Las tildes y la acentuación en español

Basic Rules: 1. A word ending in a vowel, n, or s should have the spoken stress on the 2nd to last syllable. Example: hablo, comemos, hablan, ustedes 2. A word ending in any consonant other than n or s should have the spoken stress on the last syllable. Example: universidad, conversar, animal, decid 3. If a word does not follow one of the above two rules, then a written accent mark (una tilde) is placed over the stressed syllable to show which syllable to stress. Examples: teléfono, México, Gómez, último, veintiséis, habló Dipthongs (diptongos y antidiptongos): hacía (hacia), río (rio), comíamos, decías 4. There are a certain number of homophones/homófonos (same sound but different meaning) in the language. Examples: de vs dé, como (conjunction) vs como (verb) vs cómo (interrogative), tu vs tú, mi vs mí, el vs él, mas vs más How to apply the rules: If you know how a word is pronounced, write the word, identify and underline the stressed/strongest/loudest syllable and then apply #1 or #2 above. If it follows #1/ #2 no written stress mark is needed. If it breaks one or the other, place the stress mark on the underlined syllable (#3). For #4, you need to learn the various homophone pairs. deposito, deposito, breaks rule #1, depósito deposito, deposito, follows rule #1, deposito deposito, deposito, breaks rule #1, depositó hablad, hablad, follows rule #2, hablad facil, facil, breaks rule #2, fácil dificil, dificil, breaks rule #2, difícil