Still having trouble understanding the rules of Spanish accentuation? In this don Quijote article you’ll learn everything you need to know to know when to accent words in Spanish. If you want to master this language, the accent of the words is essential to know how to pronounce them and how to differentiate them.
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What is accentuation in Spanish?
Accentuation is a basic part of Spanish as a language, as knowing how and when words are accented is essential to speaking and writing correctly. That said, Spanish words are accented according to the stressed syllable, that is, the syllable on which the stress falls when pronouncing a word.
Therefore, Spanish accents will help you to know how to pronounce a word simply by seeing it written. In Spanish, the accent mark is only written on the five vowels: á, é, í, ó, ú. Thus, the letters that are accented in Spanish are only these five, the rest of the letters or, rather, consonants, do not have an accent mark.
When to stress stressed syllables in Spanish?
Spanish words are stressed depending on where the stressed syllable is, but not all words are stressed. Therefore, it is necessary to know how to identify the stressed syllable to correctly stress words. In addition, depending on the position of the stressed syllable, Spanish words can be divided into four groups.
The rules of accentuation of Spanish words are as follows:
- Palabras agudas (oxytone words). They are accented when they end in a vowel, n or s, and the stressed syllable is the last one. For example: camion (truck), café (coffee), sofa (sofa), jamás (never), compás (compass).
- Palabras graves or llanas (paroxytone words). These words have stress when they end in a consonant other than s or no and do not end in a vowel. The stressed syllable is the penultimate syllable: lápiz (pencil), césped (lawn), fácil (easy), débil (weak), túnel (tunnel), ángel (angel).
- Palabras esdrújulas (proparoxytone words). These words always have a tilde and their stressed syllable is in the antepenultimate place. Examples: pájaro (bird), música (music), teléfono (telephone), lógico (logical), rápido (fast), histórico (historical).
- Palabras sobresdrújulas (proparoxytone words). Like the previous ones, they also always have a stress mark, but their stressed syllable is before the antepenultimate, i.e., fourth or fifth. For example: devuélveselo (give it back to him), repíteselo (repeat it), explícaselo (explain it to him), entrégamelo (give it to me).