Crack the Code of Spanish Accent Marks with These Simple Guidelines
[Bajar para español] Do you know why accent marks are used in Spanish? No, not just because they help you pronounce words. I mean, do you really know why the Real Academia Española decided to use them in certain cases and not others? In other words, what's the rationale behind the "rules"? Here are some guidelines: Guideline #1: When there is natural stress , no accent marks needed. This happens when the stress (acento tónico in Spanish) naturally falls on the next to last syllable in the most common syllable pattern of the language - words that end in any vowel + words that end in -n or -s . For example: pa to, a mi go, li bre, supermer ca do, ex per ta, ma dre, sa bia (ia in Spanish counts as one syllable pronounced in a single breath, sa-bia is two syllables) , a gua (ua in Spanish counts as one syllable pronounced in a single breath, a-gua is two syllables), co me, ha bla, di ce, es tu dia , etc. Why do we include words that end in -n or -s in this category?