The Graphic Accent (or tilde) in Spanish

Hello! Today we are going to face one of the main challenges of written Spanish: the graphic accent (or tilde). If you are still not sure when and where to put an accent mark, our Spanish language school El Rincón del Tándem explains it to you in these short guidelines.

Don’t let Spanish accent hamper your desire to learn! If you follow the step-by-step instructions, writing the accent correctly will be a piece of cake…

Here we go!

First of all, let’s start by learning some basic concepts:

  • Tonic accent: it is the stronger sound within the word and match the vowel that is pronounced with the most intensity.
  • Graphic accent or tilde: this is the graphic sign that visually represents the tonic accent. Basically, our task today is to learn when and where to write it.
  • Tonic or stressed syllable: in a word, it is the syllable that contains the tonic accent and therefore receives more emphasis than the others. We could say that it is the syllable that stands out among the others.
  • Unstressed syllables: all the other syllables that make up the word and that are not stressed.

Once we are clear about these concepts, we only have to follow 2 steps:

1. Classify the word by accent

First of all, we need to divide the word into syllables. Once we have broken it down into smaller units, we focus on the tonic syllable.

Depending on where the tonic syllable is, we can classify the word as:

– AGUDA: the tonic syllable is the last syllable
– LLANA: the tonic syllable is the penultimate syllable
– ESDRÚJULA: the tonic syllable is the antepenultimate syllable
– SOBREESDRÚJULA: the tonic syllable is the one preceding the antepenultimate syllable

Watch out! When we talk about accent, we are still referring to the tonic accent. In other words, at this stage, we are only focusing on the sound.

In order to be able to write the accent, let’s go to the next step…

2. Write the accent mark or tilde

To begin with, remember that the tilde only occurs on vowel of the stressed (tonic) syllable.

Furthermore, in Spanish, unlike other languages such as French, there is only one type of accent; i.e. the acute accent. Visually, it is a small oblique line that goes up from left to right.

So, when do we have to put the accent mark? It depends on the word category and the cases.
Let’s look at them one by one.

PALABRAS AGUDAS:

You have to write the accent mark (remember, the acute accent), only when the word ends with a VOWEL, with N and S. In all other cases, accent mark doesn’t occur:

  • Palabras agudas WITH accent mark: mamá, sofá, café, champú, acordeón, botón, limón
  • Palabras agudas WITHOUT accent mark: caminar, amistad, actor, calor, carnaval, azul, felicidad

PALABRAS LLANAS:

For these group of words, the exact opposite is true to what is said for the former one. That is, we only put the accent mark on words that end with consonants other than N and S.

We never write the accent on words that end with a vowel.

  • Palabras llanas WITH accent mark: árbol, fútbol, azúcar, lápiz, túnel, láser, tándem, néctar
  • Palabras llanas WITHOUT accent mark: mano, casa, luna, trabajo, crisis, joven, examen

PALABRAS ESDRÚJULAS Y SOBREESDÚJULAS:

In this case the rule is very simple: we always put the accent mark on the stressed syllable.

  • Palabras esdrújulas: médico, teléfono, fantástico, número, último
  • Palabras sobreesdrújulas: ábremelo, cómpralo, lógicamente

And that’s it! With these simple rules, the tilde will no longer be your great enemy when it comes to writing.

However, if you still have any doubts, you can solve them in class with the help of our teaching team.
If you want to embark on this fascinating journey of learning Spanish, take a look at our list of courses!

We also remind you that you can take a free trial lesson.

See you soon!

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