Accentuation rules: How to put the tildes correctly in the words

Today we bring you a article that will surely interest you.

You're going to learn what are the Spanish accent rules. 

We will also see the use of accents in the words. 

Surely this topic usually gives you problems, right? Well after reading our article that won't happen again. 

You will be able to write respecting the rules of accentuation in Spanish and finally you will know What are the words that have tilde.

No more putting the tildes by intuition!

It's time for you to learn to write perfectly🙌🏻

Tildes: What are they? 

We start by explaining what are accents.

The accents are graphic signs that are placed on a letter to indicate that it has the stronger pronunciation. 

Almost all languages ​​have accents and there are many types. 

In Spanish, the tilde is a line that faces to the right (´) and can only be placed over the 5 vowels.

You will see the tildes in Spanish in this way: a e i o u.

⚠️We never put it over the consonants. 

⚠️We can't put words with accents in several vowels at once. A word can only have one tilde in Spanish.

And in capital letters? Do capital letters have tilde?

For a long time they were eliminated because in the old typewriters you could not put the tilde in the capital letters. 

But today, on the keyboards of modern devices, it is possible.

Therefore, the answer is yes, capital letters can carry tilde.

Difference between accent and tilde 

Not all words have accents. But they all have a stronger syllable. 

You do not know what is a syllable?

A syllable is a group of letters that make up a word. They are usually made up of consonants and vowels. 

For example, the word "maleta" consists of three syllables: MA / LE / TA

And the word "computer"? It is divided into four syllables: OR / DE / NA / DOR

Sometimes there is more than one vowel in the same syllable. We call this phenomenon diphthong.

For example, in the word "handsome": GUA /PO

Or in "television": TE / LE / VI / SION

Great, you know what a syllable is. Well, absolutely all words have a syllable that is pronounced stronger than the others. 

That more intense pronunciation in one syllable is the accent.

For example, in the word "casa", the accent is on "ca". 

The word "ham" has an accent, therefore, it is clear that the accent is on "món".

In short, accent and tilde express the strongest pronunciation of a vowel or a syllable. But not all words have an accent. Instead, all the words yes they have an accent.

Do you already know how to appreciate the differences between accents or tildes? Surely yes.

We move forward! 😉

stressed and unstressed syllable of words

As we have said before, all words are made up of syllables. 

There are two types of syllables, the stressed and unstressed syllable.

Next, we explain how they differian.

What is a tonic syllable

¿What is the tonic syllable?

Both stressed syllable is the syllable whose pronunciation is stronger. In each word there is only one tonic syllable.

For example, in the word "camiseta", the tonic syllable is in "se".

CA/MI/ SE /TA

Do you know what the tonic syllable is in the word «arbol»? Come tell me!

It is "ár": AR / BOWL 

Here it is easy because it has tilde 😊

What is an unstressed syllable

On the contrary, the unstressed syllable is the syllable that does not carry the accent and therefore is pronounced with less intensity.

Depending on the syllables in a word, there may be one or more unstressed syllables.

For example, in the word "carretera", the accent is on "te". The rest of the syllables are unstressed: CA / RR / TEA / RA

In this word we have 3 unstressed syllables.

In the word "chair" there is only one: YEAH / ALL

Now you can distinguish between the unstressed and stressed syllables and you know the differences between tilde and accent.

This is the introduction to the word stress rules.

Do you want to continue ampliangive your knowledge about Spanish accentuation rules? Of course you do!

Read 👉

Types of words according to their stressed syllable

On the accentuation rule Spanish, we distinguish 4 types of words according tonic syllable position.

These four classifications are:

• Sharp words
• Plain words
• Words esdrújulas
• Words about esdrújulas

You want to know the general rules of accentuation of these types of words? Let's see them!

Sharp words

¿What are sharp words?

They are all the words that have the stressed syllable in the last. 

Meaning, when sharp words are accentuated, it will always be in the last syllable.

For example, the word "natural" is acute because the tonic syllable is at the end: NA / TU / RAL

The same happens in the word «hotel»: HO / TEL

More sharp words? 

