Understanding Diphthongs

In English when we say "eight" we've put two vowels together (e & i) to make one sound. This vowel combination is called a diphthong. Spanish diphthongs follow hard and fast rules which may come in handy when learning to pronounce certain words. The five vowels in Spanish are divided into weak and strong categories. The i and the u are considered weak vowels and the a, e, o are the strong ones. Typically diphthongs are formed by the combination of weak and strong vowels together and also when both vowels are weak but never when two vowels in a word happen to be strong ones. So, if we look at the numbers from one to ten we'll notice that five of them are written using diphthongs:

uno

dos

tres

cuatro- cua-tro

cinco

seis

siete- sie-te

ocho 

nueve- nue-ve 

diez

Because diphthongs count as one syllable "seis" and "diez" are not broken into syllables. English speakers  notoriously disregard diphthongs and end up pronouncing incorrectly with too many syllables as in "nu-e-ve". There are times when in the interest of maintaining the highest quality of sound, diphthongs may be dissolved using an accent mark as in the name "María" or the verb to laugh "reír". An accent mark is also used strategically to differentiate certain words that are spelled the same as in the word for river "río" and the third person past tense of reír, "rio". Let us not forget that when two vowels come together and they are both strong ones there is no diphthong effect. An example would be the word for theatre "teatro". This word has three syllables, te-a-tro. Or the word for ugly "feo", pronounced fe-o. As always Spanish holds to a sense of great order and a commitment to a pleasant combination of agreeable sounds.

Será hasta pronto,

Ed