Palabras agudas

Words with an accent on the last syllable

We call a word "aguda" when the stress is on the last syllable, for example:

Panamá (Pa-na-má)

Amor (A-mor)

Feliz (Fe-liz)

Hablarás (Ha-bla-rás)

Azafrán (A-za-frán)

Palabras agudas have the orthographic accent [´] only if they end in a vowel (a,e,i,o,u), n or s.)

Monosyllables do not have an orthographic accent unless it is necessary to distinguish it from another word that is spelled the same but means something different. For example:

mas = but 

más more

te = personal pronoun (e.g ¿Cómo te llamas?)

= tea (e.g "Para mí, té con leche, por favor" )

Important note

In pronunciation, we often talk about "acento" and "tilde". We refer to the "acento" to say which syllable is the most stressed when pronouncing the word. However we talk about "tilde" when we refer to the "written or typed accent" on the stressed syllable.

For example:

camiseta, mesa, árbol, túnel, beso

All these words are accentuated on the penultimate syllable, but only árbol and túnel have a written accent, a "tilde" [´].

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