Rules for Spanish Written Accents http://www.studyspanish.com/accents/rules.

htm

Rules for Stress

In Spanish, words are spelled just like they sound. In order to take advantage of this simple and nearly
perfect system of spelling, one must first know the rules for stress - that is, how to know which syllable is
pronounced the loudest.

1. Words ending in a vowel, -n, or -s are stressed on the next to the last (penultimate) syllable:

nada
na - da

limonada
li - mo - na - da

zapatos
za - pa - tos

origen
o - ri - gen

compro
com - pro

esta
es - ta

estas
es- tas

2. Words ending in any consonant except -n or -s are stressed on the last syllable:

doctor
doc - tor

ciudad
ci - u - dad

comer
co - mer

3. When rules #1 and #2 above are not followed, a written accent is used:

compró
com - pró

está
es - tá

estás

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Rules for Spanish Written Accents http://www.studyspanish.com/accents/rules.htm

es - tás

4. Written accents are also used to differentiate between words that are pronounced the same but have different
meanings:

si - if
sí - yes

mi - my
mí - me

el - the
él - he

tu - your
tú - you

Don't think of these rules as burdensome. Rather, view them as your friends. They allow you to pronounce any
Spanish word correctly.

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