Rules of accentuation: How to put accents correctly in words Today we bring you an article that will surely interest you. You are going to learn what the accentuation rules are in Spanish. We will also see the use of accents in words. I'm sure this topic is familiar to you.
Today we bring you a article that will surely interest you.
You are going to learn what are accentuation rules in Spanish.
We will also see the use of accents in the words.
Surely this topic usually gives you problems, right? Well after reading our article That won't happen again.
You will be able to write respecting the rules of accentuation in Spanish and you will finally know which words have an accent.
No more adding accent marks by intuition!
It's time for you to learn to write perfectly🙌🏻
We start by explaining what are accents.
The accents are graphic signs that are placed on a letter to indicate that it has the stronger pronunciation.
Almost all languages have accent marks and there are many types.
In Spanish, the tilde is a line that looks to the right (´) and can only be placed about the 5 vowels.
You will see the accent marks in Spanish this way: á, é, í, ó, ú.
⚠️We never put it over the consonants.
⚠️We also cannot put words with accents in several vowels at the same time. A word can only have one accent in Spanish.
And in capital letters? Do capital letters have an accent?
For a long time they were eliminated because old typewriters could not put the accent mark on capital letters.
But today, on the keyboards of modern devices it is possible.
Therefore, the answer is yes, capital letters can have an accent.
Not all words have accents. But they all have a stronger syllable.
Don't you know what is a syllable?
A syllable is a group of letters that make up a word. They are normally made up of consonants and vowels.
For example, the word “suitcase” consists of three syllables: MA / LE / TA
And the word "computer"? It is divided into four syllables: OR / DE / NA / DOR
Sometimes there is more than one vowel in the same syllable. We call this phenomenon diphthong.
For example, in the word "handsome": GU.A. /PO
Or in "television": TE / LE / VI / SION
Great, you know what a syllable is. Well, absolutely all words have a syllable that is pronounced louder than the others.
That more intense pronunciation in one syllable is the accent.
For example, in the word "house", the accent is on "ca".
The word "ham" has an accent, therefore, it is clear that the accent is on "món."
In summary, accent and accent express the strongest pronunciation of a vowel or a syllable. But not all words have an accent. Instead, all the words yes they have an accent.
Do you already know how to appreciate the differences between accents or accents? For sure yes.
We move forward! 😉
As we have said before, all words are made up of syllables.
There are two types of syllables, the stressed and unstressed syllable.
Below, we explain how they differ.
What is the stressed syllable?
one stressed syllableis the syllable whose pronunciation is stronger. In each word there is only one stressed syllable.
For example, in the word "t-shirt", the stressed syllable is on "se".
AC/MI/ SE / TA
Do you know what the stressed syllable is in the word "tree"? Come on, tell me!
It is "ár": AR / BOWL
It's easy here because it has an accent 😊
On the contrary, the unstressed syllable It is the syllable that does not carry the accent and therefore is pronounced with less intensity.
Depending on the syllables that a word has, there may be one or more unstressed syllables.
For example, in the word "road", the accent is on "te". The rest of the syllables are unstressed: AC / RRE /TE/ R.A.
In this word we have 3 unstressed syllables.
In the word "chair" there is only one: YES / LLA
Now you can distinguish between unstressed and stressed syllables and you know the differences between accent and accent.
This is the introduction to word stress rules.
Do you want to continue expanding your knowledge about Spanish accentuation rules? Of course you want to!
Keep reading 👉
In the rule of Spanish accentuation, we distinguish 4 types of words according to the stressed syllable position.
These four classifications are:
Do you want to know the general stress rules for these types of words? Let's see them!
What are sharp words?
They are all the words that have the stressed syllable in the last.
That is, when acute words are stressed, it will always be on the last syllable.
For example, the word "natural" is acute because the stressed syllable is at the end: NA / TU / RAL
The same thing happens in the word "hotel": HO / TEL
More sharp words?
