Like the other Roman languages, Spanish has adapted phonological syllabification with closely follows the flow of speech. Prefixes and suffixes are frequently used, whereas compounds seldom occur.
Hyphenation in general
a) For one consonant between vowels the hyphen is inserted before the single consonant (phonetically ch, rr, and ll are considered as one consonant), e.g. ma-no, ca-sa, de-lei-ta, ca-ba-llo, fe-rro-ca-rri-le-ro.
b) When a word contains two consonants between vowels, the hyphen comes in between, bar-ba, tor-ta, con-ser-je, ar-gen-to, plan-cha.
c) When a word contains three consonant, there are two possibilities:
- hyphen after the first letter: hom-bre, es-cri-bo;
- when the middle one is an s, the hyphen comes after the second letter: trans-pa-ren-te, obs-ti-na-to, pers-pi-ca-cia, trans-for-ma-ción.
d) When a word contains four consonants, the hyphen comes after the second consonant: cons-truc-tor, ins-truc-ción.
Note: When l and r are preceded by b, c, f, g or p (d and t before r) the syllable begins before these consonants pa-la-bra, ma-dre, es-cla-vo, pos-tre.
Prefixes and compositions are divided like des-es-ta-bi-li-sar, en-tre-a-brir, e-qui-án-gu-lo. They are hyphenated according to etymological rules.
b) Syllables containing two or three vowels, like diphthongs (combination of strong and weak vowel) and triphthongs (combination of a strong vowel between two weak ones) are not hyphenated rei-na, neu-tro, bai-le, cau-sa, fies-ta, de-ges-tión, o-fi-cial, triun-fo, tam-bién, a-ve-ri-güéis, pre-mieis, a-guais, a-griéis, a-me-ri-ciáis.
c)
Stressed vowels are separated (a, e, o),
ca-er, cal-ma-os, em-ple-ar, ca-os.
When separation leaves a syllable with one vowel only, this one vowel
is grouped together with the other syllable rea-li-dad, de-ceo,
pae-lla, poe-sía, a-le-gría, raí-ces.
Note the difference between a-brí-ais and pre-miáis.
a) At the end of a sentence, hyphenation usually does not occur in the case of:
- one initial letter is left alone (a-mable)
- one final widow-syllable should be suppressed (decí-a).
Conjugations
Long groups of vowels occur in conjugated verbs. Unaccentuated
vowel groups which sounds like a single vowel are not divided, e.g.
raéis, reío, reía but accentuated ones are, e.g.
reí-ais and roí-ais.
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