What are the general accent rules in Spanish?

Words ending in a vowel, ‘n’ or ‘s’ are stressed on the penultimate syllable.Words ending in a consonant (not ending in ‘n’ or ‘s’) are stressed on the last syllable.Words that break these two rules have an accentFor example, ‘I ate’ in Spanish is ‘comí’. You need the accent on the ‘i’ as the stress is on the last syllable and ‘comí’ ends in a vowel; it therefore breaks the first rule, and needs an accent.  Similarly, the word ‘estación’ (station) needs an accent on the ‘o’ as the stress is on the last syllable and ‘estación’ ends in an ‘n’; it also breaks the first rule, and needs an accent.The words ‘lápiz’ and ‘árbol’ both need accents as they both end in a consonant that isn’t ‘n’ or ‘s’, and both aren’t stressed on the last syllable; they therefore break the second rule, and need an accent.

SC
Answered by Simon C. Spanish tutor

7814 Views

See similar Spanish A Level tutors

Related Spanish A Level answers

All answers ▸

When do we use ‘lo’ la’ and ‘le’ and where do we put them? – Direct and Indirect Object Pronouns


Translate the following into spanish: My aunt had a lovely little house in a remote area of the British countryside.


¿Tienen los medios de transporte algún impacto sobre el medio ambiente?


Las energías renovables, ¿son el futuro?


We're here to help

contact us iconContact ustelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo

MyTutor is part of the IXL family of brands:

© 2026 by IXL Learning