SPANISH ORTHOGRAPHY

Stresses and accent marks

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“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

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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 CHARACTERSIn 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)

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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

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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.

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REFERENCES http://www.rocketlanguages.com/spanis

h/pronunciation_spanish_accents.php http://www.e-spanyol.hu/en/grammar/str

ess.php

http://www.irvingisd.net/districtweekly/flyers/typing_in_spanish.htm

http://www.conted.und.edu/Bbsix/courses/typespanish.html

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