Diptongos

¿Qué es?
El diptongo es el
encuentro o reunión de
dos y, a veces, tres
vocales que se
pronuncian en un solo
golpe de voz o sea que
cuando estas se
encuentran, no se pueden
separar (forman una sola
sílaba).
 ¿Cómo se forman?
Dos vocales cerradas o débiles (son la i y la u). Por ejemplo: triunfo.

Una vocal cerrada y una abierta (son la a, la e y la o) o viceversa. Por ejemplo: reina, cuota.
¿Qué es un hiato?
Es preciso mencionar que dos
vocales abiertas no conforman diptongo,
sino que se separan en sílabas y forman
otro fenómeno llamado hiato, que es la
separación de dos vocales contiguas
dentro de una palabra.

La letra h en medio de las vocales no evita que se produzca el

diptongo. También es posible formar diptongo con la letra y por su
sonido vocálico.
 Combinaciones que producen diptongo:

Existen 14 combinaciones de vocales

que producen diptongo, estas son:

Dos vocales cerradas.

IU. Por ejemplo: viuda, ciudad, oriundo.

UI. Por ejemplo: juicio, ruido, cuidar.
 Una vocal cerrada y una abierta.

IA. Por ejemplo: anciano, hacia.

IE. Por ejemplo: miedo, tierra y tiempo.
IO. Por ejemplo: inicio, novio, pio
UA. Por ejemplo: mensual, suave, acuario.
UE. Por ejemplo: huelo, bueno, hueso.
UO. Por ejemplo: individuo, residuo, monstruo.
 Una vocal abierta y una cerrada.

AI. Por ejemplo: baile, paisaje, aire.

AU. Por ejemplo: aurora, auto, Laura.
EI. Por ejemplo: veinte, aceite, pleito.
EU. Por ejemplo: feudo, euforia, deuda.
OI. Por ejemplo: oigo, coima, boina.
OU. Por ejemplo: estadounidense, Lourdes.
Palabras con diptongos
abierta funcional riego

abuela guitarra rosario

acuerdo historia ruido

ahijado iguana seleccionar

ahumado juicio sexual

apuesta junio siente

audaz limpiar suave

bienvenido lluvia suelo

cambio memoria sueño

condicional muela trueno

Hiato

 El hiato se produce cuando una palabra presenta

dos vocales contiguas que pertenecen a sílabas
 distintas. Por ejemplo: ra-íz, dí-a, zo-o-ló-gi-co.
 Un hiato puede producirse en los siguientes casos:
 Hiato acentual. Se forma con una vocal cerrada
 tónica (í, ú) y una vocal abierta átona (a, e, o), en
cualquiera de sus combinaciones. Por ejemplo: fi-
lo-so-fí-a, e-go-ís-mo, pa-ís.
 Hiato vocálico simple. Se forma con dos 
vocales abiertas distintas (a, e o), en cualquiera de
sus combinaciones. Por ejemplo: abs-tra-er, re-a-
li-zar, po-e-ta.
 Hiato vocálico de repetición de sonido. Se forma
con dos vocales átonas iguales (aa, ee, ii, oo, uu).
Por ejemplo: co-o-pe-rar, le-er, chi-i-ta.
 Las palabras con hiato acentual no siguen las reglas de acentuación
tradicionales. Cuando hay un hiato de vocal abierta (a, e, o) junto
con vocal cerrada tónica (í, ú), esta última lleva tilde,
independientemente de si la palabra es aguda, llana o esdrújula. Por
ejemplo: ma-íz, la-úd, vi-ví-a-mos, ga-rú-a.
 El hiato se opone al diptongo, que es el fenómeno que se produce
cuando dos vocales contiguas pertenecen a una misma sílaba. Por
ejemplo: au-to-mó-vil, mie-do, ciu-dad.
 Asimismo, se diferencia del triptongo, que es la conjunción de tres
sonidos vocálicos en la misma sílaba. Por ejemplo: buey, U-ru-
guay, viei-ras.
 Cuando la letra H aparece entre dos vocales, no interfiere en la
formación de hiatos ni diptongos. En los hiatos, la palabra se divide
de igual modo y la H permanece unida a la segunda vocal. Por
ejemplo: al-co-hol, bú-ho, re-hén.
 Yo sabía que todo acabaría bien.
 El escritor publicó tres libros de poesía.
 Debemos abordar el problema de raíz.
 Divisaron un aeroplano que venía desde el oeste.
 El cuerpo humano necesita proteínas.
 Mi tío toca el laúd.
 El sábado iremos al teatro.
 El paracaídas se desplegó justo a tiempo.
 Me contaron una historia increíble.
 La albahaca combina muy bien con cualquier pasta.
 El jugador abandonó el país en su avión privado.
 Recibieron la noticia con alegría.
 El héroe fue recibido con todos los honores.
 La torta de zanahoria es mi favorita.
 Pensó que se había curado de la gripe, pero tuvo una recaída.
Un diptongo se forma cuando dos vocales
pertenecen a la misma sílaba.

