Diphthongs and Syllables [8]
Before I begin teaching you how to actually speak, I think you should know the accent (mark) rules. These tell you which syllable in the word to stress. When I say stress, I mean the part of the word that gets the most volume and attention.
The name Stephanie has three syllables: Ste-pha-nie. The stress is on the first one: Ste-pha-nie. Try saying it with the stress on ‘pha’ and on ‘nie.’ It will sound wrong. Ste-pha-nie; Ste-pha-nie. Every single word in Spanish (and English) has a stressed syllable. (This is called tonic stress, in case you want to Google more about this. And there’s some guy on Instagram who goes around reading everything incorrectly--not only does he use alternative vowel sounds, he switches tonic stress.)
There are three rules in Spanish that explain how you can predict stress. (This is extremely useful if you are reading and come across a word you have never seen. Since you are just learning Spanish, this applies to you in 90% of cases.)
But to explain those rules, you need to know how to break words into syllables. But you might commit a simple mistake. Look at this word, which means ox:
You might be compelled to say this is two syllables: bu-ey. It is not. This word is one syllable, and those two vowels make one diphthong.
Diphthongs: two vowels that make one syllable. Most students will incorrectly divide words when they see two vowels side by side. But this is not always the case--in Spanish, it is rarely the case.
Think about the English word ‘onion.’ It has two syllables, not three: O-NION. The I and O are two vowels in the same syllable and that is a diphthong. These things are everywhere: bien, bueno, California, Colombia, yo, agua.
It’s important that you pronounce these combinations as one syllable, or else you will confuse your listener—imagine needing to buy ‘onion’ and asking for ‘O-NEE-ON.’ What is that? What is an ‘Oh Neon?’ It’s not an onion!
Anyhow, don’t be discouraged. I’m here to reveal order to you. While English is a fucking minefield, in Spanish there are 14 diphthongs. And they do not make new sounds. They are made simply by combining the five vowels (saying one after the other). In order to explain how to say one after the other (which is remarkably intuitive anyway), they are divided like so:
Fuerte: A, E, O Débil: I, U
Fuerte means ‘strong’; débil means ‘weak.’ If you get a combination of weak + strong, or weak + weak, you’re dealing with a diphthong—one syllable.
Again, these combinations of vowels do not form a brand new sound. It is not like mixing colors (blue + yellow = green). You are simply pronouncing two sounds side by side, and because one is naturally stronger (A, E, O) it takes the stress.
Long story short, here are all 14 diphthongs (within actual words):
1. PIANO. PYA-NO. (Not PI-A-NO.)
3. VIVIÓ VI-VYO (Don’t worry about the accent for now.)
These first six are Débil + Fuerte combinations. These are easy to pronounce. Your mouth gets bigger as it pronounces the strong vowel. The next ones are the same, but backwards.
7-12 are Fuerte + Débil combinations. Your mouth naturally gets smaller as you say the weak vowel. Last two:
These last two are Débil + Débil combinations. They sound flat, since there is no stronger vowel, your mouth doesn’t get any bigger or smaller. They actually sound like the English words ‘you’ (iu) and ‘we’ (ui).
Re-read that whole thing. Then move on to what I’m about to say. Specifically, make sure you have your groups straight: strong vowels are A, E, O. Weak vowels are I, U.
Now, if you get two fuerte vowels in a row, it does break into two syllables. For example the name Juan is one syllable—U is weak, A is strong. But the name Gael is two syllables—A is strong, and so is E. They don’t fit in the same syllable. (You will also note that ae is not in the diphthong list I just gave you!)
So, the name is GA-EL, unlike JUAN. If you don’t know who Gael is…I don’t know, Google it.
Now that you know that, I can talk to you about stress and accent marks and we can get this party staaaaaarted. One more prefatory lesson about the marks and we’re on--I mean the ones in words like these: América, papá, caótico, et cétera.
(By the way, most of this information is stuff you want to come back to once you’re already speaking. You don’t need to learn this to a T before continuing. Pretty sure we were all speaking before reciting the ABCs. However, the harder you study now, the fewer ‘simple mistakes’ you’ll commit later.)
Peace, have a nice Monday. Or whatever, it’s Monday right now.