These are some examples:
reloj, panetwork,cafaith, orderdor, officecial, colaugh, Ruben…
The time has come to look at the stress rules for plain words.
When do they accentuate plain words?
They always have the accent in the penultimate syllable.
There are many plain words in Spanish. It is the most common type of words.
We give you some examples:
Movile, cohete, perro, rata, coneho, servedlleta, teclado, mano, lofish, seayounez, camiifta, pantaitnes, florero, vivito, habito…
There are so many that we could spend the entire article writing just plain words, but it wouldn't be much fun 😁
We have to continue, now the esdrújulas are playing!
one esdrújula word always has the accent on the penultimate syllable.
Therefore, they are words that have three syllables or more.
There are not so many words of this type as with the flat ones or the sharp ones.
some examples they are:
Murcielake, Americh, brujula, celula, dadgina, dadjaro, rótulo, boligraph, plasoo...
After seeing the sharp, plain and esdrújulas words, we are only left with theover-esdrújula words.
These have the stress on a syllable before the penultimate syllable. Since it requires a minimum of four syllables, it is not so common to find an overspanish word.
We see them especially in adverbs of manner.
Givebilly, Icaonly, raask, faeasily, youmoderately...
Don't you understand adverbs of manner well? It's very easy.
They are always formed with the following structure: ADJECTIVE + MIND
They serve to express the way in which something is done:
It is also common to find over-esdrújula words in the imperatives with pronouns of verbs that have three or more syllables:
Repeefear it, regalick it, reduLet's keep it...
Perfect, now you know what the general rules of accentuation are. But we haven't talked about the accent rules yet.
Why are there words with an accent and others without it?
You will discover it in the following sections 👌
The sharp words they have an accent when:
end in VOCAL or in the consonants -N or -S.
There are many acute words with an accent that follow this rule. These are some examples:
Maybe, committee, coffee, taboo, dad, mom, there, there, hopefully, mash, hummingbird, baby...
Never, compass, Japanese, polite, others, stress, after, bus, English...
Plane, truck, support, fraction, action, dolphin, sleeper, balcony, function...
All nouns that end in -ion They are sharp words and they have an accent.
Many conjugated verb forms in different times They are acute words with an accent.
For example, the first and third person singular of regular verbs past indefinite They always have an accent.
Let's see it with the verb speak:
I haveble
you spoke
He/she/you hasbló
we talk
you spoke
They spoke
The forms of infinitives with -er or -ir also have an accent:
Move: moved, moved.
Write: I wrote, wrote.
In future simple, all people have an accent, except the first person plural (us or us).
Example with the verb respond:
I answerré
You answerras
He answersra
We will respond
You respondlaugh
They respondran
in time present, the form of tú or vosotras also has an accent:
You look, you have, you drive, you read, you open...
As a recapitulation, we have seen these 3 tenses that have acute words with an accent:
There are also acute words without accent.
All infinitives in Spanish They are sharp words. The stressed syllable is produced on the endings -ar, -er, -ir:
sing, speak, play, move, flee, live, power, remember...
Why don't they have an accent? Because they end in -r.
Remember the accentuation rules for acute notes: they only have an accent when end in VOCAL or in the consonants -N or -S.
There are many sharp words that end in -or.
These don't have an accent either. For example:
Love, explorer, teacher, radiator, entrepreneur, fork, marker...
The nouns that end in -dad They are also acute words without an accent:
Truth, university, brevity, reality…
And what about words that only have one syllable? Are they considered acute? Can they have an accent?
The stress rules in monosyllables They are very simple: They do NOT have an accent.
Some examples of monosyllabic words are the following:
Flower, sea, salt, sun, bread, peace, law...
However, there are words monosyllables that do have an accent. They are words that have different meanings such as yes (affirmation) or yes (conditional) and have the accent to differentiate them.
