Accent marks


In Spanish language, there are three types of words depending on the position of the accent mark. These are:

  • Palabras agudas: when the tonic vowel is placed in the last syllable. Words that end in -n, -s or in vowel have written accent (tílde). Example: salón, café, más. Exeption when the word ends in -s but preceded by another consonant, then no written accent in the word. Words ending in consonant -y have no accent either. Example: robots, estoy.
  • Palabras llanas: the tonic vowel is placed in next to last syllable. These words have the written accent when they do not end in -n, -s nor in vowel. Example: fácil — Exception of accent mark when ending is consonant -s and preceded by other consonant, and words ending in -y. Example: bíceps, jóquey.
  • Palabras esdrújulas y sobresdrújulas: tonic vowel is located in third place to last one for esdrújula, and only in few cases before the third place is the tonic vowel which is sobresdrújula word. Example: sábado, prácticamente

General rule for accent mark:

  • words that are a ‘hiato’ (two vowels that cannot be split into two syllables), then they always have a tílde, written accent is in the closed vowel.
  • Adverbs that originate from an adjective with tílde, also have one. Example: hábil // hábilmente

*Closed vowels- i,u // open vowels- a,e,o

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