- What are monosyllables?
- Examples of monosyllables
- Sentences with monosyllables
- Disyllable and polysyllable words
We explain what monosyllables are, how they are formed, examples and use in sentences. Also, bisyllable and polysyllable words.
What are monosyllables?
It is called monosyllable words or, simply, monosyllables, to all the words that are composed of a single syllable, As the name implies: bow- (prefix which means "one") + syllable. Therefore, in the Spanish language, monosyllables must be made up of a single vowel, or by two (and in some cases, three) different ones, as long as they are:
- Two different closed vowels: ui, iu.
- One open and one closed unstressed (without accent): ai, oi, ei, eu, au, ou.
- One closed unstressed and one open: ia, io, ie, ua, ue, uo.
That is, when it comes to diphthongs. For that reason the closed vowel must be unstressed, otherwise it would be a hiatus and would have two syllables (as in “huí”: hu-í)
Monosyllables in Spanish do not have an accent, except in cases where there are two monosyllables of the same morphology but different grammatical category (that is, two monosyllable words that share a shape). In this case, the diacritical tilde is used, that is, the tilde is used to distinguish one word from another, as occurs for example in the case of “de” (preposition) and “dé” (verb give).
Obviously, monosyllable words cannot be separated into syllables, since they constitute a single one in its entirety.
Examples of monosyllables
The following are examples of monosyllables in Spanish:
al - as - bis - well - bit - bol - cal - can - ché - cid –clan - clone - col - coz - crin - cross - with - don - dan - de - dé - do - di - dan - das - two - the - he - ex - is - in - fa - fax - face - faith - fez - flower - fu - folk - gas - gen - gong - gol - great - ha - han - he - has - haz - gall - hez - sickle - go - i - y - ka - krill - lar - la - le - les - lo - los - las - light - led - bad - sea - mol - more - more - month - my - me - mu - mil - ni - no - non - nos - wildebeest - o - oh - pe - fish - pin - pie - bread - peace - pi - plus - plan - pro - pus - pran - what - what - res - ras - rum - rol - ros - sal - san - son - sin - se - se - si - si - su - thirst - be - sud - sus - sur - sor - sos - tac - te - tal - tu - tú - tea - ten - test - troll - tic - ton - train - three - tris - tulle - tun - cough - complexion - a - go - waltz - see - vine - go - come - go - once - see - voice - you - go - vi - vile - vis - watt - ya - yang - yen - yin - yo - zas - zar - zen.
Sentences with monosyllables
And some sentences with monosyllables are:
- I told you to leave me at home.
- A blind man was about to cross the street.
- Your music does not give me peace.
- I saw when the two kissed.
- Go buy bread, okay?
- Politicians are going to leave us without a future.
- The cabbage is dipped in vinegar using a glass bowl.
- Weren't you thinking of using the tulle coat more?
Disyllable and polysyllable words
Two-syllable words are made up of only two syllables, such as “mesa”, “parrot”, “myth” or “blue”. Although we can also speak of trisyllables (that is, three syllables) such as "patera", "food", "tasty" or "animal", in general when the words have more syllables they are called polysyllables (that is, made up of many syllables) such as "sternum", "chapter", "computers" or "insubordination".