When do I need to use an accent mark in Spanish???

Some Spanish words have written accent marks over one of the vowels. That mark is called “acento”. It means that the syllable containing the accent vowel is stressed when the word is pronounced, as in the word “papa”, for example.

Then, the written accent mark is used in the following situations:

-        All words that are stressed on the third-to-last syllable must have a written accent mark, regardless of which letter they end in. 

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 frecuent in words end in –ía 

              Ma-rí-a            po-li-cía             as-tro-no-mía            dí-a                  bio-lo-gía      

 

-        Some one-syllable words have accents to distinguish them from other words that spund like them. For example:

 él (he)  /  el (the)

sí (yes)  / si (if)

tú (you)  / tu (your)

mí (me)  / mi (my)

 

-        Interrogative and exclamatory words have written accent on the stressed vowel.

¿quién?

¿dónde?

¿cuándo?

  

PRÁCTICA: practice what you just learned with the following words, the rules you have learned will help you pronounce them correctly. Don’t worry about the meaning of the words you haven’t heard before!

1.      Aquí

2.      Práctico

3.      Teléfono

4.      Sabiduría

5.      Papá

6.      Murciélago

7.      Sociología

8.      Mamá

9.      Energía

10.   Psicología

11.   Adiós

12.   Jiménez

13.   Sánchez