Penguin

[Jessica]

penguin is pingüino, right? is this the only word with the "ü"? how to you pronounce it? (It might be different from the Chinese kind) if not, what other words have them, and what are their meanings?


what would a baby penguin (chick) be?

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

When you have the syllables "gue" and "gui", you don't pronounce the vowel "u". The "diéresis" (the two dots over the "u") is to make the speaker pronounce "ue" and "ui" as diphtongs.

Some examples:

pingüino = penguin
lingüística = linguistics
vergüenza = shame
zarigüeya = possum
agüero = augury
paragüero = umbrella stand
desagüe = drain
...


And some diminutives:

agua (water) -> agüita
lengua (tongue) -> lengüita
paraguas (umbrella) -> paragüitas

[Jessica]

so what's the word for baby penguin?

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

"Chick" may be translated as "pollo" or "polluelo" => "baby penguin" = "pollo de pingüino" = "polluelo de pingüino"

The baby of an animal in general is a "cría", so it could also be "cría de pingüino".

[chileno]

Originally Posted by jchen

so what's the word for baby penguin?

Angelica answered to that. I wanted add that the diminutive of pingüino is pingüinito. And sometimes one refers to the babies in diminutive form.

Hernan

[Jessica]

thanks :-)