General rules of accentuation in Spanish

The general rules of accentuation are one of the keys to writing correctly in Spanish. Usually, teachers do not put the necessary emphasis on their study. However, native speakers have to struggle with accents from a very early age. At school, the absence of a tilde could mean the difference between a pass or fail in an exam.

Today we will introduce this topic and learn the general rules of accentuation, regardless of the exceptions.

What Is Accentuation?

To begin with, we should ask ourselves these questions: what is accentuation and what is it for? Accentuation is the emphasis we should put on a certain vowel when we pronounce a word. The correct use of accentuation is so important that it can differentiate meanings, as well as verb tenses and verb persons. For example:

Esta niña está en su casa.
Ayer mi amiga habló mal de mí; por eso, yo no hablo más con ella.

We should not confuse the concept of accentuation and graphic accent. Most Spanish words are tonic, that is, they have an accent. But only some of them have a graphic accent or tilde. The tilde is an orthographic sign that helps the reader to know where to place the stress in a word. Therefore, let’s go directly to the general rules of accentuation in Spanish.

General Rules of Accentuation

To understand the general rules of accentuation in Spanish, we must learn how to break a word into syllables. A syllable is a group of sounds in a word that is pronounced in a single utterance. In fact, if we pronounce a word very slowly, we will realize that we are dividing it into smaller parts:

es – pa – ñol
co – mi – da
te – lé – fo – no.

To know where to write a tilde, we must identify which is the stressed syllable; that is, which syllable is pronounced with more force:

es – pa – ñol
co – mi – da
te – lé – fo – no.

In Spanish, we can distinguish three types of words, depending on which syllable is stressed:

Agudas (stress on the last syllable): es – pa – ñol
Llanas (stress on the second to last syllable): co – mi – da
Esdrújulas (stress on the third to last syllable): te – lé – fo – no.

When we add pronouns to the end of a verb form, we can even find stressed syllables before the esdrújulas. Traditionally they are called sobreesdrújulas (có – me – te – lo).

Accentuation in monosyllabic words

The first of the general rules of accentuation in Spanish has to do with monosyllabic words. These are words that have only one syllable. In this case, in general, we do not use accents on them.

Yo no estoy seguro de que el español sea difícil.
Haz el examen DELE y consigue tu certificado.

However, there are exceptions. On the Spanishviaskype.com blog, there is an article about the diacritical tilde in Spanish. If you want to go deeper into this topic, it is recommend that you read it before continuing.

Use of accents in agudas words

As we said before, agudas words are those that have the stress on the last syllable. These words have tilde on the stressed vowel when the word ends in a vowel, -n, or -s.

Agudas with tilde: comí, adiós, león.
Agudas without tilde: comer, control, reloj.

General rules of accentuation in llanas words

Llanas words have the stress on the penultimate syllable. We use the accent mark on the stressed vowel when the word ends in a consonant other than -n, or -s.

Llanas with tilde: ágil, huésped, cáliz.
Llanas without tilde: casa, coches, comen.

Accentuation in esdrújulas words

Esdrújulas words have their stress in the third to last syllable. They always have a tilde on the stressed vowel:

Esdrújulas: teléfono, helicóptero, lógico.

Sobreesdrújulas words in Spanish

As we said before, if the stressed syllable is before the third to last syllable, we are dealing with an sobreesdrújula word. This is produced by the use of enclitic pronouns (pronouns attached to the end of the verb). They are only found in infinitives, gerunds and affirmative imperatives. Sobreesdrújulas words always have a tilde.

Sobreesdrújulas: cómetelo, haciéndosela, ponértemelo.

These are the general rules of accentuation in Spanish. Of course, there are always exceptions that we must learn.

Infographics about the general rules of accentuation in Spanish

SPANISH RULES OF ACCENTUATION

In Spanish many words carry a graphic accent, it is to say, a written accent mark. In Spanish we call it tilde. There will be many people who avoid the use of the tilde by all means, and will give you excuses such as “it is old style to use tildes” or “no one cares about tildes anymore”. Well, let´s just say those people don't know that writing Spanish without tildes is the best way to tell others that you do not know Spanish. No matter what they say, if you do not learn how to use tildes in written Spanish, you cannot say you know the language.

TYPES OF SYLLABLES

In order to learn accentuation in Spanish we must learn about the two types of syllables within a word: tónicas and átonas.

Tónicas are those syllables that carry the stress of the word, or the strength when pronouncing it. See the bold syllables, those are tónicas.

mesa azul cantar corazón

Átonas are those syllables within the word that do not carry the stress of the word. Let's highlight now the átonas syllables.

mesa azul cantar corazón

When placing tildes in Spanish words we must learn about four types of words: agudas, llanas, esdrújulas y sobresdrújulas.

