Accents in Spanish are used to mark which part of the word is pronounced with more emphasis. Although it may seem that accent marks are placed randomly in some words, there are actually a few simple patterns to follow:
- The second to last vowel is the most prominent one in most Spanish words, as long as the last letter in the word is a vowel, an n, or an s: pluma, orden, menos (pen, order, less).
- Only the words that do not follow this rule require a written accent mark on the stressed syllable.
Let’s dive right in and we’ll be able to master Spanish accent marks in no time!
Table of Contents
For a review of grammar terms used in this post, make sure to check out the Unpacking the grammar section at the end of the post.
What is the difference between word stress and accent marks?
All Spanish words have a stressed syllable. This means that in each word, one syllable is more prominent — pronounced with more emphasis — than the rest. Although all words are stressed, not all words need a written accent mark.
For instance, words like palabra (word) and cándido (candid) have a prominent syllable (marked in red and bold). However, only cándido needs an accent mark.
A syllable is a unit of pronunciation that contains at least one vowel (a, e, i, o, u). This vowel may be surrounded by consonants or other vowels for example pan (bread) has one vowel with two adjacent consonants that create one unit of sound — it’s pronounced together.
Words can be made of single syllables hoy (today) or multiple syllables: pe-rro (dog) dí-a (today), e-le-fan-te (elephant).
Normally, a word has as many syllables as non-adjacent vowels (a, e, i, o, u). For instance, the word computadora (computer) has five vowels (computadora) and, thus, five syllables (com-pu-ta-do-ra). Check the section about special cases below to find out what happens with adjacent vowels.
Next, let’s take a look at how word stress is assigned in Spanish.
How to assign word stress?
To determine whether a word needs a written accent mark, first, we need to establish where the stressed syllable falls.
To determine word stress:
- Check the last letter of a word
- Answer the following question:
Does the word end in a vowel (a, e, i, o, u), n, or s?
- If the answer is yes, then the stress falls in the second to last syllable.
- For instance, take the word camino (road)
- It has three syllables: ca-mi-no
- It ends in the vowel o
- Then, the stress falls on the second to last syllable, shown in red and bold:
ca-mi-no
- If the answer is no, then the stress falls in the last syllable.
- Take, for example, the word papel (paper)
- It has two syllables: pa-pel
- It does not end in a vowel, but in a consonant “l”
- Therefore, the stress falls on the last syllable: pa-pel
- If the answer is yes, then the stress falls in the second to last syllable.
Here are some examples:
| Word stress assignment | |
|---|---|
| Patterns | Examples (Stressed syllables are shown in red and bold) |
| Second to last stress when the word ends in a vowel, n, or s. | casa (house), perro (dog), hermana (sister), maravilloso (marvelous), impresionante (impressive), tribu (tribe), casi (almost), casas (houses), caminabas (you walked), crisis (crisis), personas (people), cantaban (they sang) |
| Final stress when the word ends in a consonant, other than n or s. | mejor (better), reloj (watch), verdad (truth), colesterol (cholesterol), escasez (shortage) |
Noticed anything unusual? Right! None of the previous examples have written accent marks. Why? Spanish does not write accent marks on words that follow the rules described above. On the contrary, Spanish requires written accent marks only on the words that break the previous rules (the “rule-breakers”).
Ready to find out when accent marks are needed? Keep reading!
When to write accent marks
After establishing on which syllable word stress falls, we can now determine whether the word needs an accent mark or not.
Remember!
The rules to predict where word stress falls:
- Words ending in a vowel, n, or s are stressed in the second to last syllable: cuaderno (notebook), entonces (then)
- Words ending in a consonant, other than n or s, stress the last syllable: girasol (sunflower)
All exceptions to the previous word stress patterns require a written accent on the vowel of the stressed syllable, as seen in the next chart:
| Accent mark rules | |
|---|---|
| Use an accent when: | Examples (Stressed syllables are shown in red and bold) |
Rule #1 A word ending in a vowel (a, e, i, o, u), n, or s is stressed in the last syllable Why? Normally, words displaying these endings are expected to have stress on the second to last syllable. |
sofá (sofa), miraré (I will look), colibrí (hummingbird), mostró (he/she showed), tabú (taboo), alemán (German), vaivén (sway), arlequín (harlequin), cajón (drawer), algún (some), además (also), inglés (English), anís (anise), veintidós (twenty-two), autobús (bus) ⤷Tip Regular verbs in the preterite for yo (comí , I ate) and él/ella (comió , s/he ate), and all future tense (except nosotros) (comeré, I will eat, comerás, you will eat, etc.), follow this rule. |
Rule #2 A word ending in a consonant, other than n or s, is stressed in the second to last syllable Why? Normally, words displaying these endings are expected to have stress on the final syllable. |
árbol (tree), álbum (album), carácter (personality), lápiz (pencil) |
Rule #3 All words with more than two syllables whose stressed syllable is not the last or the second to last require a written accent mark Why? Normally, the word stress rules only predicts final or second to last stress. |
pájaro (bird), sábado (Saturday), máquina (machine), gramática (grammar), económico (inexpensive) |
These rules only apply to words containing more than one syllable. As a general rule, words that only contain one syllable (also known as monosyllabic) do not require an accent mark.
