''canciónes'' or ''canciones''

Question

Hello, I'm not sure whether I should write ''canciónes'' with a tilde or ''canciones'' without. On the internet I can see both. Thanks.

Part of the internet is wrong. (But which?) - rogspax, Oct 13, 2013

Welcomne to the Q&A forum. - rac1, Oct 13, 2013

when speak in plural the ascent isn't necessary. in Spanish it's necessary when you're speaking singular - lili1512s, Oct 13, 2013

Answer 1

canciónes is not correct.

Canción is an aguda word, (stressed on the ultimate syllable) ➜ can-CIÓN.

Canciones is a llana word, (stressed on the penultimate syllable) ➜ can-CIO-nes.

Agudas must be accented (llevan tilde) when they are terminated by:

• Vowel.
• Vowel + S.
• Vowel + N.

Llanas must be accented (llevan tilde) when they are not terminated by:

• Vowel.
• Vowel + S.
• Vowel + N.

Answer 2

Looked at another way, canción requires the accent on the O to make the written word have the stress on the same syllable as it is pronunced.

Once you go to plural, and add the extra syllable -es, then the normal rules apply.

I.e. if the word ends in a vowel, N, or S, the next to last sylllable will be stressed. That turns out to be the syllable with the O in this case, so since it conforms to that standard rule, we no longer have to artifically indicate the stress above the O that we do in the singular.

When learning these stress rules, I think it is useful to view the accent marks as explicitly indicating exceptions to the spelling-stress rules.

Note, this applies generally. All of the singular words ending in -ión will lose the accented-O in the plural, because they all end up ending with an S.

Just another perspective.