PALABRAS AGUDAS

We call agudas those words in which the last syllable is the tónica. They have the stress on the last syllable.

caracol verdad camión instructor corazón pintor

You may ask now why do some agudas have a tilde and some do not? Let's wait for the accentuation rules below.

PALABRAS LLANAS

We call llanas those words in which the stress falls in the next to the last syllable.

lápiz toro come carta hábil

You probably observed again that some llanas words above do carry a tilde, and some do not. This is due to the rules of accentuation that we will explain below.

PALABRAS ESDRÚJULAS

These are words that carry the stress or the strength in the third syllable (we always count from the last syllable backwards).

teléfono esdrújula tarántula espátula cómpralas

Have you noticed they all carry a tilde?

PALABRAS SOBREESDRÚJULAS

These are words in which the stress falls in the fourth or higher syllables.

cómetelas alfabéticamente inútilmente cómpraselas

These are all accentuated, have you noticed?

Now that we covered a few concepts we are ready to learn the ACCENTUATION RULES IN SPANISH

PALABRAS AGUDAS

Words that are agudas carry a tilde (accent mark) when they end in -n, -s or a vowel.

comió
canción
café
balón
Tomás

** Words that are agudas and come from other languages like English, that end in – s but this one is preceded by a consonant, do not carry a tilde.

Also, words that are agudas and end in -y do not carry a tilde, as y is a consonant.

PALABRAS LLANAS

Words that are llanas carry a tilde if they do not end in -n, -s or a vowel.

lápiz
cáliz
hábil

Words that are llanas also carry an accent mark or tilde when they end in -s preceded by another consonant.

bíceps
cómics

PALABRAS ESDRÚJULAS

Words that are esdrújulas always carry an accent mark. This makes it easy, doesn´t it?

mecánico
cántico
cántaro
esdrújula
brújula

PALABRAS SOBREESDRÚJULAS

Words that are sobreesdrújulas always carry an accent mark, just as the esdrújulas.

cómetelo
cómpraselas
cántasela

Now that we have learned the accentuation rules in Spanish, we must keep in mind a couple of things.

HIATOS

An hiato happens when we have a syllable that has a combination of a strong vowel (a, e, o) and a weak vowel (i, u). In these cases we always accentuate the weak vowel and they do not follow the accentuation rules that we covered above.

huía
raíz
freír
maría
baúl

ADVERBS ENDING IN –MENTE

Adverbs ending in -mente will carry an accent mark if the original adjective carried one.

rápido – rápidamente
hábil – hábilmente
útil – útilmente

Now that you are here, remember, you do not have an excuse to avoid the accentuation marks or tildes in Spanish. ¡Utilícelas!

