In Spanish, every word with more than one syllable has a syllable whose vowel is pronounced with more intensity.

This is the tonic accent. This indicates a syllable to be stressed when pronouncing the word. A word is thus composed of tonic syllables (silabas tónicas) and atonic syllables (silabas atonas).

Example : mun-do (world), ve-ra-no (summer), i-ma-gen (picture)

The tonic accent is not always written but when it is, it is always placed on a vowel: á, é, í, ó, ú.

I. The oral accent

The prosodic accent, also called phonetic accent, is an accent that is not written but pronounced.

* For words ending in a vowel, N or S, the tonic accent is on the penultimate syllable of the word.

This is called palabras llanas or palabras graves.

Example : FRANCESA (French), LUNES (Monday) ==> The syllables are pronounced more strongly in –CE (in Francesa) and –LU (in Lunes).

* For words ending in a consonant or Y, the tonic accent is on the last syllable of the word. We speak of palabras agudas.

Example: LIBERTAD (Freedom), ANIMAL (Animal) ==> The syllables -TAD (from Libertad) and -MAL (from Animal) are pronounced more strongly.

* Words with irregular tonal stress (i.e., those that do not meet both of the above rules) carry a written accent; thus marking the syllable that must be stressed.

Example : Sábado (Saturday), Doméstico (Domestic), Acción (action), café (coffee), etc.

CAUTION: When the number of syllables in a word is changed, for example from singular to plural, the written accent may appear or disappear.

But it always remains on the same syllable.

Example: Francés ==> Francesa, Portugués ==> Portuguesa, Examen ==> Exámenes.

There are only 3 exceptions in the Spanish language:

• Carácter ==> Caracteres
• Régimen ==> Regímenes
• Espécimen ==> Especímenes (In these situations, the accent changes syllable depending on whether the word is singular or plural).

* Adverbs formed with the suffix -mente (fácilmente, desgraciadamente, etc.) have a particularity. They keep the written accent of the adjective and have two accented syllables:

Example :Fácil ==> Fácilmente, Rápido ==> Rápidamente, Claro ==> Claramente

II. The written accent

The grammatical accent is always on the normally stressed syllable. It distinguishes two words with similar pronunciation BUT different grammatical function. To put it simply, these are words that change their meaning if they have an accent.

In short, the grammatical accent is used to distinguish homonyms.

Example :
– Solo (Alone) ==> adjective / Sólo (only) ==> adverb
– Este (this) ==> Demonstrative adjective / Éste (this one) ==> Demonstrative pronoun
– Tu (your) ==> Possessive adjective / Tú (you) ==> Personal pronoun
– Aun (even) / Aún (again)

N.B : the emphasis is always on interrogative and exclamatory words.

Example : Cómo, Quién, Qué, Cuántos, etc.

III. The umlaut and the tilde

* The umlautis rarely used in Spanish. It is placed on the vowel -u; between the letter G and the vowels E or I.

Example : antigüedad (antiquity), agüero (oracle), bilingüe (bilingual)

* The tilde is the “little wave” present on the letter Ñ, its pronunciation is ny/ni (as in the words canyon, onion etc)

IV. Diphthongs

A syllable formed by two vowels that are pronounced at the same time is called a diphthong.

When the syllable is located at the end of the word, the rule of “palabras llanas” is followed: the tonic syllable will be on the penultimate syllable.

Example : Notario (Notary), Serie (Series), Serio (Serious) ==> The diphthongs are located at the end of the word and keep the tonic accent on the penultimate syllable.

On the other hand, if the tonic syllable is itself a diphthong, then the stress varies according to the nature of the vowels that make up the diphthong.

The strong vowels are: a, e and o while the weak vowels are: u and i.

The following combinations of vowels are obtained:

* STRONG + WEAK = tonic accent on the first vowel

Example : Reina (Queen), Causa (Cause) ==> Here, the emphasis is on the -e of reina and the -a of causa.

*WEAK +STRONG = tonic accent on the second vowel

Example : Piojo (Lice), Suegra (Mother-in-law) ==> Here the emphasis is on the -o of piojo and the -e of suegra.

* WEAK + WEAK = tonic accent on the second vowel

Example : Ruina (Ruin), Vuida (Widow) ==> Here, the emphasis is on the -i in both cases

* STRONG +STRONG = Two strong vowels never form a diphthong, each one represents a distinct syllable, and we then refer to the general rule of accentuation.

Example :

– Cacao ==> Caca/o ==> The accent is on the -a of the penultimate syllable.
– Poema ==> Poe/ma ==> The accent is on the -e on the penultimate syllable.

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