How do you know if a Spanish word needs an accent over a letter?

Question

I can spell fine in Spanish, but my problem is not knowing if a word needs an accent, are there any rules when there needs to be an accent?

Answer 1

WHEN THE WORD IS STRESSED ORALLY ON THE LAST SYLLABLE and it ends in a vowel or an N or S , there is a written accent.

Example:



tomó camión salió maní también arnés andén etc.



If not it's not written

Example



tomo cara coche cosas tomes comen etc.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When the oral accent is on the third syllable before last it ALWAYS takes a written accent.

Example:



sábado cálido ásperos súbito etc.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

One-syllable words don't have a written accent except if they can be confused with another word with the same spelling.

Example



este THIS (adj)

éste THIS (pronoun)

más MORE

mas BUT

Answer 2

Yes, there is a rule, and it is very simple. Whenever a word is stressed irregularly, the accented syllable carries a written accent.



A word ending in a vowel, n or s is stressed *regularly* if the word stress falls on the penultimate syllable (the syllable before the last one). A word ending in a consonant (other than n or s) is stressed regularly if the word stress falls on the last syllable. Words which do not conform to this rule are stressed irregularly and must therefore be accented on the vowel of the stressed syllable.

Answer 3

Certain. There are ideas. Divide the phrase in syllables. Instance: "Lápices" - Lá/pi/ces. It can be fundamental you already know the proper pronunciation in Spanish. If the pronunciation is more difficult on the first syllable (/lá/), the word has constantly accent. (We call them: palabras esdrújulas). If it's harder in the second (/pi/ in this case) has accent if the word would not conclude in: "n", "s" and vowel (we call them: palabras graves). If the more difficult tone is within the last syllable, it has accent handiest when it conclude in "n", "s" and vowel (we call them: palabras agudas) There are exceptions, of course. I nonetheless doesn't write in regards to the one-syllable words or the phrases with greater than three syllables, and so on. Nevertheless it's too huge. Perhaps a grammatical e-book can be useful to prolong this subject. In the meantime, i hope this short explanation labored out.