Guide to accent Marks in Spanish

A Complete Guide to Written Spanish Accent Marks in Spanish

by
Thomas J. Mathews, Ph.D.
http://weber.edu/tmathews
Weber State University
© October 1996
Revised Novemer 2010
The rules presented here reflect the changes made by the twenty-two national Academias de la Lengua Española in Guadalajara, Mexico, on November 28, 2010.

For some pointers on how to do accent marks on a computer, click here:

.......	Basic Rules of Thumb:
		If a word ends in a vowel, or 'n' or 's', the stress is usually on the next to the last syllable.
		If a word ends in a consonant other than 'n' or 's', the stress is usually on the last syllable.
		If the stress in a word doesn't follow rules 1 and 2, then the syllable that is stressed needs a written accent mark over the vowel.

Section One
THE SYLLABLE IN SPANISH

..There are two kinds of syllables in Spanish: those that are stressed (tónicas) and those that are unstressed (átonas).
..One-syllable words will be either tónicas or átonas.
..In words with more that one syllable, only one can be stressed.

.
Stressed vs Unstressed Syllables
In the following paragraph all of the stressed syllables are underlined. Notice that sometimes the stressed syllables have an accent mark, but that usually they don't. However, an unstressed syllable will never, ever, have an accent mark. Some one-syllable words are stressed and some are not. If you want to write a word and you don't know which syllables are stressed and which ones aren't, try pronouncing the word out loud, or ask a native speaker to pronounce it for you.

Aquí todo va de mal en peor. La semana pasada se murió mi tía Jacinta, y el sábado, cuando ya la habíamos enterrado y comenzaba a bajársenos la tristeza, comenzó a llover como nunca. A mi papá eso le dio coraje, porque toda la cosecha de cebada estaba asoleándose en el solar. Y el aguacero llegó de repente, en grandes olas de agua, sin darnos tiempo ni siquiera a esconderaunque fuera un manojo; lo único que pudimos hacer, todos los de mi casa, fue estarnos arrimados debajo del tejaván, viendo cómo el agua fría que caía del cielo quemaba aquella cebada amarilla tan recién cortada.
Y apenas ayer, cuando mi hermana Tacha acababa de cumplirdoce años, supimos que la vaca que mi papá le regaló para el día de su santo se la había llevado el río.

Section Two
DIPHTHONGS IN SPANISH

The vowels a, e, and o are strong in Spanish. They always form their own syllable wherever they appear. The vowels u and i are weak, and only form their own syllable when they are separate from other vowels. When a weak vowel is next to a strong vowel or another weak vowel, they AUTOMATICALLY form a diphthong, that is, just one syllable.

.
...Diphthongs
In the following examples the number of syllables in each word is shown in parentheses after the word. The stressed syllables are in boldface.

Strong vowels (a, e, o) always form their own syllables:

o - tor - gar (3)	ra - na (2)	a - van - za - da (4)	co - rre - o (3)
es - pa - ña (3)	ha - blar (2)	a - po - sen - to (4)	sá - ba - na (3)

Weak vowels (i, u) form a their own syllable if they are "surrounded" by consonants:

tri - bu (2)	mi - to (2)	ci - ne (2)	mís - ti - co (3)
cu - bo (2)	fút - bol (2)	la - rin - gi - tis (4)	es - pí - ri - tu (4)

Otherwise, weak vowels form a diphthong with the strong vowel that is next to them:

lue - go (2)	tie - nes (2)	a - dios (2)	co - mió (2)
far - ma - céu - ti - co (5)	buey (1)	dio (1)	que - réis (2)

Section Three
ONE-SYLLABLE WORDS

One-syllable words in Spanish never have an accent mark unless they fall into the group described in Section Six. Don't get in the habit of putting accent marks on one-syllable words as some sort of ornament. Don't put an accent mark on a one-syllable word unless you know why! This rule was adopted by the Academia de la Lengua Española in 1952. There are still many native speakers (most of them either old and educated before the new rules or not well educated at all) who continue to put accent marks on many one-syllable words (particularly verbs). Don't do it! It's a nasty habit.

