Many students of mine have asked me when to add accents to Spanish words. I tell them the same thing I want to tell every one reading this note: you have to memorize those words.
The thing is that rules on accents are derived from people speaking the language (for centuries) and not the other way around. For instance, as a consequence of us native speakers pronouncing a bit stronger the 'o' in CAJON Spanish language leaders (i.e www.rae.es) have created a rule stating that a word such as 'CAJON' must have an accent on 'o'. In other words, there is no way for non native Spanish speakers to know when a certain vowel has an accent unless they have studied it and practiced it.
That being said, there are some ways to figure out when a word has an accent but you have to know how to classify a Spanish word (there are several types: agudas, llanas, esdrujulas y sobresdrujulas) and a bit of experience with the language. I should be posting a note in relation to that here soon....
The thing is that rules on accents are derived from people speaking the language (for centuries) and not the other way around. For instance, as a consequence of us native speakers pronouncing a bit stronger the 'o' in CAJON Spanish language leaders (i.e www.rae.es) have created a rule stating that a word such as 'CAJON' must have an accent on 'o'. In other words, there is no way for non native Spanish speakers to know when a certain vowel has an accent unless they have studied it and practiced it.
That being said, there are some ways to figure out when a word has an accent but you have to know how to classify a Spanish word (there are several types: agudas, llanas, esdrujulas y sobresdrujulas) and a bit of experience with the language. I should be posting a note in relation to that here soon....
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