What letters do you put...?

Question

In Spanish, how do you know which letters to put the accents above? I have a Spanish quiz tomorrow and our teacher says the accents have to be placed correctly but I don't know where to put them!

Answer 1

It all depends on how the words are pronounced. You have to learn to HEAR which vowel is accented/stressed. Once you know that, then there is a rule, with just a handful of exceptions, which is that you assume and so do not write an accent on the last vowel if followed by a consonant other than n or s. If the last consonant is n or s or the word ends in a vowel you assume the accent to be on the vowel before that, and again do not write it. So this is why we do not write an accent at all in, for ex., color because it ends in r and the accent is on the last vowel, or in colores because it ends in -s and the accent is on the second vowel from the end. In all other cases we write an accent on the vowel that is accented, e.g., fu'tbol because it ends in L. And then there a handful of words where an accent is written even though it should not be, which you must memorize. So the big question really whether you can tell which vowel of any word the accent falls on. If you cannot, then this is all useless and you must just memorize all words with accents.

Answer 2

It's simple. If you know how to say the word then you should be able to figure out where the accents go...

The stress on any word ending in a vowel, n, or s should be on the second to last syllable...

Ex: Mañana, alberca, sentado, tamaño, techo, perro, escaleras... etc.

If it ends with anything else, the stress goes on the last syllable...

Ex: Nadar, comer, celular...

If you already know the pronunciation of the words than you just have to remember that rule and sound it out. For example... you know that the stress on "teléfono" according to the rule should be on the first "o"... but you know that it's not pronounced like that, so you have to put an accent over the vowels that carries the stress.

árbol - stress should be on the last syllable because the word doesn't end in a vowel, n, or s... but it doesn't so you put an accent over the "a" because that's the vowel where you hear the stress.

televisión - according to vowel, n, or s rule... the stress should be on the second to last syllable... but it's not pronounced like that so you put the accent over the "o" because that's where you hear the stress.

Get it?

Simple as that...
Vowel, n or s - second to last syllable... anything else, last syllable. If the stress isn't where it's supposed to be according to this rule... put an accent over it.

Hope I helped.
Ever have any other Spanish questions - feel free to ask!
Take care and good luck on your quiz!
Rachel

Answer 3

Jess:
You got a few tips, and as I see them everyone is correct since it is the way you learn Spanish in here. Here is my advise, but keep in mind I'm a native Spanish speaker, and it is the way we learn in México:
1. learn the word and divide it in sylables
2. identify the stressed sylable, that is the one that should have the accent
3. the accent is written only on vowel sounds
That should be enough for tomorrow; but as you progress you have to divide the words in different categories:
4. according to the streesed sylable agudas, graves, esdrújulas y sobre-esdrújulas
5. "agudas" the stressed sylable is the last, and write the accent if they end in a vowel sound or N or S, if they end in any other letter DO NOT WRITE THE ACCENT.
ca-FE = café
sa-LON = salón
a-TRAS = atrás
ra-IZ = raiz
tem- pes-TAD = tempestad
6. "graves" we stress the second to the last sylable, this is opposite to agudas, write the accent on words ending in any consonant, BUT DO NOT WRITE IT IF THE WORD ENDS IN VOWEL OR "N" OR "S"
LA-piz = lápiz
ca-RAC-ter = carácter
es-cri-TO-rio = escritorio
CAM-po = campo
fe-rro-ca-rri-LE-ro = ferrocarrilero
7. "esdrújulas" and "sobre-esdrújulas" the stressed sylable is third to the last and fourth to the last, and ALL OF THEM HAVE WRITTEN ACCENT.
CAS-ca-ra = cáscara
pe-LI-cu-la = película
Save the second part for latter use.
have fun

Answer 4

The accents are to show how to pronounce the word.

Where to stress.

Answer 5

Memorize the words that have accents, it's as simple as that. Not all of them do, after all.

Answer 6

There are rules which can be learned fairly easily. Try this link:

http://www.dat.etsit.upm.es/~mmonjas/acentos.html

if you don't like it, try a search on "reglas de acentuación."