Spanish orthography : Spanish orthography Stresses and accent marks www.spanishsouthamerica.org
Slide 2 : “Understanding where to put the emphasis in a word can be as difficult as sounding out the word itself. Fortunately, Spanish makes it easy for you. When a word is stressed on an irregular syllable, an accent mark will appear above the stressed vowel”
@Rocket Languages www.spanishsouthamerica.org
Stressed syllables in Spanish : Stressed syllables in Spanish In Spanish orthography, stress may be written explicitly with a single acute accent on a vowel, depending on the syllable such vowel is
Stressed antepenultimate syllables are always written with this accent mark, as in Húngaro.
If the last syllable is stressed, the accent mark is used if the word ends in the letters n, s, or a vowel, as in camión, anís and salió.
If the penultimate syllable is stressed, the accent is used if the word ends in any other letter (any letter but n, s, or a vowel), as in cárcel and lápiz.
That is, if the last letter a word written without an accent mark is a vowel, n, or s, the stress is on the penult: pato, releen and cactus.
But if the last letter a word written without an accent mark is any other letter, then the stress is on the final syllable: legal, buscar and libertad.
However as in Greek, the acute accent is also used for some words to distinguish various syntactical uses (e.g. té "tea" vs. te - a form of the pronoun tú; dónde "where" as a pronoun or wh-complement, donde "where" as an adverb). www.spanishsouthamerica.org
Typing accents and other Spanish characters : Typing accents and other Spanish characters In Mac
á Option + e , a Á Option + e , A
é Option + e , e É Option + e , E
í Option + e , i Í Option + e , I
ó Option + e , o Ó Option + e , O
ú Option + e , u Ú Option + e , U
ü Option + u , u
ñ Option + n , n Ñ Option + n , N
¡ Option + 1
¿ Option + Shift + ? (Press the 3 keys together) www.spanishsouthamerica.org
Slide 5 : In Microsoft Word:
á Ctrl + (apostrophe) , a Á Ctrl + (apostrophe) , A
é Ctrl + (apostrophe) , e É Ctrl + (apostrophe) , E
í Ctrl + (apostrophe) , i Í Ctrl + (apostrophe) , I
ó Ctrl + (apostrophe) , o Ó Ctrl + (apostrophe) , O
ú Ctrl + (apostrophe) , u Ú Ctrl + (apostrophe) , U
Ü Ctrl + Shift + (colon) , u
ñ Ctrl + Shift + ~ (tilde) , n Ñ Ctrl + Shift + ~ (tilde) , N
¡ Alt + Ctrl + Shift + ! (Press the 4 keys together)
¿ Alt + Ctrl + Shift + ? (Press the 4 keys together)
Most of these formulas represent two step operations www.spanishsouthamerica.org
More on stress and written accents : More on stress and written accents Compare the previous explanation to this other presentation and try doing the exercises
http://www.bowdoin.edu/~eyepes/newgr/ats/03.htm
. www.spanishsouthamerica.org
References : References http://www.rocketlanguages.com/spanish/pronunciation_spanish_accents.php
http://www.e-spanyol.hu/en/grammar/stress.php
http://www.irvingisd.net/districtweekly/flyers/typing_in_spanish.htm
http://www.conted.und.edu/Bbsix/courses/typespanish.html www.spanishsouthamerica.org