These are some examples:

reshop, pREDAsfaith, orderpain, officecial, Colaugh, Rubless...

Plain words

The time has come to see the rules of accentuation of plain words. 

¿When do flat words accentuate?

They always have the accent in the penultimate syllable. 

There are many flat words in Spanish. Is he most common type of words.

We give you some examples: 

Movile, cohsummer, perro, raTaconeyo, servedlleyou, youclaof, maNo, Lófish, seayounez, camiseta, pantalones, florero, vivíah, habíto…

There are so many that we could spend the whole article writing only plain words, but it would not be much fun. 😁

We have to continue, now they play the esdrújulas!

Words esdrújulas

Both esdrújula word always has the accent on the penultimate syllable.

Therefore, they are words that have three syllables or more. 

There are not so many words of this type as with the flat or the sharp ones.

Some examples we have:

Wallcielake, AIdelicious, bruJula, thislula, pagina, pajaro, Rotulle, booligraph, plaso…

Words about esdrújulas

After seeing the Sharp, flat and proparoxytones, we only have the words on esdrújulas.

These have the stress on a syllable before the penultimate. By needing a minimum of four syllables, it is not so common to find a sobresdrújula word.

We see them especially in the adverbs of manner.  

Thebilly, Ifishonly, willaskly, faeasily, youmoderately…

Don't you understand well the adverbs of manner? Too easy.

They are always formed with the following structure: ADJECTIVE + MIND

They are used to express the way in which something is done:

• For example: «Ricardo works very quickly. He is very productive ».

It is also common to find sobreesdrújula words in imperatives with pronouns of verbs that have three or more syllables: 

Repifear it, regalick it, redutell us…

Perfect, now you know what are the general rules of accentuation. But we haven't talked about the tilde rules yet. 

Because there words with tilde and others that do not have it?

You will discover it in the following sections 👌

When do acute words have an accent?

Sharp words have a tilde when:

end in VOWEL or in the consonants -N o -S.

There are many sharp words with tilde who follow this rule. These are some examples:

• They end in a vowel: 

Maybe, committee, coffee, taboo, dad, mom, there, there, hopefully, purée, hummingbird, baby...

• End in -S: 

Never, compass, Japanese, polite, others, stress, after, bus, English...

• End in -N:

Plane, truck, bra, fraction, action, dolphin, sleepyhead, balcony, function…

All nouns that ending in -ion are sharp words and have a tilde.

Many conjugated verb forms in Different times They are acute words with tilde. 

For example, the first y third person singular of the regular verbs pretérito indefinido they always have an accent. 

Let's see it with the verb to speak:

I havewheat

You spoke

He/she/you havebló

We talk

You spoke

They talked

The forms of infinitives with -er or -ir also have tilde:

Move: moved, moved.

Write: wrote, wrote.

En Simple future, all persons have tilde, except the first person plural (us or us).

Example with the verb respond:

I answerre

You answeryou will

He answerswill

we will answer

you answerreis

they answerfry

In the time present , the form of vosotros or vosotras also has an accent:

You look, you have, you drive, you read, you open...

As a recap, we have seen these 3 tenses that have acute words with tilde:

• Present
• Indefinite past tense
• Simple future

Acute words without tilde 

There are also sharp words without tilde. 

Each infinitives in spanish they are sharp words. The stressed syllable is produced on the endings -ar, -er, -ir:

sing, speak, play, move, flee, live, be able, remember... 

Why don't they have an accent? Because they end in -r. 

remember the acute accentuation rules: they only have tilde when end in VOWEL or in the consonants -N o -S.

There are many sharp words that end in -or. 

These also do not have an accent. For example:

Love, explorer, teacher, radiator, entrepreneur, fork, marker...

The nouns ending in -dad They are also acute words without tilde:

Truth, university, brevity, reality...

And what about words that only have one syllable? Are they considered acute? Can they have accent?

The stress rules for monosyllables they are very simple: They do NOT have tilde. 

Some examples of monosyllabic words are the following:

Flower, sea, salt, sun, bread, peace, law...

