Spanish Accent Rules

Spanish is one of the easiest languages in the world to read aloud, and the written accent is why. Every Spanish word has exactly one stressed syllable - the one you lean on slightly harder. Most words are stressed exactly where the default rules say they should be, so nothing is written. The tilde (the stroke over á, é, í, ó, ú) appears only when a word breaks the default, and when it does, it points at the precise syllable to hit. It is not decoration and it is never optional. café and cafe are as different as two spellings can be.

The whole system rests on one question you will ask again and again: does the word end in a vowel, n or s? Hold on to that. It is the spine of everything below.

Step one: find the stressed syllable

Say the word and notice where the beat lands. Counting from the end, Spanish sorts every word into three classes:

agudas - stressed on the last syllable: ca-fé, can-ción, ja-más.
llanas (also called graves) - stressed on the second-to-last syllable: ca-sa, ár-bol, e-xa-men. This is the default for the great majority of Spanish words.
esdrújulas - stressed on the third-to-last syllable: rá-pi-do, mú-si-ca, te-lé-fo-no.

Step two: the one rule, run on the vowel, n or s test

Here is the entire accent system on one card.

Class	Stress on	Written accent when	Examples
aguda	last syllable	it ends in a vowel, n or s	café, canción, jamás, comió (but reloj, verdad, feliz - no)
llana/grave	2nd-to-last	it does not end in a vowel, n or s	árbol, lápiz, difícil (but casa, examen, crisis - no)
esdrújula	3rd-to-last	always	rápido, música, teléfono, último

Read the two commonest classes as mirror images. Agudas are stressed where you would least expect it, on the very end, so café ending in a vowel needs the tilde to warn you; but reloj (clock), verdad (truth) and feliz (happy) end in other consonants and need nothing. Llanas are the default, so they only get a tilde when they, too, do something unexpected - ending in a consonant that is not n or s: árbol (tree), lápiz (pencil), azúcar (sugar), difícil (difficult). A plain casa (house), examen (exam) or crisis (crisis) sits exactly where a llana should and stays bare.

Esdrújulas need no test at all. Because default Spanish stress never reaches past the second-to-last syllable, any word stressed on the third-to-last breaks the pattern by definition and always carries an accent: rápido (fast), música (music), teléfono (telephone), último (last). Push the stress back one more and you get a sobresdrújula, also always accented: dígamelo (tell it to me). These arise when object pronouns stack onto a command and drag the stress deep into the word.

Step three: the tilde that breaks a vowel pair

The rule above handles stress. One more job the tilde does has nothing to do with stress class: it can split two vowels into separate syllables.

When a weak vowel (i or u) sits beside a strong vowel (a, e, o), the default is that they glide together into a single syllable, a diphthong: bien (well), cuando (when), seis (six) are each one syllable and need no accent. But sometimes the pair is pulled apart into two syllables, a hiato, and the way Spanish signals that split is a written accent on the weak vowel:

día (day) - dí-a, two syllables, not the one-syllable "dia".
país (country) - pa-ís.
río (river) - rí-o.
oído (ear / hearing) - o-í-do.
continúa (he/she continues) - con-ti-nú-a.

This override outranks the ordinary agudas and llanas test, and it fixes which vowel the tilde sits on. The takeaway: a tilde on an i or u next to another vowel almost always means "these are two syllables, say them apart".

Monosyllables: usually nothing

A one-syllable word has no rival syllable to distinguish, so it is written bare: fue (was / went), vio (saw), dio (gave), fe (faith), ti (you). The only exception is the diacritic accent, which separates look-alike pairs by meaning rather than stress: él (he) against el (the), sí (yes) against si (if), tú (you) against tu (your), más (more) against mas (but). That is a different job for the same mark, and the one time a single-syllable word wears a tilde.

Putting it to work

Take an unfamiliar word, find the beat, name the class, then run the vowel, n or s test:

corazón (heart) - aguda, ends in n, so it takes the accent.
fácil (easy) - llana, ends in l, not a vowel, n or s, so it takes the accent.
joven (young) - llana ending in n, exactly where a llana should be stressed, so no accent.
médico (doctor) - esdrújula, so always accented.

Three classes, one test about how the word ends, and one extra tilde to break a vowel pair. Master those and you can accent almost any Spanish word correctly the first time - and, just as usefully, read one you have never seen and know exactly where to put the stress.

cafe (stress on the last syllable, ends in a vowel) (aguda ending in a vowel)
arbol (stress on the first syllable, ends in a consonant) (llana not ending in vowel, n or s)
rapido (stress on the third-to-last syllable) (esdrújula, always accented)
cancion (stress on the last syllable, ends in n) (aguda ending in n)
dificil (stress on the second-to-last syllable, ends in l) (llana not ending in vowel, n or s)
musica (stress on the third-to-last syllable) (esdrújula, always accented)
dia (the vowel pair splits into two syllables) (a hiato broken by the tilde)
jamas (stress on the last syllable, ends in s) (aguda ending in s)

Pick the right one

0/6

Choose the correctly written form: with the accent or without it.

The drink coffee, stressed on the last syllable, ending in a vowel.
The word for tree, stressed on the first syllable, ending in the consonant l.
The word for house, stressed on the second-to-last syllable, ending in a vowel.
The word for music, stressed on the third-to-last syllable.
The word for day, where the vowel pair splits into two syllables.
The word for exam, stressed on the second-to-last syllable, ending in n.

Frequently asked questions

What is the basic rule for Spanish written accents?

Classify the word by its stressed syllable and apply one test: does it end in a vowel, n or s? Agudas are stressed on the last syllable and take an accent when they DO end in a vowel, n or s (café, canción, jamás), but not otherwise (reloj, verdad). Llanas are stressed on the second-to-last syllable, the default for most words, and take an accent when they do NOT end in a vowel, n or s (árbol, lápiz, difícil), but not otherwise (casa, examen). Esdrújulas, stressed on the third-to-last syllable, always take an accent (rápido, música, teléfono). One test, applied in reverse for the two commonest classes.

Why does día have an accent but bien does not?

Both contain a weak vowel (i or u) beside a strong vowel (a, e, o). By default that pair glides together as one syllable, a diphthong, and needs no accent: bien, cuando and seis are single syllables. But sometimes the two vowels are pulled apart into separate syllables, a hiato, and the way Spanish marks that split is a written accent on the weak vowel: dí-a, pa-ís, rí-o, o-í-do. So the tilde in día is not about stress class at all; it is there to break the diphthong and tell you to pronounce two syllables. This override beats the ordinary agudas and llanas rule.

Do one-syllable words take an accent in Spanish?

Generally no. A monosyllable has nothing to distinguish, so words like fue, vio, dio, fe and ti are written bare. The exception is the diacritic accent, which separates identical-looking pairs: él (he) versus el (the), sí (yes) versus si (if), tú (you) versus tu (your), más (more) versus mas (but). That accent marks meaning, not stress, and it is the one place a single-syllable word carries a tilde. The old accent on solo and on demonstratives has been dropped by the Real Academia and is no longer required.

What are esdrújulas and why do they always take an accent?

An esdrújula is a word stressed on the third-to-last syllable: rá-pi-do, mú-si-ca, te-lé-fo-no, úl-ti-mo. Because Spanish default stress only ever falls on the last or second-to-last syllable, any word stressed further back is breaking the pattern by definition, so it always needs a written accent to show it. Words stressed even further back, on the fourth-from-last, are sobresdrújulas, and they take an accent too: dígamelo, cuéntamelo. These almost always arise when object pronouns pile onto a command, pushing the stress deep into the word.