Singular and Plural Forms of Words with Accents

Question

Hi everyone. I was wondering if it is a general rule that for any word with an accent in the singular form, the same word in the plural form will also have the accent in the same place? For example, el vínculo –What is the plural form of this word (I cannot seem to find it online). Can someone help me by telling me the general rule for the singular and plural forms of words with accents. Please provide an example if possible. Your help is greatly appreciated as I am in the process of acquiring fluency of the language.

Welcome to the forum :) - Kiwi-Girl, Dec 29, 2011

Thank you! I am so happy that I am able to utilize this great resource! - span4yrs, Dec 29, 2011

Answer 1

For those who might be a little lost in understanding AcerMax's post:

Paroxytone (Greek: ???????????, paroxýtonos) is a linguistic term for a word with stress on the penultimate syllable, that is, the syllable before the last syllable,

Proparoxytone (Greek: ??????????????, proparoxýtonos) is a linguistic term for a word with stress on the antepenultimate (i.e. third-to-last) syllable

An oxytone ( /??ks?to?n/; from the Greek: ????????, oxýtonos) is a word with the stress on the last syllable,

Thank you Kiwi, I could have saved myself the time looking it up :) - MaryMcc, Dec 29, 2011

ja ja it's never a waste of time doing your own research as you're more likely to remember it :) - Kiwi-Girl, Dec 29, 2011

Answer 2

There is no special rule for words with accent in the singular form/plural form. It follows the same rules as the rest of the words. "Vínculo" is a proparoxytone word, and "Vínculos" is a proparoxytone word too

In the case of acción/acciones. Acción is an oxytone word wich ends in n, so it have to be accented, but acciones is a paraoxytone word wich ends in s, so u cant accent it.

Thank you very much! I also learnt three new words--proparoxytone, paraoxytone, and oxytone! (: - span4yrs, Dec 29, 2011

And I am just going to look them up :) - MaryMcc, Dec 29, 2011

Answer 3

Here's a couple of things to do with accents that I know of:

If the word ends with an accented vowel in the singular form then the plural just adds an es and keeps the accent.

el hindú, los hindúes

- of course there are always exceptions like papá/papás, mamá/mamás which just have an s added

Words ending with an accented vowel and then an s or n in the singular lose their accent and add an es

acción/acciones interés/intereses

¡Muchísimas gracias, Kiwi_Girl! - span4yrs, Dec 29, 2011

de nada :) - Kiwi-Girl, Dec 29, 2011

Answer 4

There are exceptions to the usual rules:

carácter caracteres
régimen regímenes
espécimen especímenes

These words follow the old Latin rules rather than the usual Spanish rules.

¡Gracias! So, sometimes you just have to memorize these exceptions! :P - span4yrs, Dec 29, 2011