Yet there are words monosyllables that do have an accent. They are the words that have different meanings such as yes (affirmation) or if (conditional) and carry the tilde to differentiate them.

This tilde is called diacritical tilde. The most used monosyllables that have this tilde are the following:

Me (personal pronoun) My (possessive)

Tea (drink) Te (personal pronoun)

You (subject pronoun) You (possessive)

I know (first person verb to know) I know (personal pronoun)

Yes (affirmation) Yes (conditional)

Botton line, the following sharp words they never have an accent: 

• infinitives
• Words that end in -or
• Nouns ending in -dad
• Monosyllables (except diacritical accents)

When do flat words have an accent?

the plain words have a tilde in the following situation:

When DO NOT finish in VOCAL, -N o -S

In other words, it is just the opposite of sharp words. 

Brilliant! So you don't have to learn a new rule. 😎

• Some examples of plain words with tilde

Agile, easy, femur, album, tree, poster, grass, cocktail, simile, ether, character...

In this type we find many words with gap. In a hiatus there are two vowels together but pronouncedian in different syllables. 

Sometimes in the gaps it is necessary to put the tilde to know that there is a separation between the vowels, 

Even if the word ends in a vowel, you also have to put it.

• Examples of hiatus with tilde in plain words:

Shipping, distracted, Lucía, María, ate, crane, photography, country, philosophy… 

The hiatus «ÍA» is very common. This always has a tilde in the "i". 

do you know the time pretérito imperfecto? Now you know why verbs that end in -er or -ir always have words with i with tilde 😉

• Examples of imperfect tense with «ÍA»: 

MOVER

I moveded

you moveeds

he/she/you moved

We / we movedWe

You / you movedis

They / they / you movedn

LOGOUT

I go outed

Your salteds

he/she/you go outed

we saltedWe

you / you saltedis

they / they / you saltedn

Plain words without tilde

In nouns, we find more words without tildes in the plains because most of them end in a vowel. 

These are some examples:

Sishe, meyou know, moultwheat, Plato, vaso, whatchafrog, cothat, calle, raexceedingper, disco, butson / A, stinkta, manzan / A, pewow, youchugo, Parts and accessoriesne, carpisper, texdude, smartgeneyou, interestSt.you, pauto…

There are so many.

When do esdrújula words have an accent?

With esdrújula words we have it easy. The accent rule here is that ALL have tilde. 

So now you know, whenever you write an esdrújula word, put the accent on it.

Examples of esdrújulas words:

TUEmosubway, Áafrica, piwillmeasure, youyouphone, isdruJula, brocoli hoophastic, fishMary, sathequarrel, terMy no, haswho, you will drástico, echohellogica, orxigene, echonómonkey…

many verbs in imperative with pronouns They are also squishy words:

From theApple tree, bringI know, comPrala, ofjanos…

Esdrújula words without tilde

No esdrújula words without tilde. As we have said before, they all have an accent. 

This point has been short 😁

When do the words sobreesdrújulas have an accent?

Like the esdrújulas, there are always tilde in words sobresdrújulas

Most are:

• Adverbs of manner: fiphysically, I laughedstiffly, withmodally…
• Imperatives with pronouns: whatgive it to you, withmassage them, comPramela…
• Gerunds with pronoun: sadogcanopy, ranheytame it… 

Exhausted and in need of examples with gerunds to understand it better? 

No problem, remember that many times we use them after the verb "to be" to express actions in progress:

Amanda will have her driver's license very soon. is taking it off».

"My teacher is looking at my test. It's correcting me».

Sobreesdrújula words without tilde

As with esdrújulas, we also do not have sobreesdrújula words without accents. Fantastic! 🙌🏻

Accent rules exercises

How are you? I'm sure you've learned a lot about the general rules of accentuation with this article. 

Now that you know everything about how to use tildes, we suggest you practice the stress rules with activities. You will see how it becomes clearer.

Activity 1

In this activity you have a short text. There are 10 words that should have a tilde and don't. Write the 10 words with the tilde in the boxes below.