1. Group Activity
List Spanish words that you know have accent marks (acento escrito or tilde).
Why do these words require accent marks?

2. Pronunciation Stress and accents
In order to pronounce a word correctly, it is absolutely necessary to put the emphasis, or stress, on the correct syllable. If you emphasize the wrong syllable of a word, the word will be pronounced incorrectly, and thus the person you are talking to may not understand what you are trying to say.

3. Pronunciation Stress and accents
There are two rules on pronouncing words correctly. All words that don’t follow these two rules have accents to show where the stress should go.

4. Rule #1
If a word ends in a vowel or n, or s, the stress always goes on the second to last syllable.

5. Rule #1 Examples presidente comen parque cine trabajos hablo taco gato
alumno
perro
presidente
comen
parque
cine
trabajos

6. Rule #2
If a word ends in a consonant other than n or s, the stress goes on the last syllable.

7. hablar ciudad profesor beber escribir Español señor comer
Rule #2 Examples
hablar
ciudad
profesor
beber
escribir
Español
señor
comer

8. Rule #3 Words with Accent Marks
If a word is stressed in such a way that neither follows the pattern of rule #1 nor #2, an accent mark is written where the stress goes.

9. Rule #3 Examples: ¡Pruébalo!
esta
Ramon
cafe
facil
pelicula
ingles
estan
que
telefono
despues
platano

10. Rule #3 Examples: answers
está
Ramón
café
fácil
película
inglés
están
qué
teléfono
después
plátano

11. Quiz