Spanish accents Spanish accents and stress and stress syllablessyllables

Spanish accents Spanish accents and stress and stress syllablessyllables

What is a stressstress syllable

• Every word has a stressed syllable, it is the one that carries the most intonation in your voice. 

– For example• In the word "baby,", the stress is on the first syllable (ba) making the second syllable (by) weaker. 

• Baby is pronounced as BA-by, not ba-BY. 

• In Spanish there are a few simple rules as to where the stress lies in a word.  When there is an exception to these rules, a written accent is used. 

• This written accent is found above vowels and is a slanted line going from left to right.

Accent marks look like this:á    é    í    ó    ú

• Pay attention to accent marks! Two words might be spelled exactly the same, but the presence of an accent mark can completely change their meaning.– Example:

• esta means “this” while está means “is.” • Llamo means “I call” while llamó means “He, she, or you called.”

– Accent marks are also used to distinguish how a word is used• Example:

– dónde and donde both mean “where,” the first is used to ask a question, the second is used in statements.

• Whenever a vowel carries a written accent, the stress in that word is on that syllable. 

• Spanish is a unique language in that by just looking at a written word, without having heard it, you are able to pronounce it. 

• Words are classified in three categories depending on the location of the accentuated syllable.

– These are: • Aguda– the accented syllable is the last syllable• Llana– the second to last• Esdrújula– the syllable before the second to last

Rule # 1 (aguda)• If the word has the primary stress on the last syllable

(called an oxytone), and it ends with "n", "s", or a vowel, the accent is written.

• No other oxytones have a written accent, excluding exceptional cases.

– Examples with accent : • pasión (passion), • limón (lime or lemon), • inglés (English), • Alá (Allah, the Arabian deity), • Canadá.

– Examples without accent: • internet (no accent, stress on last syllable), • estar (one of the "to be" verbs in Spanish), • calor (heat, warmth), • Alcohol (alcohol. Remember, this has the stress on the last

syllable!)

Rule # 2 (llano)• If the word has the primary stress on the

penultimate syllable (second to last syllable called a paroxytone), and it does NOT end with "n", "s", or a vowel, the accent is written.

• No other paroxytones have a written accent, excluding exceptional cases.

– Examples with accent: • cárcel (jail), • árbol (tree), • González (a family name, but if written Gonzales, there is

no accent.) – Examples without an accent:

• ingles (groins, usually very different from "inglés"), • libro (book), • gato (cat), • perro (dog).

Rule # 3 (Esdrújula)

• If the word has the primary stress on any syllable before the penultimate syllable (called a proparoxytone), then the accent is written.

• There is no exception to this rule.

– Examples: • América, México, • Pacífico (peaceful, capitalized here in reference to the Pacific Ocean).

Other purposes• Besides indicating the syllable in which to stress a word, written accents also serve to distinguish between two words that are spelled the same.  – Example:

• "si" and "sí".  • "Si" without an accent means "if" and "sí" with an accent means "yes." 

A few more details• Written accents are used as a tool to make the pronunciation of written Spanish clear to the reader. 

• They do not change the pronunciation of the vowel, they just put the stress on the syllable the vowel is in. 

• Whenever a word has an intonation, that is an exception to the first or second rule above, the written accent portrays where to put the stress in your voice.