Verdadero
Un hiato se produce cuando dos vocales
contiguas pertenecen a sílabas distintas.

Verdadero
 La aparición de la H entre dos
vocales evita que se produzca hiato.
Falso

¿Cuál de las siguientes palabras tiene hiato?

Augurio Aéreo Juego Maizal
 Identifica la palabra con diptongo:

Búho Corrían Muérdago Saeta

¿Cuál de las siguientes palabras no tiene hiato?

Vacío Tarea País Paisaje

 TONGUE TWISTER TIME!

I wish you were a Chester Cheetah

fish in my dish. Be a chewed a chunk, of
fish in my dish, cheap cheddar
please. cheese.

Ice Cream, I scream,

Can you can a can
you scream, we all
as a canner can can
scream for ice
a can?
cream!
 TONGUE TWISTER TIME!
Three witches watch
three Swatch watches.
Which witch watches
which Swatch watch?
Fuzzy Wuzzy, Fuzzy
Wuzzy was a bear.
Fuzzy Wuzzy had no
hair. Fuzzy Wuzzy
wasn’t very fuzzy, was
he? I saw Susie sitting in a
shoe shine shop.
Where she sits she
shines, and where she
shines she sits
 TONGUE TWISTER TIME!

One-one was a race horse.

Two-two was one too. One-
one won one race. Two-two
won one too
I thought a thought. But
the thought I thought
wasn’t the thought I
thought I thought.
I have got a date, I have
got a date at a quarter
to eight; I’ll see you at
the gate, so don’t be
late.
 TONGUE TWISTER TIME!

A twister of twists A flea and a fly in

Silly Sally swiftly
once twisted a twist; a flue Said the fly shooed seven silly
A twist that he "Oh what should sheep. The seven silly
twisted was a three- we do" Said the sheep Silly Sally
twisted twist; If in
twisting a twist one
flea "Let us fly" shooed shilly-shallied
Said the fly "Let south. These sheep
twist should untwist,
us flee" So they shouldn't sleep in a
The untwisted twist
shack; sheep should
would untwist the flew through a sleep in a shed.
twist flaw in the flue.
Warm up
TONGUE TWISTER TIME!

A skunk sat on a
There was a
stump. The Once upon a barren moor
There dwelt a bear, also a
fisherman named stump thought boar. The bear could not
Fisher, who fished for the skunk stunk. bear the boar. The boar
some fish in a fissure. thought the bear a bore.
The skunk At last the bear could bear
Till a fish with a grin, no more Of that boar that
pulled the fisherman thought the bored him on the moor,
in. Now they're stump stunk And so one morn he
fishing the fissure for bored the boar That boar
What stunk the will bore the bear no
Fisher.
skunk or the more.

stump?
Diphthongs in English
 The word "diphthong“ …
Comes from the Greek and means "two voices" or "two sounds.“

In phonetics, a diphthong is a vowel in which there is a noticeable sound change within the
same syllable. (A single or simple vowel is known as a monophthong.)
The process of moving from one vowel sound to another is called gliding, which is why
another name for a diphthong is a gliding vowel but they are also known as compound vowels,
complex vowels, or moving vowels.
 Diphthongs in American English

How many diphthongs are there in the English language? It depends on which
expert you ask. Some sources cite eight, others as many as 10. Even syllables
containing a single vowel can contain a diphthong. The rule of thumb is: If the
sound moves, it’s a diphthong; if it's static, it’s a monophthong. Each of the
following diphthongs is represented by its phonetic symbol:
Unlike Spanish, in English diphthongs are normally considered just one phoneme,
not the combination of two. Here are the eight English diphthongs:
/aɪ/ This diphthong creates sounds similar to "eye" and most often occurs with letter
combinations that include /i/, /igh/, and /y. Examples: crime, like, lime

“They sky blue tie was hard to buy”.

