Historical building in Benasque, Aragón Spain
Spanish Articles

When do Spanish words require accent marks?

By: Mango Languages Fri Aug 30 2024
Spanish
Spelling

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

    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). However, only cándido needs an accent mark.

    Important

    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: 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 “I”

        • Therefore, the stress falls on the last syllable: pa-pel

    Here are some examples:

    Word stress assignment

    Patterns
    Examples
    (Stressed syllables are shown in red)

    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"), cholesterol ("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)

    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")

    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")

    Important

    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")

    • 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.

    Important

    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"), guitarria ("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).

    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

      Exception!

      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 ("i") 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 the homonyms apart, 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 Spanish 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.)

    • 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.)

      Check out this article for more information.

    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)

    • ¿Qué quieres?

      What do you want?

    • No sé qué decir.

      I don’t know what to say.

    • ¡Qué pena!

      What a pity!

    Relative pronoun:

    • Quiero que te vayas.

      I want you to go away.

    Here’s a complete list of Spanish interrogative and exclamative homonyms.

    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 pronouns, direct object pronouns, and indirect object pronouns) 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 + pronouns
    Syllable breakdown
    Verb with accent when required

    compra + me + lo

    buy + for me + it

    viendo + la

    seeing + it

    comprando + los

    buying + them

    peinando + se

    combing + yourself

    ten + la

    have + it

    cóm-pra-me-lo

    4 --- 3 -- 2 - 1

    vién-do-la

    3 --- 2 -- 1

    com-prán-do-los

    4 ---- 3 --- 2 -- 1

    pei-nán-do-se

    4 --- 3 -- 2 - 1

    ten-la

    2 -- 1

    cómpramelo

    buy it for me

    viéndola

    seeing it

    comprándolos

    buying them

    peinándose

    combing yourself

    tenla

    have it

    Adverbs ending in ‘-mente’

    One way to build adverbs in Spanish is to add the ending -mente to some adjectives. Adverbs formed this way require accent marks only when the adjectives originally had them, as seen in the following chart:

    Adjective
    mente
    → Adverb

    feliz

    happy

    + mente

    felizmente

    happily

    común

    common

    + mente

    comúnmente

    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.

    The accent mark is only required to showcase the exceptionality of the stress assignment in:

    • 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

    • Words whose stress falls on a syllable other than the last or the second to last

    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!)

    To embark on your next language adventure, join Mango on social!

    Ready to take the next step?

    The Mango Languages learning platform is designed to get you speaking like a local quickly and easily.

    Mango app open on multiple devices
    Log InSign Up