ACCENT MARK RULES
Spanish spelling rules are 100% phonetic. Accent marks are a part
of spelling and follow completely logical patterns.
When counting syllables in Spanish, imagine that the words are
built backwards. Don´t think of the second syllable of a three syllable
word, call it the second to last syllable. Syllabification
follows simple rules that only work if you conceive of the syllables
being stacked up from the end of the word.
Spanish divides its vowels into two groups: strong vowels (A,E,O)
and weak vowels (I,U). A combination of any two strong vowels creates
two separate syllables. A combination of one strong vowel and one
weak vowel is one syllable and is called a diphthong. Accent marks
are used to break diphthongs so that the weak vowel will stand out
as the strongest and thus create two syllables from one.
All Spanish words divide into three categories: 1) AGUDA (sharp)
2) LLANA (flat) or BREVE (short) y 3) ESDRÚJULA. This refers
to the location of the STRESS when the word is PRONOUNCED.
A word that is aguda has the stress on the last syllable.
A word that is stressed on the second to last syllable is llana
and anything stressed on the third to last or further back is esdrújula.
There are spelling rules that determine which stress pattern is
needed.
Some words do not have or need an accent mark. There are
two reasons they are used. One is to distinguish words that
are spelled the same, but have different meanings. The other
more important rule is that accent marks indicate exceptions
to the spelling rules. These rules will be explained below.
Without written accents, Spanish words must be stressed on the LAST
SYLLABLE (Aguda) or on the SECOND TO LAST SYLLABLE (Llana). If the
stress is three syllables back or more, it is called esdrújula and
it must have a written accent (notice that "esdrújula"
is itself esdrújula.)
In order for a word to exist without accent marks,
it must follow these spelling rules:
AGUDA: must end in a consonant except N or S. ( universidad, correr,
feroz, trabajador)
LLANA: must end in a vowel, N or S. (salgo, pones, tenemos, sientan--includes
most of the conjugated verb forms.
ESDRÚJULA: All of these must have written accents.
Accents are also used to distinguish words that look and sound
alike but have very different purposes: el, él tu, tú, te, té, Qué,
que, Dónde, donde. Note: many words function as a conjunction
or as an interrogative pronoun. When they are used as interrogatives,
they have accent marks that do not affect the pronunciation.
Demonstrative pronouns have accents, whereas demonstrative adjectives
do not.
