Spanish accent rules made simple: A beginner’s guide

Ananya
Aug 11
3 min read

Learning Spanish? 🧠 One thing that often trips people up is the use of accents, those little marks over letters like tú, dónde, or teléfono. But don’t worry! Spanish accent rules are easier than you think.

What Are Accent Marks in Spanish?

In Spanish, there are a few types of accent marks:

Acute accents (á, é, í, ó, ú)
Diaeresis (ü)
Tilde (ñ)

Each one serves a different purpose. Let’s start with the most common:

💬 Spanish Stress Rules (The Foundation)

Rule 1: Words Ending in Vowel, “N,” or “S”

If a word ends in a vowel, N, or S, the stress naturally goes on the second-to-last syllable.

Examples:

Todo → TO-do
Examen → e-XA-men
Joven → HO-ven

No accent is needed because the stress follows the rule.

Rule 2: Words Ending in Other Consonant

If a word ends in any other consonant, the stress falls on the last syllable.

Examples:

Comer → co-MER
Profesor → pro-fe-SOR
Madrid → ma-DRID

Again, no accent needed here either.

❗ When Do We Use Accent Marks?

We add an accent mark when a word breaks either of the above stress rules.

Let’s see how that works.

🔡 Using the Spanish Acute Accent (´)

The acute accent appears over vowels to show where the stress falls when it doesn’t follow the default pattern.

📝 Words that break Rule 1 (Vowel/N/S ending)

These words end in a vowel, N, or S, but the stress is NOT on the second-to-last syllable. So we add an accent to mark the stressed syllable.

Examples:

Canción → can-CIÓN
También → tam-BIÉN
Jamás → ja-MÁS
Inglés → in-GLÉS
Rápido → RÁ-pi-do
Está → es-TÁ

📝 Words that break Rule 2 (Other consonant endings)

These words end in a consonant (not N or S), but the stress is NOT on the last syllable.

Examples:

Árbol → ÁR-bol
Cárcel → CÁR-cel
Débil → DÉ-bil
Césped → CÉS-ped

Without the accent, you'd misplace the stress!

🔁 Accent Marks That Change Meaning

Sometimes Spanish uses accents to tell similar-looking words apart (homonyms).

Without Accent	With Accent	Meaning
el	él	the / he
tu	tú	your / you
si	sí	if / yes
mas	más	but / more
te	té	you / tea
de	dé	of / give
se	sé	self / I know

🧠 If you're not sure whether a word needs an accent, ask yourself: Does it change meaning? Does the stress rule apply?

❓ Spanish Question Words Always Have Accents

All Spanish question words require accents—even in indirect or embedded questions.

Question Word	Meaning
¿Qué?	What?
¿Quién?	Who?
¿Cómo?	How?
¿Dónde?	Where?
¿Cuándo?	When?
¿Cuál?	Which?
¿Cuánto(s)?	How much / many?
¿Por qué?	Why?

Indirect questions also need accents:

No sé qué hacer. → I don’t know what to do.
Dime cuándo vienes. → Tell me when you're coming.
No entiendo cómo lo hace. → I don’t understand how he does it.

The Spanish Diaeresis (¨)

The diaeresis (¨) appears only over "u" in the syllables "gue" or "gui", and it means you do pronounce the U.

Without it, the U is silent:

Guitarra → gee-TAR-ra
Hoguera → o-GE-ra

With diaeresis, the U is pronounced:

Pingüino → peen-GWEE-no
Agüero → ah-GWE-ro

🎯 Only used in “güe” or “güi.” You’ll never see it after a “q” (no “qüi” in Spanish!).

~ The Spanish Tilde (Ñ)

The tilde (~) isn’t an accent—it's part of a letter: ñ.

It changes the sound of "n" to something like “ny.”

Examples:

Niño → NEEN-yo (boy)
Año → AN-yo (year)

⚠️ Be careful:

Año = year
Ano = …the other thing 🙈

You don’t need to memorize hundreds of words to master accent marks in Spanish just understand the rules, and the rest will come naturally.

📌 Remember:

Learn the stress rules
Watch for rule-breakers
Practice reading out loud
Don’t fear the accent mark—they’re helpful!

At LearnningTree, we make learning Spanish simple and intuitive by focusing on the patterns that actually matter. Accent marks may seem tricky at first, but with our expert-guided lessons, you'll learn the stress rules, spot the common exceptions, and gain confidence through practical exercises like reading out loud.