Syllable division

A syllable is the emission of a sound all at once. All the syllables have a vowel that rules the syllable. The vowel could be separate or with a consonant, which could go before or after the vowel.

Separate	With the preceding consonant	With the consonant that follows the vowel
a-le-gre	bo-te	al-can-zar

The consonant clusters that are pronounced all at once, comprising a syllable with the subsequent vowel, are the following

Br Bl	Cr Cl	Fr Fl	Dr	Gr Gl	Ll Ch	Pr Pl	Tr Tl
Bru-to Ca-ble	Cru-do Cla-ro	Fri-to Fla-co	Dra-gón	Gra-ve Glo-bo	Lla-ve Cha-to	Pri-sa Plo-mo	Tra-po Tla-co

Distance between vowels

When many vowels appear together in a word, they can belong to the same syllable or to different syllables. On this basis we have:

- Diphtjongs: Two vowels are pronounced in the same syllable. A diphthong can be formed with a close vowel (i, u) and an open vowel (a, e, o) (cie-lo, cua-dro) or with two close vowels (ciu-dad, cui-dar).
- Triphthong: Three vowels are pronounced in the same syllable. They’re formed by an open vowel (a, e, o) preceded and followed by a close vowel (i, u) (Paraguay, buey). *Remember letter y can be used as a consonant (it sounds like ll) when it is followed by a vowel (yoyo) or as a vowel (equivalent to i) when it isn’t followed by a vowel (Uruguay).

Hiatus. Two vowels pronounced in different syllables. It can be produced when joining together two open vowels (a, e, o) (a-bu-che-ar, bo-a) or when joining a close vowel with an accent and an open vowel (rí-o, ba-úl).

Consonants distance

Vowel + consonant + vowel
A consonant between vowels forms a sillable with the vowel on its right (a-mor).

Vowel + consonant + consonant + vowel
If the second consonant is l or r consonant clusters are formed (br, bl, cr, cl…) that belong to the same syllable (a-bra-zo, aclamar).
If it is about other consonants, every consonant joins together with another vowel (an-tes, barco).

Vowel + consonant + consonant + consonant + vowel
If three consonants between vowels appear, the two first consonants form a syllable with the first vowel and the third one forms a sillable with the second (cons-tan-te, ins-tan-te).
If the third consonant is l or r a consonant cluster between the second and the third is formed, so they belong to the same syllable (as-tro-lo-gí-a).

Vowel + consonant + consonant + consonant + consonant + vowel
First two consonants go with the first vowel and the other two go with the second.

Words distance at the end of the line

When we arrive at the end of a line while writing and we have to divide a word between two lines, we have to divide the word with a hyphen (-) following this criteria: