Do you remember how to figure out the number of syllables that a Spanish word has?

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Keep in mind that Spanish phonetics are controlled by vowels unlike in English. In Spanish, a consonant doesn’t have sound, and we cannot read it if it is not with a vowel. But a vowel has its own sound and doesn’t need a consonant. A vowel can be a syllable by itself. The more you control the sounds of the Spanish vowels, the better your pronunciation will be. Remember the correct position of the lips, tongue and mouth when you produce the sound in Spanish.

Do you remember la sílaba tónica (the stressed syllable)?

¿En español cuál es la sílaba tónica? ___________________________________________

Remember the rules about the stressed syllable:

Regla número UNO:

Words ending in vowel, n or s are stressed _______________________________________

Regla número DOS:

Words ending in any consonant except n or s are stressed _________________________

Regla número TRES:

When rules number one and number two above are not followed that is when we use the written accent. The name of this written accent is the _______________________________

Regla número CUATRO:

Written accents are also used to differentiate between words that are pronounced the same but have different meanings. This orthographic stress is known as __________________________

If you did not recall what to fill above, go back to Unit 2 to check your notes.

We studied these words in Unidad 1, please complete the next table by filling in their English translation.

Practiquemos cambiar palabras del singular al plural:

Typically one would make a word plural by adding’ “s” if a word ends in a vowel or “es” if the word ends in a consonant. We have only one exception, when a Spanish word ends with the letter Z like el lápiz, the letter Z changes to C, los lápices. Remember the letter Z only goes with the vowels a, o, u for the sound th/s. With the vowels e and i, Spanish has the letter C for the soft sound. Examples:

When we change the number of the word (singular vs plural), the stressed syllable changes, because the number of the syllables changes. In the next exercise, we want you to change the number of the words (singular, plural). If the word is in the singular, write the plural and vice versa. In case you have a doubt about the syllable division or the stressed syllable review our last unit and use the website BUSCAPALABRAS.

In the next chart, you will find several examples. Analyze each one and then finish the exercise.

Palabras	Género	Número	Sí-la-bas		Plural/singular	Sí-la-bas
La mesa	femenino	singular	Me-sa		Las mesas	Me-sas
El sillón	masculino	singular	Si-llón		Los sillones	Si-llo-nes
Las ventanas	femenino	plural	Ven-ta-nas		La ventana	Ven-ta-na
Los coches	masculino	plural	Co-ches		El coche	Co-che
El radio
La silla
Las lámparas
Los c
La flor
Los árboles
El avión
La voz
Las narices
Las casas
El zapato
Los gatos

Apliquemos los conceptos a la fecha (date):

We will start with the days of the week. Observe the words in the following list. We will use all the concepts that we have been studying: syllables, definite articles, orthographic stress, etc. Our objective is that you not only learn words, we want you to learn the words with the correct phonetics so you can write, read, speak and listen in Spanish.

What gender are they?

What number are they? (singular/plural)

Los días de la semana:

• el/los lunes
• el/los martes
• el/los miércoles
• el/los jueves
• el/los viernes
• el/los sábado (s)
• el/los domingo (s)
• el fin de semana / los fines de semana

Now answer the next questions:

1. How do you say “days” in Spanish?_______________________________________

2. El número de la palabra “días” es singular o plural: ___________________________

3. ¿Qué género tiene la palabra “días”? _____________________________________

4. ¿Qué significa en inglés “la semana”? ____________________________________

5. ¿Qué número tiene la palabra “la semana”?_______________________________

6. ¿Qué género es la palabra “semana”?_____________________________________

El lunes significa on Monday, el martes significa on Tuesday, el miércoles significa on Wednesday. The word “el” and “los” in this case means “on”. This only occurs for the days of the week where one uses the definite article “el” or “los” to indicate “on” which day.

7. ¿Qué significa el jueves?________________________________________________

8. ¿Qué significa el viernes?_______________________________________________

9. ¿Qué significan los sábados?___________________________________________

10. ¿Qué significan los domingos?__________________________________________

El fin de semana means the weekend.

11. ¿Qué significan los fines de semana?_______________________________________

12. ¿Qué género es la palabra “el jueves”?___________________________________

13. ¿Qué género son todos” los días de la semana”?_____________________________

14. ¿Qué género son “todas las semanas en el mes” (month)?______________________

15. ¿Qué género es la palabra “el mes”?____________________________________

16. ¿Cómo se escribe (write) el mes en plural?_________________________________

Did you notice that in Spanish the words for the days of the week are the same for singular and for plural? The definite article is the word that lets us know if it is singular or plural:

El lunes vs los lunes, el martes vs los martes, el miércoles vs los miércoles, etc…

*Note: in Spanish we don’t use capital letters en los días de la semana or the months and seasons.

Los días de la semana: divide the days of the week in syllables and identify the stressed syllable.

Las estaciones del año = Divide the seasons of the years in syllables. Identify the stressed syllable, the gender and the number.

Artículo	Estación del año	Sí – la – bas	Número	Género
La	primavera
El	verano
El	otoño
El	invierno

Los meses del año: divide the months of the year in syllables and identify the stressed syllable. Remember a difference with English; the months in Spanish don’t begin with a capital letter within a sentence. Remember there are three kinds of sentences: interrogative (questions), declarative or exclamatory.

In Spanish, as in English, the months of the year don’t use the definite article. In English, the months are written with a capital letter. They are considered proper names. In Spanish, on the other hand, we don’t write the months of the year with a capital letter and also we don’t use a definite article before the names of the months. Only capitalize a month if it begins the sentence.

Observa el video 1.3.2. Watch the vocabulary tutorial for seasons and months. It’s very important that you listen to the video and observe the syllables of the word. Pay attention to the stressed syllable. Repeat until the Spanish sounds and the Spanish words become natural to you.

Aprendemos a pronunciar correctamente los lugares:

Let’s practice the correct pronunciation of the next words. At the same time, you will practice making the words plural.

Pay attention to ca-fe-te-rí-a and li-bre-rí-a

In both, we have a diphthong ia → soft vowel i + strong vowel a.

In both words the diphthong is broken→ rí – a.

When we have an orthographic stress on the soft vowel the diphthong is broken: ca-fe-te-rí-a / li-bre-rí-a

We just learned rule number five: If the soft vowel in the diphthong or in the tripthong is stressed, the diphthong or tripthong is destroyed:

ca-fe-te-rí-a → rí –a the soft vowel i has an orthographic stress = it breaks the diphthong.

li-bre-rí-a → rí –a the soft vowel i has an orthographic stress = it breaks the diphthong

Now we will learn rule number six: We have some words in Spanish that have an “h” between vowels. If the vowels are the combination of a soft and strong vowel, the diphthong exists even with the “h” in the middle (Remember the “ h” is silent producing a diphthong).

Ahi – ja – do → Godson

Prohi – bir → To ban

Los lugares: places

Artículo	Singular	Sílaba tónica	Significado	Artículo	Plural
el	apartamento	a-par-ta-men-to
la	Biblioteca	bi-blio-te-ca
la	cafetería	Ca-fe-te-rí-a
el	edificio	e-di-fi-cio
el	estadio	es-ta-dio
el	laboratorio	la-bo-ra-to-rio
la	libreria	li-bre-rí-a
la	residencia estudiantil	Re-si-den-cia es-tu-dian-til
la	tienda	tien-da