The Importance of the Acute Accent in Spanish Spelling and Pronunciation
Tips for Using the Acute Accent in Spanish
One of the most important aspects of Spanish grammar is understanding when and how to use the acute accent mark. The acute accent (´) can change the meaning of a word, indicate which syllable should be stressed when pronouncing a word, and even make a difference between masculine and feminine words.
First we will go over the natural rules of pronunciation without the use of the acute accent.
Rule 1 - Palabras Graves:
In Spanish, one syllable is always emphasized, and this stressed syllable is known as the sílaba tónica.
Many words in Spanish are stressed on the penultimate (second to last) syllable. These words are called "palabras llanas" (or sometimes "palabras graves").
When the word ends in -n, -s or a vowel, the word will generally be stressed on the penultimate syllable and does not need a written accent.1
Here is an example
Palabras
In this example Palabras ends in -S so the natural pronunciation is to stress the second to last syllable — paLAbras. So the -LA is stressed.
Rule 2 - Palabras Agudas:
When a the word ends in any consonant that is not -N or -S then the stress naturally falls on the last syllable. These are called palabras agudas.
Here is an example
AZUL
For this example the stress is on the last syllable — aZUL. Can you hear it?
These natural rules always apply once the word has no acute accent over any vowels.
The Acute Accent
Now we will dive into the acute accent and why it exists and how it is used.
Here are a few things to remember about the acute accent
The acute accent can only be used in a word
The acute accent can only be used on vowels (A, E, I, O, U)
The acute accent is used to break the previous rules of natural pronunciation.
The acute accent is also useful for differentiating homonyms.
Jesús
Can you hear how the accented -Ú is stressed? Even though the first syllable should be stredded because of the word ending in -S. It is pronounced jeSUS because of the accent.
Here are some more examples of the acute accent changing the natural pronunciation. Please take note also of which rule is being adjusted.
So let’s do a breakdown of the illustration above. Remember that each time an accent mark is used it means that one of the natural rules is being broken and the word is being said differently.
Here we have the word café, that ends in -E. Because of rule one the stress should be on the second to last syllable - CAfe. But as we can see the accent tells us to say differently and bypass the natural pronunciation. Now the stress is on the last syllable instead -caFE with the -FE being stressed. Listen to the audio clip below and identify.
Let’s look at the word árbol that ends in the consonant -L. Becaus of that it falls under rule 2 where the stress should naturally fall on the last syllable. Because of the accented -Á we know that we have to stress that syllable - ARbol.
Take a look at the other 2 examples in the illustration and see the pattern.
Homonyms
Homonyms are words that have the same spelling or pronunciation but different meanings and origins. In Spanish, homonyms are called "palabras homónimas" and are words that are pronounced in the same way but have a different meaning.
The acute accent is used in Spanish to differentiate the meaning of homonyms. For example, "sé" (I know) and "se" (pronoun) are homophones, but the accent mark makes a written distinction in meaning.
Here are some more examples shown in the illustration below.
Conclusion
It’s important to know these things as they are your foundation of good Spanish pronunciation.
Going forward you should know how to pronounce any Spanish word with these rules.
Finally here is a great video that summarizes everything we went through today.