|
ACCENTS
AND STRESS WHEN SPEAKING SPANISH
Word stress can affect the meaning of the word and generally follows these
rules:
- If
a word is marked with an accent, then that syllable receives the
stress.
- Additionally,
if the accent marks a dipthong a syllable break occurs between the
two vowels of the dipthong.
- If
a word is NOT marked with an accent, then
1.
if the word ends in a consonant other than N or S,
the stress occurs on the last syllable.
2.
if the word ends in a vowel, N or S, the stress
occurs on the next to last syllable.
Examples:
círculo
(SEER-koo-loh) → circle
circulo
(seer-KOO-loh) → I circulate
circuló
(seer-koo-LOH) → (s)he/it circulated
estás
(ehss-TAHSS) → you are
estas
(EHSS-tahss) → these
origen
(oh-REE-hehn) → origin
orígenes
(oh-REE-hehn-ehss) → origins
ciudad
(syew-DAHD) → city
ciudades
(syew-DAH-dehss) → cities
An accent can also be used to differentiate
between words that are pronounced the same but have different meanings:
|
si
→ if
|
|
tu
→ your
|
|
mi
→ my
|
|
el
→ the
|
|
sí
→ yes
|
|
tú
→ you
|
|
mí
→ me
|
|
él
→ he
|
|
Help me make this
website the most useful one to learn basic Spanish on the Internet!
If you know other Spanish phrases,
simply fill the form below and click on "Here's my contribution".
IMPORTANT: I need BOTH phrases: the English one and
its Spanish equivalent. Every month I will add those phrases to
special sections of the website.
|
