ORTHOGRAPHIC ACCENT

Definition: Sometimes orthographic accents are used to distinguish two related words depending on how they work in an sentence. For example, the east means “this” like adjective whereas this one means “this” like pronoun.

The stressed syllable in Spanish words is either prosodic (prosódico) stress is unaccented or orthographic (ortográfico) accents point out the exceptions to the rules and require an accent mark.

Accents are classified as:

Agudas: These are words that have the written accent in the last syllable, for example, café. Words ending in “n,” “s” or vowels with stress in the final syllable require an accent mark:

heart, French, compass.
corazón, francés, compás.

Graves: These are words that have the written accent in the penultimate syllable, for example, árbol. Words ending in a consonant other than “n” or “s” with stress in the penultimate syllable require an accent mark.

tree, fémur.
árbol, fémur.

Esdrújulas: All words with stress in the antepenultimate symbol require an accent mark.

next, Wednesday, bird, hero, lamina
próximo, miércoles, pájaro, héroe, lámina

Sobresdrújulas: All words with stress in the syllable before the antepenultimate require an accent mark.

preséntamelo, tráigannosla.