Notes from ¿Qué tal? - Stress and Written Accent Marks

Although all Spanish words of more than one syllable have a stressed vowel, most words do not have a written accent mark. Most words have the spoken stress exactly where native speakers of Spanish would predict it. These two simple rules tell you which syllable is accented when a word does not have a written accent.

Words that end in a vowel, -n, or -s are stressed on the next-to-last syllable.

i-ta-lia-no, ru-so, co-sa, e-xa-men, gra-cias, e-res, len-guas

Words that end in any other consonant are stressed on the last syllable.

us-ted, es-pa-ñol, doc-tor pa-pel, na-tu-ral, pro-fe-sor, es-tar

The written accent mark is used in the following situations.

A written accent mark is needed when a word does not follow the two basic rules. Look at the words in this group.

ta-bú
a-le-mán
na-ción
in-glés
es-tás
Since these words end in a vowel, -n, or -s, one would predict that they would be stressed on the next-to-last syllable. But the written accent mark shows that they are in fact accented on the last syllable.

Now look at the words in this group.
lá-piz
dó-lar
ál-bum
á-gil
dó-cu
Since these words end in a consonant (other than -n or -s), one would predict that they would be stressed on the last syllable. But the written accent mark shows that they are in fact accented on the next-to-last syllable.

All words that are stressed on the third-to-last syllable must have a written accent mark.

bo-lí-gra-fo
ma-trí-cu-la
ma-te-má-ti-cas

When two consecutive vowels do not form a diphthong, the vowel that receives the spoken stress will have a written accent mark. This pattern is very frequent in words that end in -ía.

Ma-rí-a
dí-a
po-li-cí-a
bio-lo-gí-a
as-tro-no-mí-a
Contrast the pronunciation of those words with the following words in which the vowels i and a do form a diphthong: Patricia, Clemencia, Francia, infancia.