/eɪ/ This diphthong creates sounds similar to “great” and is most often used with letter
combinations that include /ey/, /ay/, /ai/ and /a/. Examples: break, rain, weight

“That day, I didn't pay to stay in the bay”.

/əʊ/ This diphthong creates sounds similar to “boat” and most often occurs with letter combinations
that include /ow/, /oa/ and /o/. Examples: slow, moan, though

“The boat was no a show, so we couldn´t go unless

we had to row”.

/aʊ/ This diphthong creates sounds similar to “ow!” and most often occurs with letter combinations
that include /ou/ and /ow/. Examples: brown, hound, now.

“The owl flew south, so my mouth let out a growl”.

/eə/ This diphthong creates sounds similar to “air” and most often occurs
with letter combinations that include /ai/, /a/, and /ea/. Examples: lair,
stair, bear:
“The bear was in his lair and the girl's
hair was very fair”.
/ɪə/ This diphthong creates sounds similar to “ear” and most often occurs
with
letter combinations that include /ee/, /ie/ and /ea/. Examples: beer, near,
pier

“I fear the beer hall is not near here”.

/ɔɪ/ This creates sounds similar to “boy” and most often occurs with
letter combinations that include /oy/ and /oi/. Examples: oil, toy, coil.

“Oi boy, pass me the toy. Don't be so coy”.

/ʊə/This diphthong creates sounds similar to “sure” and most occurs

with letter combinations that include /oo/, /ou/, /u/, and /ue/.
Examples: lure, pure, fur.
“I didn't do the tour because
I was to poor”.
 Opening diphthongs:

Opening diphthongs have a second vowel sound that is more ‘open’ than the first.
An ‘open vowel’ is a vowel sound pronounced with the tongue as low down in the
mouth as possible (e.g. /a/ in cat).
An example of an opening diphthong is /ia/ – the ‘yah’ sound in Spanish found in
words like hacia. Opening diphthongs are usually rising diphthongs, as open vowels
are more prominent than closed vowels.
 Closing diphthongs 

Closing diphthongs have a second vowel sound that is more ‘closed’ than the first. A
closed vowel is pronounced with the tongue in a much higher position in the mouth
(e.g. /iː/ in see).

Examples of closing diphthongs are: /ai/ found in time, /əʊ/ found in globe, and /eɪ/
found in late. Typically, closing diphthongs are falling diphthongs.
 Centring diphthongs 

 Centring diphthongs have a second vowel that is mid-central, i.e. it is

pronounced with the tongue in a neutral or central position. The mid-central
vowel sound is also known as the schwa (/ə/). Any diphthong ending with the
schwa sound can be considered a centring diphthong, e.g. /ɪə/ found
in dear, /eə/ found in fair, and /ʊə/ found in cure.
 Diphthongs are one of the greatest sources of mispronunciation for Spanish
speakers. The main difficulty is that English letters can be pronounced in several
ways, so sometimes it’s difficult to know which is the correct one. An i  can be said
as /ɪ/ or /aɪ/, an o as /ɒ/ or /əʊ/, etc. We must also remember that vowels are often
pronounced /ə/ when they are unstressed. This uncertainty leads to very common
mistakes. Let’s see some examples of words which are often mispronounced by
Spanish speakers:
/ əʊ / /aɪ/ /eɪ/ / ɪə / / aʊ / / ɔɪ / / eə / / ʊə /
No highway here cowboys there are tourists!
Ejercicios

 https://aprenderespanol.org/ejercicios/gramatica/silabas/diptongos-palabras-1
 https://aprenderespanol.org/ejercicios/gramatica/silabas/diptongos-buscar
 https://aprenderespanol.org/ejercicios/gramatica/silabas/diptongos-audio-1

 https://aprenderespanol.org/ejercicios/gramatica/silabas/diptongos-1
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi-IRdazFpQ&ab_channel=BillieEnglish