ACCENTS AND STRESS WHEN SPEAKING

Word stress can affect the meaning of the word and generally follows these rules:
  • If a word is marked with an accent, then that syllable receives the stress.
    • Additionally, if the accent marks a dipthong a syllable break occurs between the two vowels of the dipthong.
  • If a word is NOT marked with an accent, then
  1. if the word ends in a consonant other than N or S, the stress occurs on the last syllable.
  2. if the word ends in a vowel, N or S, the stress occurs on the next to last syllable.
Examples:
círculo (SEER-koo-loh) → circle
circulo (seer-KOO-loh) → I circulate
circuló (seer-koo-LOH) → (s)he/it circulated
estás (ehss-TAHSS) → you are
estas (EHSS-tahss) → these
origen (oh-REE-hehn) → origin
orígenes (oh-REE-hehn-ehss) → origins
ciudad (syew-DAHD) → city
ciudades (syew-DAH-dehss) → cities
An accent can also be used to differentiate between words that are pronounced the same but have different meanings:
si → if   tu → your   mi → my   el → the
→ yes
→ you
→ me
él → he

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