Lesson 294: Spanish accent rules (tildes) Rule 1

In total we have 4 Spanish accent rules:

1) “tildes” for words that are “agudas“, “graves o llanas” and “esdrújulas“.

2) “tildes” for “hiatos“.

3) “tildes” for question words.

4) Tildes to differentiate between monosyllables that are spelled the same, but have different meaning.

Technically speaking, in Spanish when we say “acento” we don’t necessarily mean the “tilde”, rather the syllable of a word that is accentuated. To refer to that short line that we sometimes place on a vowel, we say “tilde” (even-though many native Spanish speakers incorrectly call it “acento”).

In this video-lesson we’ll cover the first one of the four Spanish accent rules. So, let’s begin by explaining which what are “palabras agudas, graves y llanas”.

As you may already know, “palabra” mean “word” in Spanish.

“Agudas” are all non monosyllabic words that are accentuated in the last syllable.

“Graves o llanas” are all non monosyllabic words that are accentuated in the last but one syllable.

“Esdrújulas” are all non monosyllabic words that are accentuated in the last but two syllable.

So, basically our Spanish accent rule Nbr. 1 says that all these words should carry a tilde (always on the vowel that is accentuated):

– “Agudas” that end with either vowel, “n” or “s”.

– “Graves” that end with any consonant except “n” or “s”.

– “Esdrújulas”; that means, any word that is accentuated in the last but two (or third, or fourth) syllable.

Later on we will continue learning the other three Spanish accent rules, but this first one is the most fundamental one, I believe. Probably, we will skip the second rule and leave that one last, since I would first have to teach Spanish hiatus and diptongue. So, probably next we’ll jump to Rule 3, then Rule 4, and the last one would be Rule 2.

OK. More to say in our video-lesson below. I hope you find it useful.