http://www.spanishdict.com In Spanish words are divided into four categories according to their stress: sobresdrjulas, esdrjulas, llanas, and agudas. Llanas and agudas account for almost 90% of all Spanish words. Aguda These are words which are stressed on the last syllable. If they end in a consonant other than 'n' or 's' they have no written tilde. About 1/3 of all Spanish words are agudas, including all infinitives.
avestruz, matador, hablar
Llana - These are words which are stressed on the second to last (penult) syllable. If they end in a vowel, 'n', or 's' they have no written tilde. Over half of all Spanish words are llanas.
mono, cantan, computadoras
Esdrjula These are words whose stress falls on the third to last (antepenult) syllable. They always have a tilde. rpido, Amrica, clsico
Sobreesdrjula These are words whose accent
falls on any syllable preceding the third to last. The only words with this stress are verb forms with one or two unstressed pronouns attached to them. These words always have a tilde. mramelo, prstasela, devolvindonoslas In order to pronounce words correctly, you will need to know the natural (usual) stress patterns of Spanish. For words without a written tilde,
1. If a word ends in n, s, or a vowel (vocal),
the word is llana and stress falls on the next- to-last syllable (penltima slaba). Repitan llamas hola
2. If a word without a tilde ends in any consonant (consonante) other than n or s, the word is aguda and stress falls on the last syllable (ltima slaba). espaol usted regular
3. Any exception to rules 1 and 2 must have a written accent mark (tilde o acento ortogrfico) on the stressed vowel. Below, the underlined syllable represents where the stress would be if there was no written mark, whereas the arrow () shows where the stress actually is when the word is pronounced. Since the two do not coincide, the above rules for pronouncing do not give the right result, and a written accent is needed on the stressed vowel to let the reader know that the regular rules have been broken and a different syllable must be stressed. televisin telfono lpiz
Monosyllables (words consisting of only one syllable) do not need an accent mark since that is the only stressed vowel. Certain monosyllables, however, have a written accent to distinguish them from similar words that are pronounced the same but have different meanings: . The words esto, eso, aquello are always pronouns and never have an accent mark. De quin es esto? Interrogatives such as cmo, qu, dnde, cundo, cul, etc. always have accents when they are used as questions or exclamations: Cundo llegas, hoy? Qu bien! They have no accent when they are used as conjunctions or pronouns: Eso est donde lo dejaste. Cuando quieras, hablamos. Vowels Diphthongs and Hiatus When you have two vowels together the stress naturally goes on the strong vowel (a, e, o) and we usually get a diphthong (two vowels in one syllable) when they combine with one of the weak vowels (u, i): bueno, cuota, viaje, aire, peine, oigan However, if the word stress is on the weak vowel (i, u), then this vowel must show an accent to mark a hiatus, and that it belongs in its own syllable. The diphthong disappears: tos, remos, salan, graden, ah.