Accentuation in Spanish
What to know about the accent mark in Spanish
 Spanish has only one accent mark it is a slanting line that rises from left to
right (/) above a vowel.
 Only vowels will have accent marks in Spanish
 All words in Spanish have an intonation stress.
 When the stress is written on the word we call it an accent mark.
 Accent marks help us read words properly (as they are meant to sound)
 Whether the accent is written or not depends on the rules of accentuation
that apply.
Syllables in Spanish (sílabas)
 When we break up words into syllables in Spanish we find that we
have a ratio of one vowel to one consonant that is predominant
throughout most words.
 It is unusual to find two consonants together unless they represent
a special sound (like pr, pl, br, bl, cr, ch, cl, fl, fr, ll)
Ejemplos:
 mapa
 gato
 gente
 palabras
 importante
 árboles
 ingles
 primero
 ma / pa
 ga / to
 gen / te
 pa / la / bras
 im / por / tan / te
 ár /bo / les
 in / glés
 pri / me / ro
According to where the word carries it’s stress it will be called:
 Aguda- stress is in the last syllable of the word
 Llana- stress is in the next to last syllable
 Esdrújula- stress in the before next to last syllable
Syllable order: (Before next to last/ next to last/ last)
Example: negocio (ne/ go/ cio) es llana
Where do we hear the stress?
 publicó (pu/ bli/ có) -if it’s here we call the word is aguda
 publico (pu/ bli/ co) -if it’s here we call the word is llana
 público (pú/ bli/ co) -if it’s here we call the word is esdrújula
Accentuation in Spanish
Practice:
 Counting syllables (chopping up words):
 Splitting words up into syllables
 Classifying words: What are the three categories words fall into in Spanish?
Model: trabajo tra/ba/jo llana
Find the underlined syllable and choose the word type it belongs to
1. palabras pa/ la/ bras __________________
2. importancia im/ por/ tan/ cia __________________
3. árboles ár/ bol/ es __________________
4. grande gran/ de __________________
5. pequeño pe/ que/ ño _________________
6. cuadrado cua/ dra/ do _________________
7. zapatería za/ pa/ te/ rí/ a _________________
8. decimal de/ ci/ mal _________________
9. marrón ma/ rrón _________________
10. libertad li/ ber/ tad _________________
The following words will be classified. Underline the stressed syllable, then check the rules to
see if it will have a written accent mark. If it does, make it so.
1. antes an/ tes llana
2. diez diez aguda
3. normal nor/ mal aguda
4. rapido ra/ pi/ do esdrújula
5. zapato za/ pa/to llana
6. libreta li/ bre/ ta llana
7. ventana ven/ ta / na llana
8. decada de/ ca/ da esdrújula
Accentuation in Spanish
Most words in Spanish are classified as “llanas”
 Most words in Spanish don’t have the written accent because they end
in the consonants s, n or a vowel.
 But when the “llanas” that end in an “n” become plural they will
acquire an accent mark like the following:
o examen → exámenes
o imagen → imágenes
o joven → jóvenes
Why is this so? _____________________________________________
 Other words that are “agudas” will lose their accent if they become
plural like the following:
o dirección → direcciones
o acción → acciones
o avión → aviones
Why is this so? _____________________________________________
Practice:
Some of the nationalities in Spanish will gain or lose their accent according to the
explanation stated above.
This happens when the nationality ends in a ____________________ and
takes an extra __________________ to become plural.
Fill in the blanks following the model below.
Ellos son de Francia, son franceses. Pierre nació en Paris, él también es francés.
1. Hans es de Alemania. Él es ___________. Carros de alta calidad son alemanes.
2. Suki es de Japón, ella es japonesa. Su hermano Nico es _______________.
3. Todos los que somos de _________________ somos americanos.
4. La libra esterlina es la moneda inglesa. ¿Hablas tú el ________________?
5. Felipe es de _________________, él es mexicano.
Decide if the following have an accent, if so, mark it.
Word classification Word classification
1. capitan __________ capitanes _______________
2. leon __________ leones _______________
3. reaccion __________ reacciones _______________
4. poblacion __________ poblaciones _______________
5. dragon __________ dragones _______________
Accentuation in Spanish
Reglas de acentuación:
Although every word has a stress not every word will carry an accent mark. The rules
are written below in Spanish. Can you figure them out?
Translate the sentences to English and fill in the blanks.
Challenge: Fill in the blanks in Spanish as well.
1. Agudas: Si la palabra termina en consonantes “n”, “s” o una vocal (a, e, i, o, u) y
la fuerza tónica cae sobre la ___________________ sílaba.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
2. Llanas: Si la palabra termina con consonante que no es “n” o “s”, y lleva la fuerza
tónica cae sobre la ___________________ sílaba.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
3. Esdrújulas: La palabra siempre lleva acento escrito si la fuerza tónica cae sobre la
_________________ sílaba.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Coloca las siguientes palabras en las columnas apropiadas:
(Place the words in the correct columns.)
casa número jardín edad sílaba café
último árbol escuela felino azul pájaro
avión cáncer miércoles
esdrújulas llanas agudas
1. 1. 1.
2. 2. 2.
3. 3. 3.
4. 4. 4.
5. 5. 5.
Accentuation in Spanish
One of the uses of the accent is also to distinguish similar words that have different usage like
pronouns tú and él from the possessive adjective tu and the article el.
Read the following sentences and circle the correct word to use at the end.
1. Me gusta ___ maní. el él
2. ____ hermana me mira mucho. Tu Tú
3. Ahora es ___ momento para hablar. él el
4. Ella dijo que sí y ____ dice que no. él el
5. Pedro quiere que ____ vayas al cine. tu tú
6. Es ___ turno para hacer la tarea. tu tú
7. La canasta de frutas es para ____. el él
8. Cuando ____ me hablas, yo escucho. tu tú
9. Pedro se fue, ____ no está aquí. él el
10.Este es ____ libro. tú tu
All the question words in Spanish have to have a written accent mark.
Read the following and if the word que is used as a question word mark the
accent on it.
Qué = what; que = that, than, so.
1. ¿Que me dices?
2. Él me dijo que no le dijera nada.
3. ¿En que vas a trabajar? ¿Artes y letras o labores manuales?
4. El alma que está vibrando es una brillante.
5. Las plantas que dependen del sol crecen bien durante el verano.
6. Quiero que aprendan bien la lección.