Accent marks and pronunciation

Question

Where does one put accent marks? Are there rules?

Answer 1

its actually pretty simple. in all spanish words, the accent is supposed to fall on the penultimate vowel of the word. for example:

lapiz: l(a)piz ventana: vent(a)na

For these words, no accent is needed because the accentuation falls right where it should. For words that differ in accentuation from this rule, an accent is placed on the vowel where the accentuation does fall. for example:

después: theoretically, one would pronounce this with the accentuation on the u, since it is the second to last vowel. since it is not pronounced this way, an accent is placed on the last e since that is where the accentuation can be heard. make sure to say these words out loud to hear the accentuation.

jóvenes: theoretically, one would pronounce this with the accentuation on the first e. Since this is not the case. the accent is placed on the o since that is where the accent can be heard.

Interesting explanation. - 0074b507, Nov 9, 2010

Answer 2

These lessons are excellent. You will find that the accents (tildes) are very logical. They tell you how to pronounce the word that is an exception to the usual accent. If you know how to pronounce it correctly, you'll also know how to spell it. This is one way in which Spanish is much, much easier than English.

Answer 3

Accents

Here is the link to the "accents" article in the reference section at this site. It can also be found under the more tab- reference and then select the Spanish grammar section.

Answer 4

Hi, Anapila. Welcome to the forum.

This is a great question as accent marks (tildes) are very important in Spanish and will determine the correct pronunciation, and sometimes meaning, of a word.

Here's a lesson on the subject.