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
sí → yes		tú → you		mí → me		él → he