Repaso de Las Tildes / Los Acentos Ortográficos

In Spanish, only 2 types of accents exist:

1) The tonic accent (el acento tónico), the one you hear but don’t write.
2) The orthographic accent/tilde (el acento ortográfico), the one you hear and you write.
*The tilde can go only on vowels and indicates that this syllable gets the stress of voice
when the rules of pronunciation are broken.

Words are divided into 3 different categories, depending upon which syllable the stress
of voice falls or which syllable is the “sílaba tónica”:

1) aguda=la última 2) grave o llana=la penúltima 3) esdrújula=la antepenúltima

(last) (2nd to last) (3rd to last)

1) Agudas: are words that have the stress of voice (la sílaba tónica) on the last syllable
(as in “me-LÓN,” “LÓN” is the last syllable and the one that gets the stress)

Rules:
a) When a word is aguda (stress on last syllable) and ends in a consonant (except “n”
or “s”), it does NOT get a tilde (written accent). (can-TAR, ca-ri-DAD, fri-JOL) These
words follow the rules of pronunciation.

b) When a word is aguda (stress on the last syllable) and ends in a vowel or an “n” or
“s”, it gets a tilde (written accent) because it’s not following the rules of pronunciation.
(co-MÍ, Pe-RÚ, des-PUÉS, co-ra-ZÓN)
*Remember: n, s, vocal + golpe al final = tilde

2) Graves o llanas: are words that have the stress of voice (la sílaba tónica) on the
2nd to last syllable (as in “Te-RE-sa,” “RE” is the 2nd to last syllable and the one that gets
the stress. It follows the rules of pronunciation, so no tilde is needed.)

Rules:
a) When a word is grave/llana (stress on the 2nd to last syllable) and ends in a vowel
or an “n” or “s”, it does NOT get a tilde (written accent). (CA-sa, CO-mo)

b) When a word is grave/llana and ends in a consonant (except “n” or “s”), it gets a
tilde (written accent). (FÉR-til, FÁ-cil, PÉ-rez)
*Remember: consonante excepto n,s + golpe en la penúltima = tilde

3) Esdrújulas: are words that have the stress of voice (la sílaba tónica) on the 3rd to
last syllable (as in “po-LÍ-ti-ca,” “LÍ” is the 3rd to last syllable)

Rule: All words that are esdrújulas get a tilde (written accent) without exception!

4) Sobresdrújulas: are the words that have the stress of voice (la sílaba tónica) on
the 4th to last syllable (these words also always get a tilde without exception!)
Ejemplos: de-VUÉL-ve-me-lo, TRÁ-e-me-lo, DÍ-gan-se-lo
(happens with at least 2 syllable commands with indirect and direct object pronouns
attached to the end)
 Diptongos e Hiatos

Diptongo: is when two vowels are pronounced within the same syllable (at least one
vowel must be weak: vd + vF, vF + vd, or vd + vd) por ejemplo: se-rie

Hiato: is when two strong vowels are side by side in a word and have to be separated
into 2 separate syllables (vF + vF) por ejemplo: Ma-RÍ-a, ro-de-o

strong vowels (vocales fuertes): a, e, o weak vowels (vocales débiles): i, u

*weak vowel + tilde = strong vowel