However, there are exceptions to this rule; keep reading to find more information on monosyllabic words and accent marks.
Up to now, we have covered the most important rules of Spanish accents. But there is more to the story, there are exceptional cases in which Spanish words require accents. If you’re ready to learn all the rules, keep reading!
Spanish accent rules: Special cases
In this section we will go over:
- Words containing diphthongs: memoria (memory), ruina (ruin)
- Monosyllabic and disyllabic homonyms: él (he) vs.el (the); porqué (reason) vs. porque (because)
- Verbs followed by object pronouns: cuéntamelo (tell it to me)
- Interrogative and exclamatory words: No sé qué quiere. (I don’t know what (s)he wants.), ¡Qué bueno! (That’s great!)
- Adverbs ending in -mente: fácilmente (easily), felizmente (happily)
Words containing diphthongs
A diphthong is formed in Spanish when two vowels are adjacent within the same syllable. Spanish diphthongs are always composed of a strong vowel (a, e, o) and a weak vowel (i, u) or two weak vowels:
- Strong + weak: For instance, the word memoria (memory) has a diphthong, can you spot it? Right! The diphthong ia, at the end, is composed of a weak vowel i, followed by a strong vowel a.
- Weak + weak: Let’s take, for instance, the name Luis. It contains a weak+weak diphthong: ui.
Here’s a chart with all possible diphthong vowel combinations.
The letter h does not block diphthongs; that means that an “h” between two vowels can still form a diphthong: prohibir (prohi-bir) (to ban).
⤷TIP
- The letter “u” in “qu” is not pronounced: qué (what). Therefore, it can’t form diphthongs with the following vowel.
- The letter “u” in “gue” or “gui” can be pronounced or not.
- As a general Spanish spelling rule, the u is not pronounced: guerra (war), guitarra (guitar). Therefore, the u and the following vowel can’t form diphthongs.
- However, in some cases, the u is pronounced. In order to mark that the u is pronounced, an umlaut ¨ is placed on the u: vergüenza (shame), pingüino (penguin). In these cases, the u does form a diphthong with the following vowel (marked in blue and bold).
Remember!
General accent rules
Write an accent mark when:
Rule 1: Words ending in a vowel, n, or s that, contrary to the norm, are stressed in the last syllable: sofá (sofa).
Rule 2: Words ending in a consonant, other than n or s, whose stress falls on the second to last syllable: lápiz (pencil).
Rule 3: Words whose stress falls on a syllable other than the last or the second to last: helicóptero (helicopter).
When do diphthongs require an accent mark?
To answer this question, we must consider the following three rules:
- Stress on a strong vowel
When the stress falls on the strong vowel (a, e, o), the general accent mark rules apply. For example:
después (later) → des-pués
⤷ends in an s and it is stressed in the last syllable (Rule # 1)
huésped (guest) → hués-ped
⤷ends in a consonant, (other than n or s) and is stressed in the second to last syllable (Rule #2)
miércoles (Wednesday) → miér-co-les
⤷ the stress falls on a syllable other than the last or the second to last (Rule #3)
- Stress on a weak vowel
When the stress falls on a weak vowel, it requires an accent mark, and the two vowels are separated into two separate syllables, thus forming a hiatus (two adjacent vowels in two separate syllables). For example:
país (country) → pa-ís
increíble (incredible) → in-cre-í-ble
haría (I/he/she would do) → ha-rí-a
- Two weak vowels
When the stress falls on diphthongs formed by two weak vowels (iu or ui), the diphthong is blocked, thus creating a hiatus, but no written accent mark is required.
ruido (noise) → ru–i-do
Hiatuses composed of i+u or u+i followed by another vowel require an accent mark on the stressed syllable: huían (hu-í-an) (they fled).
Hiatuses composed of i+u or u+i follow the general accent mark assignment rules. For instance, incluí (in-clu-í) (I included) requires an accent mark because the last vowel-ending syllable is stressed.