This accent is called diacritical accent. The most used monosyllables that have this accent are the following:
Me (personal pronoun) My (possessive)
Tea (drink) Te (personal pronoun)
You (subject pronoun) Your (possessive)
Sé (first person verb know) Se (personal pronoun)
Yes (affirmation) Yes (conditional)
In summary, the following sharp words they never have an accent:
The plain words they have an accent in the following situation:
When NO end in VOWEL, -N or -S
That is, it is just the opposite of sharp words.
Brilliant! That way you don't have to learn a new rule. 😎
Agile, easy, femur, album, tree, poster, grass, cocktail, simile, ether, character…
In this type we find many words with hiatus. In a hiatus there are two vowels together but pronounced in different syllables.
Sometimes in hiatuses it is necessary to put the accent to know that there is a separation between the vowels,
Even if the word ends in a vowel, it must also be put there.
Shipping, distracted, Lucía, María, ate, crane, photography, country, philosophy...
The “ÍA” hiatus is very common. This always has an accent on the "i".
Do you know the time past imperfect? Now you know why verbs that end in -er or -ir always have words with i with an accent 😉
MOVE
I movedIa
You moveIayes
He/she/you movIa
We / us movIamos
You movIais
They/them/you movIan
EXIT
I go outIa
you go outIayes
He/she/you leaveIa
We saltIamos
You come outIais
They/them/you get outIan
In nouns, we find more words without accent marks on the plains because most of them end in a vowel.
These are some examples:
Yesshe, mesa, mueble, playo, goesso, cuchara, cohey, calle, rathatta, disco, persona, puerta, manztona, pera, lechuga, carne, carpeeta, texoh, smartgeneyou, interestsanyou, pausa…
There are many.
With esdrújulas words we have it easy. The accentuation rule here is that ALL have an accent.
So now you know, whenever you write a Spanish word, put the accent mark on it.
Examples of esdrújulas words:
Termometer, ÁAfrica, pirameasure, youléphone, it isdrujula, brocoli, ringmoretitic, camara, satealite, termine, morequina, drastico, ecolologic, orxigeno, echonomonkey…
Many verbs in imperative with pronouns They are also esdrújulas words:
Damelo, bringselo, howpray, givejanos…
there is no esdrújulas words without accent. As we have said before, they all have an accent.
This point has been short 😁
Like esdrújulas, there is always accent in words oversdrújulas.
Most are:
Do you need examples with gerunds to understand it better?
No problem, remember that we often use them after the verb "estar" to express actions in process:
«Amanda will have her driver's license very soon. He's taking it out».
«My teacher is looking at my exam. It is correcting it».
As with esdrújulas, we do not have words about esdrújulas without an accent. Fantastic! 🙌🏻
How are you? You have surely learned a lot about the general rules of accentuation from this article.
Now that you know how to use accents, We suggest you practice the accentuation rules with activities. You will see how it becomes clearer to you.
In this activity you have a short text. There are 10 words that should have an accent and don't. Write the 10 words with the accent in the boxes below.
In this accentuation exercise you have 21 words in total. There are 12 that need the accent. Write them correctly in the boxes below.
Has it gone well?
We think that this is one of the most powerful grammar articles what we have done so far.
We make a brief summary to see everything you've learned:
If you think you need to improve this important aspect of the Spanish language, we recommend that you attend our classes in Hispania, Spanish school.
We offer face-to-face Spanish courses and online Spanish courses where we all work the grammatical aspects from Spanish. Of course, also the accentuation.
In addition to attending classes, another good way to improve accentuation in Spanish is through reading.
If you read a lot you will see which words have accent marks and in the end you will remember them.
You can also make your own scheme of accentuation rules with the most used words that have an accent.
Can you think of any other interesting ways to develop your ability to detect stress in words?
Has the general rule of accentuation on how to put the accent mark become clear to you?
Leave us a comment and we will be happy to help you with everything you need.
See you soon! 😉
Article written by Carlos Martinez for Hispania, Spanish school.
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