How to Use Accent Marks in Spanish

It may seem as though those short, diagonal lines are placed over Spanish vowels randomly, but there are some rules as to how to use accent marks in Spanish. Used only over vowels and written from the upper left to the lower right (`), the accent mark is used to differentiate between words that are spelled the same but have different meanings. They're also used to indicate which syllable to emphasize when saying a word aloud.

Instructions

1. Find the syllable on which the stress occurs to determine whether an accent mark is actually required. This technique assumes that you are transcribing from spoken Spanish to written Spanish. When the emphasis is on the next-to-last (penultimate) syllable and the word ends in a vowel, you will not need to use an accent mark, and this is also true if the emphasis falls on the last syllable in a word ending in a consonant other than "n" or "s."

2. Place an accent mark over the last vowel of a word if the emphasis is on the last syllable and the word ends in that vowel or if the word ends in one of the consonants "n" or "s." For example, this can be done with "comenzó" (s/he began) or "canción" (song).

3. Use an accent mark over the next-to-last vowel if the word ends in a consonant other than "n" or "s" and the stress is on the penultimate syllable. An example is "fácil" (easy).

4. Accent any emphasized vowel that is more than two syllables away from the end of the word. Likewise, accent any weak vowel placed right next to a strong vowel. "I" and "U" are considered weak vowels, while "A," "E," and "O" are strong. Common examples of these rules include "día" (day: weak vowel rule) or "sábado" (Saturday: early emphasized vowel rule).

5. Distinguish between one-syllable Spanish homonyms by accenting the more emphatic version of the word. Pronouns and verbs are an example--"se/sé" (him/herself versus I know)--as are conjunctions and exclamations--"si/sí" (if versus yes).

6. Differentiate between exclamatory or interrogatory versions of a word and its corresponding word by accenting the exclamation or question. For instance, you can do this with "Adónde vas?" (Where are you going?) and "adonde" (where).

7. Use a written accent to mark the difference between a demonstrative adjective and its similar demonstrative pronoun. The Spanish pronouns "éste" and "ése" (this one/that one) have accent marks while the adjectives "este" and "ese" (this/that) do not.

Tips & Warnings

• As with any language, there are circumstances that do not conform to the rules. When adding "-mente" to a feminine adjective to create an adverb, any existing accent marks are retained instead of dropped. For example: "fácil" (easy) becomes "fácilmente" (easily) instead of "facilmente."

• A stressed syllable is known as a "tonicas" while the unstressed syllables are called "atonas."