How do we know when to put accents?

Question

How do you know when to put accents in words in spanish?

"Spanish" Your profile says you are advanced in Spanish. - rac1, Dec 15, 2014

Advanced people should have no problem with accents. - Daniela2041, Dec 16, 2014

Mmmmm.... Tengo la impresión que mintió.... - Clío, Dec 16, 2014

I suppose it's possible that he is advanced in spoken Spanish, but hasn't had much exposure to the written language. - AnnRon, Dec 16, 2014

Ann, in order to be advanced in spoken Spanish or any other Romance language you would have to know where the accents fall /are placed to pronounce them correctly! If you don't place them correctly you will not be able to pronounce ... - FELIZ77, Apr 12, 2016

them properly/correctly! ;) - FELIZ77, Apr 12, 2016

Well, yes, you have to know how to pronounce the words, but one can learn that aurally without reference to any diacritical marks whatsoever. My landlady during my stay in Cuenca, for instance, was fluent in spoken Spanish, but claimed not to be able ... - AnnRon, Apr 30, 2016

...to read it at all. - AnnRon, Apr 30, 2016

This is an older thread from Dec. of 2004. - rac1, Apr 30, 2016

Maybe he was born with "abilities above and beyond" ."Un bebé con idiomas." - ray76, Oct 26, 2016

Lol Ray....and look at my comment above. What was I thinking? 2004?? lol - rac1, Oct 26, 2016

Answer 1

There are five major rules:

Rule 1. All words ending in a vowel, a,e,i,o,u. and "n" or "s" are stressed on the next to last syllable.

sombrero libro, mochila and so forth.

Any exceptions to this rule get the accent mark.

águila, papá, acción ,nación, Sepúlveda

Rule 2. All words ending in a consonant except "n" or"s",are stressed on the last syllable.

Mujer ,pared, placer, reloj

Any exceptions get the accent mark útil, López lápiz and so forth.

Rule 3: All question words get the accent mark.

Qué, cómo dónde, cuándo, por qué and so forth.

Rule 4: To stress a weak vowel: biología, cafetería, grúa

notice the difference in pronunciation between the boy's name "Mario" and the girl's name "María" With María you hear the "eeee" sound pronounced longer.

Rule 5. To distinguish between similar words like te and té, de and dé, se and sé, These words all have different meaning and even in fast speech those with the accent marks actually are stressed more than those without the accents.

This is a very complicated theme that I have condensed way down.

Thanks, Dani. You have made it very clear. - sanlee, Dec 16, 2014

Rule 6: In exclamations of the kind: '¡Qué perro más lindoooo! / ¡Uf, qué calor!' that use a word that can also be a question word. :3 - Suzanne_Romijnders, Dec 16, 2014

Rule 6 is good. That comes under special expressions. - Daniela2041, Dec 16, 2014

Muchas gracias Daniela! - Eurasian777, Mar 22, 2015

Very helpful, Dani, thank you :) - FELIZ77, Apr 12, 2016

Answer 2

PALABRAS AGUDAS: palabras cuyo acento fonético recae sobre la última sílaba: ayer, limón, amor, aquí Se acentúan si terminan en –n, -s, -vocal Capitán Inglés Café

PALABRAS LLANAS: palabras cuyo acento fonético recae sobre la segunda sílaba si comenzamos a contar por el final: zapato, árbol, monos, lápiz

Se acentúan si NO terminan en –n, -s, -vocal ángel azúcar dólar

PALABRAS ESDRÚJULAS: palabras cuyo acento fonético recae sobre la tercera sílaba si comenzamos a contar por el final de la palabra: sílaba, plátano, órdenes, matemáticas.

Se acentúan SIEMPRE olímpico lógica gramática

Hay muchas reglas de acentuación más pero éstas son las reglas básicas.

La sílaba que es la tercera (comenzando desde la final) se llama la sílaga "antepenútima." - Daniela2041, Oct 26, 2016

Answer 3

Hi Eurasian,

We have a grammar section here. It is on the pull down menu on the left side. Here is a lesson on accents. I hope it helps.

Accents

Sandy, I also posted a rather long answer on this subject. - Daniela2041, Dec 16, 2014

My answer in in the thread "Tildes anyone" If you could bring that back up, I think it would help. - Daniela2041, Dec 16, 2014

I found it and pasted it in my answer. - Daniela2041, Dec 16, 2014

Oh, Great! Thanks, Dani! - sanlee, Dec 16, 2014

Answer 4

Bump.

Answer 5

¿Quizás ?