1

2 Spanish Sounds 2

3 Vowels in Spanish are always pronounced the same:

4 Vowels in Spanish are either weak or strong: a, e and o are strong vowels i and u are weak vowels

5 What is a diphthong? When a strong and a weak vowel or two weak vowels combine to form a single syllable, they form what is known as a diphthong.

6 Diphthongs (1) *ai, ei and oi are written ay, ey and oy at the end of a word.

7 Examples - 1 ai/ay au ei/ey ie io oi/oy ua bailar autor biblioteca hoy seis cuatro viento

8 ai/ay bailar

9 au autor

10 ei/ey seis

11 ie viento

12 io biblioteca

13 oi/oy hoy

14 ua cuatro

15 Diphthongs (2): *ui is written uy at the end of a word.

16 Examples - 2 eu ia iu ue ui/uy uo media juego Europa muy monstruo ciudad ou tour

17 eu Europa

18 ia media

19 iu ciudad

20 ui/uy muy

21 ue juego

22 uo monstruo

23 ou tour

24 What is a hiatus? When two strong vowels are together in a word they are pronounced as two distinct syllables, and this is known as a hiatus.

25 Examples eo ae leo caer

26 eo leo

27 ae caer