# Hiatus: día, país, leer

> id: pronunciation.hiatus · category: pronunciation · depth: standard · levels: B1 · review: internally_reviewed

**Summary.** Two vowels in separate syllables: strong+strong (le-er, ca-er) or accented weak + strong (dí-a, pa-ís, ba-úl). The accent mark is what breaks the glide.

Pairs like ía, íe, ío, úa always carry the written accent precisely because stress on the weak vowel splits the syllables: María, río, continúa, oído.

This explains accent patterns that otherwise look random: dia would glide; día must not — hence the tilde. Verb forms live here: oír, reúne, países.

Hiatus is what makes otherwise 'random' accents systematic: dia would glide into one syllable, so día must carry a tilde to force two. The pattern recurs across whole verb families and noun sets — oír, reúne, continúa, María, río, países — wherever stress lands on a weak vowel next to a strong one.

## Examples
- María vive en el país desde hace un año. — María has lived in the country for a year.
- Todavía me río de esa historia. — I still laugh about that story.
- María oía la radio todos los días en el país. — María used to listen to the radio every day in the country.

Related: pronunciation.diphthongs, pronunciation.written-accents-basic

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