How many syllables in Nacional?

[jrandlib]

It's back to the basics trying to learn syllables for me.
My Spanish pronunciations are bad mostly because I am having problems with dividing words into syllables.

Today the question is about nacional. I am using a web site spanishdict.com and the dictionary option.
It pronunciation key shows "nah-the-o-nahl".
When clicking the speaker it sounds like "nash-u-nal".

Are the syllables na/ci/on/nal?

thanks

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Three syllables: na·cio·nal

[Luna Azul]

Angelica's answer is correct: na-cio-NAL (emphasis on the third syllable)

[chileno]

Originally Posted by jrandlib

It's back to the basics trying to learn syllables for me.
My Spanish pronunciations are bad mostly because I am having problems with dividing words into syllables.

Today the question is about nacional. I am using a web site spanishdict.com and the dictionary option.
It pronunciation key shows "nah-the-o-nahl".
When clicking the speaker it sounds like "nash-u-nal".

Are the syllables na/ci/on/nal?

thanks

Ah!

That "nah-the-o-nahl" sound is supposed to be "na-thee-o-nahl" and it corresponds to how a Spaniard would pronounce it.

The way it is pronounced in América is "nah-sseeo-nahl" with the emphasis in the last syllable.

[Awaken]

I vote 4. nah see oh nahl <- (that is American English sounds) Of course the see and oh portions are pronounced almost as one, but it still has 2 vowel sounds (in my head at least).

This is coming from a non-native speaker though.

Maybe it is just an enunciation thing? In the US, certain regions don't pronounce all the real syllables in certain words.

Can you post a link to the clip you are referring to?

[Luna Azul]

@ Awaken: This is the rule of thumb:

In Spanish vowel groups that form diphthongs or triphthongs are not separated.

Diphtongs are formed by a strong + a weak vowel (ai = a-mai-nar), a weak + strong vowel (io = na-cio-nal) and a weak + a weak vowel (ui = cui-dar).

Strong vowels are A, E, O and weak vowels are I, U.

All in all, there are 13 diphtongs in the Spanish language:

ai - ie - au - ei - io - ua - eu -ue - oi - uo- ia - iu - ui

[Awaken]

Originally Posted by Luna Azul

@ Awaken: This is the rule of thumb:

In Spanish vowel groups that form diphthongs or triphthongs are not separated.

Diphtongs are formed by a strong + a weak vowel (ai = a-mai-nar), a weak + strong vowel (io = na-cio-nal) and a weak + a weak vowel (ui = cui-dar).

Strong vowels are A, E, O and weak vowels are I, U.

All in all, there are 13 diphtongs in the Spanish language:

ai - ie - au - ei - io - ua - eu -ue - oi - uo- ia - iu - ui

Thanks Luna. Learned lots of new things today.

[Luna Azul]

Originally Posted by Awaken

Thanks Luna. Learned lots of new things today.

You're welcome, it was a pleasure. Thanks to you for thanking me..

[jrandlib]

Awaken..here is the link http://www.spanishdict.com/translate/nacional

Luna.. thanks for a good lesson.

My pronounciation problems really are coming from not being able to get the syllables correct. This is a big help.

[Awaken]

Originally Posted by jrandlib

Awaken..here is the link http://www.spanishdict.com/translate/nacional

Luna.. thanks for a good lesson.

My pronounciation problems really are coming from not being able to get the syllables correct. This is a big help.

When I listen to that speaker say it, it still sounds like 4 syllables. Yeah 'cio' is pronounced quickly, but it is two distinct vowel sounds to my ear.

Luna,

Is that speaker not saying it correctly? I can easily hear the see oh sound and I was expecting a native to blur those 2 vowels into 1 syllable.

For instance, in English "tion" is pronounced "shun" which is 1 syllable. This reminds more of a word like "stereo" in English. The 'eo' sounds just like 'io' in nacional when that guy says it.