aguda, grave, esdrújula, or sobresdrújula vs. N O S E rule
All the Spanish books I've picked up have had a chapter on this and I've always skipped them. I just got to that lesson with Paralee and while she makes it easy to understand it's still hard to remember.
I'm just asking if it's necessary to learn these terms and if there is any practical advantage to it. Should I be making 4 posters, one for each word, and adding new words to each poster as I come across them?
Is it enough to say the N O S E rule, which I think is from Michel Thomas:
All words that end in N, S, or a vowel have the stress on the penultimate syllable. All other words have the stress on the last syllable. Any word which breaks this rule has a tilde over its stressed syllable.
(there can also be tildes to top two vowels from forming dipthongs or to differenciate between two otherwide identical words like se and sé)
Is this an over-simplification?
4 Answers
Boy you make it REALLY confusing...it's not that serious and you half way got it...just remember that a word that ends in a vowel, an N or an S the stress falls on the second to the last syllable. If a word ends in any consonant other than N or S the stress falls on the last syllable. All exceptions to this rule must carry a written accent! That's it! Examples: 1. repitan llamas hola 2. español usted regular 3. Bogotá lápiz teléfono
Rabbit is right; a tilde is any accent mark. However, many commonly understand it as the snake over the n.
It's because of the NOSE rule that the tilde drops off when certain words become plural:
marrón... marrones
"marrón" needs a tilde because it defies the NOSE rule. Without the tilde, it would be pronounced like "márron".
"marrones" doesn't need a tilde because it ends in an S, so the accent is already over the "o". You don't need to write it as "marrónes" to get the proper pronunciation.
and its not a tilde its a written accent...tilde is different that's the little snake over the n Hopefully my previous post will simplify your confusion..LOL!
