Very Brief Rules for Stress (Accents) In Spanish, words are spelled just like they sound. In order to take advantage of this simple and nearly perfect system of spelling, one must first know the rules for stress - that is, how to know which syllable is pronounced the loudest. 1. Words ending in a vowel, -n, or -s are stressed on the next to the last (penultimate) syllable: nada na - da limonada li - mo - na - da zapatos za - pa - tos manzanas man -- za - nas compro com - pro esta es - ta estas es- tas escuela es -- cue - la 2. Words ending in any consonant except -n or -s are stressed on the last syllable: doctor comer ciudad doc - tor co -- mer ciu - dad 3. When rules #1 and #2 above are not followed, a written accent is used. The written accent could be thought of as a mark over the syllable that is "misbehaving": compró estás lápiz com - pró es -- tás lá - piz 4. