how can we know where the accent should be ?

Question

for example : fácil , why there is an accent and wy it is on the a not on the i ? público , cómodo , líneas ...

Answer 1

Same question. I always have a problem remembering where the accent belongs. And some words mean different with and without an accent, like como = I eat and comó = how.

I guess by the logic of strong sound over the accented syllable, I must actually hear the word being said and used to remember it more easily?

Wrong... Yo como = I eat ... ¿Cómo = How? but It only has accent if it's in a question. There is a few special cases of use but in general there are only three kinds of words regarding to accent (Aguda, Llana y esdrújula) Check for those three in a manual - Barney_Stinson, Nov 24, 2011

Answer 2

Because the strong sound is over the first syllabe.

So, if the word has three or more syllabes and the strong one is over the third or forth or so on counting from the end, it has accent.

Example: último, últimamente.íntegro, íntegramente. genérico.