Spanish Vowel Sequences

Though Spanish has only five vowel phonemes, it has many vowel sequences. Vowels often combine to form diphthongs, but many vowel sequences resist diphthongization. Spanish has far more vowel sequences than English.

Here are examples of Spanish vowel sequences that are in hiatus and that are diphthongs:

aeropuerto (airport)

anchoa (anchovy)

deuda (debt)

feo (ugly)

héroe (hero)

heroína (heroine)

marea (tide)

muy (very)

país (country)

río (river)

Here is the analysis of the vowel sequences:

aeropuerto = a.e.ro.puer.to (5 syllables)

anchoa = an.cho.a (3 syllables)

deuda = deu.da (2 syllables)

feo = fe.o (2 syllables)

héroe = hé.ro.e (3 syllables)

heroína =he.ro.í.na (4 syllables)

marea = ma.re.a (3 syllables)

muy = muy (1 syllable)

país = pa.ís (2 syllables)

río = rí.o (2 syllables)

Though Spanish has few vowel phonemes, it allows many vowel sequences. They can combine into diphthongs to form one syllable or remain in hiatus and thus form separate syllables. The high vowels [i] and [u] are the ones that most often form diphthongs.