1. Accentuation and Syllabication

2. Syllabication—Silabeo
Syllables usually end in a vowel.
ca-sa ba-su-ra
dro-ga

3. Syllabication—Silabeo
A diphthong is never seperated unless the stress of the word falls on the weak vowel of a strong-weak vowel combination.
a-mue-blar ciu-dad
ju-lio
Note: dí-a

4. Syllabication—Silabeo
Two consonants are usually separated. Remember that ch, ll, and rr are each a single consonant in Spanish.
al-qui-ler por-te-ro
ca-le-fac-ción
Note: pe-rro lla-mar

5. Syllabication—Silabeo
The consonants l and r are never separated from the preceding consonant, except from the letter s.
po-si-ble a-cla-rar
a-bri-go
Note: ais-lar

6. Syllabication—Silabeo
When there is a cluster of three consonants, the first two stay with the preceding vowel unless the third consonant is an l or an r, in which case the last two consonants stay with the vowel that follows.

7. Syllabication—Silabeo
Examples:
ins-ti-tu-ción
Note: ex-pli-car
des-crip-ción

8. Syllabication—Silabeo
When there is a cluster of four consonants, they are always divided between the second and third consonants.
ins-crip-ción ins-truc-ción

9. Stress—Acentuatión
If a word ends in –n, –s, or a vowel, the stress falls on the next-to-last syllable.
la-va-pla-tos ex-a-men
ho-la a-par-ta-men-to

10. Stress—Acentuación
If a word ends in any consonant other than –n or –s, the stress falls on the last syllable.
es-pa-ñol us-ted
pro-hi-bir re-gu-lar

11. Stress—Acentuación
Any exception to rules 1 and 2 has a written accent mark on the stressed vowel.
te-le-vi-sión te-lé-fo-no
ál-bum cen-tí-me-tro
Note: na-ción, but na-cion-es

12. Stress—Acentuación Question and exclamation words always have accents.
¿cómo? ¿dónde?
¿cuál? ¿qué?

13. Stress—Acentuación
Certain words change their meaning when written with an accent although the pronunciation remains the same.

14. Stress—Acentuación cómo how como like dé give de of, from él he/him el
(command) de
of, from él
he/him el
the
más
more
mas
but mí me mi my

15. Stress—Acentuación sé I know se sí yes si if sólo only (adv.) solo
3rd person pronoun sí
yes si if
sólo
only (adv.)
solo
alone té
tea te
you
(reflexive pronoun) tú tu
your

16. Stress—Acentuación
Demonstrative pronouns usually have a written accent to distinguish them from demonstrative adjectives.
este niño éste
estas blusas éstas

17. Diphthongs—Diptongos
A diphthong is a combination of a weak vowel (i, u) and a strong vowel (a, e, o) or the combination of two weak vowels in the same syllable.

18. Diphthongs—Diptongos
When two vowels are combined, the strong vowel or the second of the weak vowels takes a slightly greater stress in the syllable.

19. Diphthongs—Diptongos
Examples:
vuelvo automático
tiene conciencia
ciudad

20. Diphthongs—Diptongos
When the stress of the word falls on the weak vowel of a strong-weak combination, the weak vowel takes a written accent mark to break the diphthong. No diphthong occurs because the vowels belong to different syllables.

21. Diphthongs—Diptongos
Examples:
pa-ís dí-a
tí-o en-ví-o
Ra-úl
Note: Ma-rio, but Ma-rí-a

22. Vamos a practicar… example: campeonato cam-pe-o-na-to apice á-pi-ce
Determine where the stress falls, if a written accent mark is needed, and how the syllables are divided.
example:
campeonato cam-pe-o-na-to
apice á-pi-ce

23. Vamos a practicar… cuadro abrazar churros maximiliano geografia
terremotos
desastres
fenomenos
faciles
sillon

24. Las respuestas… cua-dro a-bra-zar chu-rros ma-xi-mi-lia-no
ge-o-gra-fí-a
te-rre-mo-tos
de-sas-tres
fe-nó-me-nos
fá-ci-les
si-llón