Spanish accents

Spanish accents (tildes) can only be written over the five vowels (a, e, i, o, u), and the accent is written from lower left to upper right: á, é, í, ó, ú.

 1. Words ending in a vowel, n, or s.

For words that end in a vowel, the letter “n,” or the letter “s,” the stress is on the next to last syllable.
Examples:
     todo (to-do) all/every
     inteligente (in-te-li-gen-te) smart
     el examen (e-xa-men) exam
     joven (jo-ven) young
     lunes (lu-nes) Monday
     los calcetines (cal-ce-ti-nes) socks

that's why: Andrés,

2. Words ending in a consonant (not n, s)

For words that end in all other consonants (not “n” or “s”), the stress falls on the last syllable.
Examples:
     comer (co-mer)  to eat
     la ciudad (ciu-dad)  the city
     el profesor (pro-fe-sor)  the professor/teacher
     el animal (a-ni-mal)  the animal
     Madrid (Ma-drid)  Madrid

When to add Spanish accent marks

We add accent marks to Spanish words when the stress breaks either of those two rules.
Let’s look at one example in detail first, the word from my vocabulary test: los exámenes. The word ends in an “s”, so according to the first rule, the stress should fall on the next to last syllable: ex-am-en-es. But it doesn’t.
Rather, the word keeps the same stress as its singular form, on what is now the third to last syllable, so we add an accent mark: exámenes (e-xa-me-nes). That’s it!

Examples of words that break rule #1

Here are some examples of Spanish words with accent marks that break rule #1. You’ll notice none of the stresses fall on the second to last syllable, as they normally would.
     la canción (can-cion) song
     también (tam-bien) also
     los crímenes (cri-me-nes) crimes
     jamás (ja-mas) never
     inglés (in-gles) English
     rápido (ra-pi-do) fast
     está (es-ta) is, third person singular of the verb estar - to be

Examples of words that break rule #2

And here are examples of words that break the second rule. These are words that end in a consonant (not “n” or “s”), but whose accent does not fall on the final syllable.
     el árbol (ar-bol)  tree
     la cárcel (car-cel)  jail/prison
     el césped (ces-ped)  grass
     débil (de-bil)  weak

Spanish homonyms: Same pronunciation, different meaning

     de (preposition: of, from)
     dé (third-person singular subjunctive form of dar – to give)

     el (masculine article: the)
     él (he)

     mas (but)
     más (more)

     se (reflexive and indirect object pronoun)
     sé (I know)

     si (if)
     sí (yes)

     te (object: you)
     té: (tea)

     tu (your)
     tú (subject: you)

Accents on Spanish question words

     ¿Quién? (Who?)
     ¿Qué? (What? / Which?)
     ¿Dónde? (Where?)
     ¿Cuándo? (When?)
     ¿Por qué? (Why?)
     ¿Cómo? (How?)
     ¿Cuál? (Which?)
     ¿Cuánto? (How much/many?)





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