Section Four
POLYSYLLABIC WORDS

There are four categories of multisyllabic words in Spanish, as far as stress is concerned. A word's stress category has to do with which syllable is tónica.

..Palabras llanas are stressed on the next to the last syllable (la penúltima).
..Palabras agudas are stressed on the last syllable (la última).
..Palabras esdrújulas are stressed on the third to the last syllable (la antepenúltima).
..Palabras sobresdrújulas are stressed on the fourth to the last syllable.

.
...Palabras llanas
All of the following words are stressed on the next to last syllable (o la penúltima sílaba).

no - che	ár - bol	bi - go - te
pe - rro	ca - ba - llo	co - ci - na
fa - bu - lo - so	lib - ro	ac - ci - den - te
fi - lo - so - fí - a	es - ta - cio - nes	hi - jos
cés - ped	hue - so	sa - ra - pe

.
...Palabras agudas
Each of the following words is stressed on the last syllable (o la última sílaba).

fri - jol	can - tar	hab - ló
an - dén	so - por - tar	sen - tí
ma - ra - tón	re - loj	ñan - dú
baj - ó	sar - tén	pin - cel

.
...Palabras esdrújulas
All of the following words are stressed on the third to the last syllable (o la antepenúltima sílaba). Notice that esdrújulas always have a written accent mark.

fan - tás - ti - co	pa - ra - lí - ti - co	én - fa - sis
es - tú - pi - dos	lu - ciér - na - ga	mur - cié - la - go
es - drú - ju - la	miér - co - les	ri - dí - cu - lo
an - gé - li - cas	sín - te - sis	a - ná - li - sis

.
...Palabras sobresdrújulas
All of the following words are stressed on the fourth to the last syllable (¡o la preantepenúltima sílaba!). Notice that sobresdrújulas always have a written accent mark.Notice also that in each of them the last two syllables are attached pronouns.

fu - mán - do - me - la

es - cri - bién - do - se - lo

di - cién - do - me - lo

Section Five

THE RULES
THE WRITTEN ACCENT MARK

(acento ortográfico or tilde)

..One-syllable words DO NOT have a written accent mark unless they follow the rules in the next section.
..If a word ends in a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) or n or s and it is not llana, put an accent mark over the stressed syllable.
..If a word ends in a consonant (other than n or s) and it is not aguda, put an accent mark over the stressed syllable.
..An accent mark will also be placed over a weak vowel (u or i) in order to break an automatic diphthong.

.
...Words that end in a vowel (or "n" or "s") and are not llanas

ha - bló	viv - vió	can - té
sar - tén	cor - tés	fre - ne - sí
mas - ti - có	pon - dréis	Tim - buk - tú

.
...Words that end in a consonant (not "n" or "s") and are not agudas

ár - bol	cés - ped	chó - fer
pós - ter	di - fí - cil	fá - cil

.
...Breaking natural diphthongs

ba - úl	rí - o	ha - cí - a
a - ún	Ma - rí - a	con - ti - nú - a
pa - na - de - rí - a	mí - a	dú - o

.
Look at the differences between the following:

río	river	rio	he laughed
hacía	I used to do. . .	hacia	towards

Section Six
HOMOPHONOUS MONOSYLLABIC PAIRS

One-syllable words, when they are part of a homophone pair, are distinguished from each other by marking the one that is stressed (tónica) with an accent mark.
.
To count as a homophonous monosyllabic pair, the two words must:

..Be just one syllable long
..Be spelled the same
..Belong to two distinct grammatical categories (i.e., nouns, verbs, pronouns, prepositions, etc.)

