Modern Spanish Grammar: A Practical Guide

pa-pel

a-rre-ba-tar

ha-blan

mu-je-res

com-pra-mos

ter-mi-na

e-qui-va-len-te

Any departure from this situation is marked by the writing of an accent on the vowel in

the stressed syllable:

can-tá-ba-mos

te-rrá-que-o

ár-bol

a-sí

fran-cés

a-za-frán

1.5.2 The written accent is also used (even when the word is stressed regularly according to
1.5.1) to indicate when a combination of vowels which would be expected to form a
diphthong (as in 1.2) in fact does not, but forms two separate syllables. Such groups of
vowels are said to be in hiatus.

Examples of irregularly stressed words (i.e. those words which would

need a written accent on the stressed syllable in any case):

a-hí

re-í

Examples of regularly stressed words (the written accent marks the

hiatus and hence the syllable division but would otherwise be

unnecessary):

co-mí-a

ba-úl

re-ú-ne

Contrast

se-rí-a/se-ria

con-ti-nú-o/con-ti-nuo

1.5.3 The written accent is also used to achieve a different spelling for some pairs of words
which sound the same:

el definite él ‘he’, ‘him’

article

mi ‘my’ mí ‘I’, ‘me’

se reflexive

pronoun

sé ‘I know’

si ‘if’ sí ‘yes’

solo ‘only’, ‘alone’ sólo ‘only’

(adjective) (adverb)

tu ‘your’ tú ‘you’

PRONUNCIATION AND SPELLING 1.5