1. Rules for Accents Word Stress
Spanish III
Señora Hoffman-Fields

2. 1. Words that end with a vowel, the letter N, or the letter S are stressed on the next-to-last syllable.

3. 2. Words that end with a consonant (not N or S) are stressed on the last syllable.

4. 3. Any word that does not follow the first 2 rules has an accent mark on the stressed syllable. á é í ó ú

5. ¡Practicar! estudiante es-tu-di-an-te papel pa-pel gatos ga-tos azul
animal
a-ni-mal
caminamos
ca-mi-na-mos
borrador
bo-rra-dor
matador
ma-ta-dor
hablamos
ha-bla-mos
trabajan
tra-ba-jan
lentamente
len-ta-men-te
clase
cla-se

6. Combinations of Vowels
STRONG VOWELS
A E O
weak vowels
I U
the weakest vowel of all is I

7. Combinations of Vowels+ =
Two strong vowels each count as a separate syllable.
STRONG
VOWEL
STRONG
VOWEL
A strong and a weak vowel will blend together and count as one syllable. The strong vowel gets the stress. + =
STRONG
VOWEL
weak
vowel
Two weak vowels will blend together and count as one syllable. The second weak vowel gets the stress. + =
weak
vowel
weak
vowel

8. ¡Practicar! I U A E O suegra sue-gra tarea ta-re-a impermeable
ciudad
ciu-dad
nueve
nue-ve
empleado
em-ple-a-do
video
vi-de-o
siete
sie-te
cuidado
cui-da-do
feo
fe-o
maestro
ma-es-tro
seis
seis

9. All interrogative words have an accent mark.
¿Qué? ¿Cómo? ¿Dónde?

10. Accent marks can also determine the meaning of a word.
te – té si - sí
tu – tú el - él

11. Accents are only written on a vowel! á é í ó ú