Therefore, although the word "ve" is a homphone (from "ver" it means "he sees" and from "ir" it's a command form for "go"), since both words are verbs (in the same grammatical category), neither one carries an accent mark. Indeed they are both streesed without it. However, the word "se" can have three meanings. One is the reflexive pronoun, is unstressed and does not have an accent mark, and the others are both verbs (from "ser" it's a command for "be" and from "saber" it means "I know") and both carry a written accent.
NEVER PUT AN ACCENT MARK ON A ONE-SYLLABLE WORD UNLESS YOU ARE AWARE OF THE CORRESPONDING HOMOPHONE THAT DOES NOT NEED AN ACCENT MARK.

.
...The list of homophonous monosyllables
I believe that this is a complete list of all of the one-syllable words that can carry an accent mark in Spanish. If you find any others, please email me at tmathews@weber.edu (but I haven't added a word since 1996).

UNSTRESSED WORD		STRESSED WORD
el	the ("el anillo")	él	he, him ("es él", "es para él")
te	yourself ("¿Cómo te llamas?")	té	tea
......si......	if	sí	yes, himself
se	himself, herself	sé	I know, be ("¡Sé bueno!")
mas	but ("quiero, mas no puedo")	más	more ("¿Quieres más?")
que	that ("más que nada")	qué	what ("¿Qué piensas?")
tu	your ("tu libro")	tú	you ("¿Cómo estás tú?")
mi	my ("mi casa")	mí	me ("es para mí")
de	of	dé	give
cuan	So (tan) (uso arcaico) ("Mira el pelo cuan largo lo tengo")	cuán	how ("¡Cuán desgraciado soy! ")
cual	which ("Esta carta, la cual no tiene remitente, llegó ayer")	cuál	which ("¿Cuál es el mejor?)
quien	who ("Hay quien dice eso")	quién	who ("¿Quién es esa mujer?")

Section Seven
PROSODIC STRESS & MISCELLANEOUS ACCENT MARKS

Interrogative pronouns have a tilde over their stressed syllable to distinguish them from adverbial conjunctions.

The word aún means todavía or still, while aun means incluso or even.

In exception to the comment in Section One, that any Spanish word may have only one stressed syllable, those adverbs that end in -mente, actually have two stresses: one (unwritten) on the suffix -mente, and the original stress in the adjective from with the adverb is derived. If the adjective by itself carries a tilde, then it is maintained in the adverbial form.

.
...Interrogatives

CONJUNCTIONS & RELATIVE PRONOUNS		INTERROGATIVES
......que......	"that" (Es importante que estudies).	qué	"what" (¿Qué deseas comer?)
cuando	"when" (Me acuesto cuando tengo sueño.)	cuándo	"when" (¿Cuándo vas a venir?)
como	"since/because", "like", "as" (Como tiene gripe, está guardando cama. / Marta baila como una princesa.)	cómo	"how", "what" (¿Cómo te llamas?)
donde	"where" (Vamos a comer donde vive mi hermano.)	dónde	"where" (¿Dónde vives?)
quien	"who/that" (Fue Enrique quien rompió la ventana.)	quién	"who" (¿Quién escupió en el suelo?)
porque	"because" (Paco ayuna porque está de régimen.)	por qué	"why" (¿Por qué hablas tanto?)

Notice that interrogatives carry accent marks even if they are in an indirect question. Observe the following:

Paco aprendió cómo son los gatos silvestres.
No sabemos dónde poner el sofá.
El profesor nos explicó el cómo y el porqué.
No sé quién me escribió la carta.

.
...Adverbs that end in "-mente"
If the adjective has an accent mark then the adverb with -mente does also.

ADJECTIVES	ADVERBS	.....	ADJECTIVES	ADVERBS
lenta	lentamente		fácil	fácilmente
hermosa	hermosamente		cómoda	cómodamente
espiritual	espiritualmente		rápida	rápidamente
total	totalmente		crítica	críticamente
simple	simplemente		ágil	ágilmente
alta	altamente		estrépita	estrépitamente

CHANGES MADE IN 2010