Finally, triphthongs occur rarely when three vowels (one weak, one strong, and one weak) are adjacent within the same syllable. For instance, take a word like vieira (scallop). The vowels iei are pronounced in the same syllable (viei-ra). Triphthongs follow the regular accent mark rules. When triphthongs require an accent mark, it falls on the strong vowel. For instance, aliviáis (you all alleviate) has final stress, even though it ends in an s. Therefore it needs an accent mark on the strong vowel in the last-syllable triphthong.
Homonyms
Homonyms are words that are spelled the same or sound the same, but have different meanings. Monosyllabic words (words that only contain one syllable) in Spanish do not generally require a written accent, unless they are homonyms with another monosyllabic word.
For example: tú (you) and tu (your) sound exactly the same, but are used very differently. To tell apart homonyms, one of each pair requires an accent mark.
This also applies to disyllabic (words containing two syllables) homonyms. For example, porqué (reason) vs. porque (because).
Here’s a complete list of monosyllabic and disyllabic homonyms.
Did you know?
- Contrary to what many people believe, the word solo (alone/only) never bears a stress mark, not even when it means “only” (solo = solamente).
- Similarly, you should never use accent marks with demonstrative pronouns (este, estas, esas, aquel, etc.)
Interrogative and exclamative words
Spanish interrogative and exclamative words (words used in questions and exclamations) require an accent mark to tell them apart from non-interrogative or exclamative homonyms. For instance:
| Interrogative and exclamative (accent mark required) | Non-interrogative (no accent mark required) |
|---|---|
| Relative pronoun:
|
⤷TIP Keep in mind that some words may have more than one meaning. For example, “como” can mean “I eat,” or it can be an adverb as in, No hay nadie como tú (There’s no one like you), or it can be a conjunction: Como ya eres grande, puedes ir tú solo (Since you’re old enough, you can go by yourself). In such cases, only use an accent if the homonym is used as an interrogative or an exclamation: ¿Cómo estás? (How are you?), ¡Cómo llueve! (It’s raining a lot!); for all other cases you don’t need to use an accent.
Verbs followed by pronouns
When pronouns (reflexive, direct and indirect object) are attached to a verb, the stress may be shifted to the third or fourth syllable from the end. In such cases, the stressed syllable requires a written accent following general rule #3.
Let’s take for instance the command da (you give).
↳You can add an indirect object pronoun to say “give me”: dame.
↳ You can also add another pronoun (and another syllable) like lo (it) to say:
“give it to me.”
↳You will end up with a three syllable word with the stress on da which results in
“dá-me-lo.”
⤋
An accent needs to be placed on the third to last syllable to comply with rule #3.
For more on object pronouns head over to our post on direct and indirect object pronouns in Spanish.
Let’s see some possible combos with pronouns:
Verb + reflexive and object (direct and indirect) pronouns
compra + me + lo
| cómpramelo cóm-pra-me-lo |
| viendo + la seeing + it | viéndola vién-do-la 3 2 1 seeing it |
| comprando + los buying + them | comprándolos com-prán-do-los 4 3 2 1 buying them |
peinando + se combing + yourself | peinándose peinán-do-se combing yourself |
ten+ la have + it | tenla ten-la |
Adverbs ending in ‘-mente’
Adjective + -mente → Adverb
feliz + mente → felizmente
happy happily
común + mente → comúnmente
common commonly
Summary
We can predict the stressed syllable of the vast majority of Spanish words without the help of accent marks. Approximately, 90% of all Spanish words assign word stress following regular patterns and do not need an accent mark:
- Second to last stress is assigned to words ending in a vowel (a, e, i, o, u), n, or s.
- Stress falls on the last syllable of words ending in consonants other than n or s.
- Words ending in a vowel, n, or s that, contrary to the norm, have the stress on the last syllable
- Words ending in a consonant other than n or s whose stress falls on the second to last (and not the expected last) syllable
Finally, don’t forget that there are some exceptional cases when we use accent marks other than the three general rules.
- Some words containing diphthongs
- Monosyllabic and disyllabic homonyms
- Verbs followed by object pronouns
- Interrogative and exclamatory words
- Adverbs ending in -mente.
Ready to practice? Check out these activities (answer key included!)
A syllable is a unit of pronunciation that contains at least one vowel (a, e, i, o, u). This vowel may be surrounded by consonants or other vowels for example pan (bread) has one vowel with two adjacent consonants that create one unit of sound — it’s pronounced together.
Diphthong: Two adjacent vowels within the same syllable one of which is strong (a, e, o) and one weak vowel (i, u): memoria (me-mo-ria) (memory), causa (cau-sa) (cause)
Hiatus: Two adjacent vowels, but in different syllables: maíz (ma-íz) (corn)
Triphthongs: Three adjacent vowels (weak-strong-weak) within the same syllable: limpiéis (lim-piéis) (you, pl., clean)
