Accent marks are pretty simple, but sometimes it takes some practice to get it right. In order to understand when to (and when not to!) use them you need to know the rules for them.
1. Knowing Where Syllables "Land"
First things first. We need to learn how to know where syllables are. In Spanish we find the syllables differently than we do in English. Take the word "africano", for example.
In English, africano looks something like this:
af-ri-ca-no
However, in Spanish the consonant goes with the following vowel group:
a-fri-ca-no
2. Counting Syllables
Spanish always counts syllables from the back. Let's take another look at the word africano, only this time we are going to number the syllables.
a(4)-fri(3)-ca(2)-no(1)
You can see here that the first letter is actually the fourth syllable and the last is the first syllable. We'll look at another word to make sure that we understand.
Bailar
Bai-lar
Bai(2)-lar(1)
3. The Rules
Now that we know how to identify and number the syllables we can look at the rules for what words need accent marks. The rules each have their own names (which are relatively unimportant unless you are going to teach Spanish).
Rule 1: Agudas
If the last syllable is stressed and word ends in n, s, or are stressed on the last syllable (syllable 1) then the word needs an accent mark on that last syllable.
Canción (song) quizás (perhaps) empezó
Rule 2: Llanas o graves
If the second to last syllable is stressed and the word end in a consonant other than n or s then the word needs an accent mark on the second to last syllable.
Fútbol (soccer) árbol (tree) lápiz (pencil)
Rule 3: esdrújulas y sobreesdrújulas
This rule is the easiest. If the word has a stressed vowel on any syllable higher than 2, then that syllable gets an accent mark.
rápido (fast) dímelo (tell me [it]/ say it to me) mándaselo (send it to him/her)
Keep in mind that these rules only apply if the vowel is stressed. If a word follows these rules but it is stressed normally there is no accent mark!
Some words have accent marks just so that they can be distinguished from others. Here are some examples.
se (vs) sé himself/herself/itself/yourself (vs) I know
si (vs) sí if (vs) yes
mi (vs) mí my (vs) me/myself
tu (vs) tú your (vs) you
To learn how to make accent marks on your computer click here.
Now for the practice!
Encontra las palabras que están faltando los acentos y escribe la palabra correctamente. Hay 32 errores. Cuidado, mira para la tilde arriba de la "n" (ñ).
Cuando yo
tenia diez anos, fui a Nevada con mi mama. En Nevada nosotros vimos el Grande Canon,
fuimos a Las Vegas, y conoci Bill Nye the Science Guy. Mientras estabamos al Grande Canon yo queria preguntar a mi mama una cuestion, me dijo “Dimelo, hijo.”
Le pregunte,
“¿Como se formaba el Grande Canon?”
“No se,
hijo.”
“Perdon,”
escuchamos una voz desde detras de nos, “Puedo ayudarse.”
Vi a un
hombre y ¡me di cuenta que fue Bill Nye the Science Guy!
“El Grande
Canon formaba por unos rios, atras muchas siglas.”
Bill Nye ofrecio
hacer un recorrido turistico atras el canon.
Despues volvemos
al hotel en Las Vegas, yo se llame todos de mis amigos, ¡conoci Bill Nye!
Las respuestas:
Cuando yo
tenía diez años, fui a Nevada con mi mamá. En Nevada nosotros vimos el Grande Cañón,
fuimos a Las Vegas, y conocí Bill Nye the Science Guy. Mientras estábamos al
Grande Cañón yo quería preguntar a mi mamá una cuestión, me dijo “Dímelo, hijo.”
Le pregunté,
“¿Cómo se formaba el Grande Cañón?”
“No sé,
hijo.”
“Perdón,”
escuchamos una voz desde detrás de nos, “Puedo ayudarse.”
Vi a un
hombre y ¡me di cuenta que fue Bill Nye the Science Guy!
“El Grande
Cañón formaba por unos ríos, atrás muchas siglas.”
Bill Nye ofreció
hacer un recorrido turístico atrás el cañón.
Después volvemos
al hotel en Las Vegas, yo se llamé todos de mis amigos, ¡conocí Bill Nye!
