Im having trouble knowing when to add accent marks on letters/words in Spanish. Could you please explain to me when they’re supposed to be used?
Thank you for your patience!
One of the important things to remember is that all words have acento “stress.” In Spanish, most words tend to have the stress on the last syllable (these words are called agudas) and on the second-to-last syllable (called llanas or graves). Furthermore, there can also be stress on the third-to-last syllable (called esdrújulas) and fourth-to-last syllable (called sobresdrújulas).
However, just because all words have stress, it does not mean that all words will have a written accent mark. There are two main rules of when not to use a written accent mark.
Do not use a written accent mark on:
Words that end in “n” or “s” and have stress on the second-to-last syllable (palabras llanas/graves)
such as lunes “monday” lu-nes (the bold is the stressed syllable)
Words that end in any other consonant and have stress on the last syllable (palabras agudas)
such as comer “to eat” co-mer
Written accent marks (tilde in Spanish) are added when two rules are broken.
Regarding #1 above, a word that breaks that rule would be canción “song” which ends in an “n” but the stress is on the last syllable: can-ción.
For Rule #2 above, a word that breaks this rule is árbol “tree” because although it ends in a consonant, the stress is on the second-to-last syllable: ár-bol.
Luckily, with words that have the stress on the third- and fourth-to-last syllables (palabras esdrújulas y sobresdrújulas) will always have a written accent.
These are merely the basic rules for written accent marks, which can be easily remembered and applied. However, we also add accent marks to other words, which do not follow a rule and must be memorized over time, such as homophones, demonstrative pronouns, certain verb conjugations. These two links go a bit more into when to use accent marks in Spanish for further explanation :)
