PART I<\/b><\/p>\n
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One of the things I often noticed about my Spanish students was the difficulty they had knowing where to place the stress when pronouncing words. <\/span>I don\u2019t remember learning this explicitly in my high school Spanish classes (although I probably did) and I suppose I expected my students to intuit this aspect of the language\u2014I tried to avoid bogging them down with tedious \u201crules\u201d and instead wanted them to build awareness on their own. <\/span>This worked for some of my students, but for others, it simply did not. <\/span>For them, I broke out the rules. <\/span>And since correct stress (knowing where the emphasis-denoted by a written accent or not-goes in a given word) is one of the quickest ways of improving your oral skills and facilitating comprehension for those listening to you, maybe this is one place where the rules are worth really nailing down. <\/span>Knowing these rules also, in turn, tells you where the accents belong when writing in Spanish, something many native speakers are not always great at themselves! <\/span><\/p>\n \t<\/span><\/p>\n So, here it goes. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \t<\/span>In Spanish- as opposed to English- the natural stress has a fixed spot: any deviation from this placement requires a written accent. <\/span>For all words ending in a vowel, n, or s, the natural stress falls on the vowel in the second-to-last syllable. <\/span>For any words ending in a consonant OTHER than n or s, the natural stress is on the vowel in the last syllable. <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Because of this, we know that casa<\/i> is pronounced \u201ccAsa\u201d, examen <\/i>is pronounced \u201cexAmen\u201d, and papel<\/i> is pronounced \u201cpapEl\u201d. <\/span>When we pluralize words, we always want the stress to remain on the same vowel as the singular. <\/span>This explains why, in the words above, only the plural of examen<\/i> requires a written accent: casas <\/i>and papeles <\/i>are fine the way they are, but ex\u00e1menes<\/i> needs the accent to signal that we should say \u201cexAmenes\u201d. <\/span>Without an accent, the word would be pronounced \u201cexamEnes\u201d and that would be incorrect. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Got it?? <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Vowel, n, s = natural stress on second-to-last syllable<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n casa \t<\/span>\t<\/span><\/span>cAsa<\/p>\n examen \t<\/span><\/span>exAmen<\/p>\n papeles\t<\/span>\t<\/span>papEles<\/p>\n hablo \t<\/span>\t<\/span><\/span>hAblo<\/p>\n mercado\t<\/span>mercAdo<\/p>\n pesos\t<\/span>\t<\/span>pEsos<\/p>\n <\/p>\n All consonants except n,s= natural stress on last syllable<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n pared\t<\/span>\t<\/span>parEd<\/p>\n papel\t<\/span>\t<\/span>papEl<\/p>\n reloj\t<\/span>\t<\/span>relOj<\/p>\n ordenador\t<\/span>ordenadOr<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Stress is somewhere other than its natural place=a written accent is needed<\/b><\/span>:<\/p>\n autob\u00fas \t<\/span>autobus\t<\/span>not autObus<\/p>\n m\u00fasica\t<\/span>\t<\/span>mUsica <\/span>not musIca<\/p>\n M\u00e9xico\t<\/span>MExico <\/span>not MexIco<\/p>\n cart\u00f3n\t<\/span>\t<\/span>cartOn\t<\/span>\t<\/span>not cArton<\/p>\n habl\u00f3\t<\/span>\t<\/span>hablO\t<\/span>\t<\/span>not hAblo\t<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Test it out by reading aloud. <\/span>If a word doesn\u2019t have a written accent, the rule of the natural stress tells you where to put the emphasis. <\/span>If the word does have a written accent, it\u2019s even easier\u2014just stress whatever vowel carries the accent. <\/span>And when writing, say the word to yourself and decide if the natural stress and the actual stress correspond\u2014if they do, no accent is needed. <\/span>But if the actual stress is somewhere else, put that accent in there.<\/p>\n Now, this isn\u2019t all of it. <\/span>What happens when two vowels are next to one another? <\/span>Which vowel takes the stress or carries the written accent? <\/span>This has to do with diphthongs and strong and weak vowel sounds, and makes things a bit more complicated. <\/span>I will address this in Part 2 of \u201cPronunciation, Stress, and Written Accents.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" PART I One of the things I often noticed about my Spanish students was the difficulty they had knowing where to place the stress when pronouncing words. I don\u2019t remember learning this explicitly in my high school Spanish classes (although I probably did) and I suppose I expected my students to intuit this aspect of…<\/p>\n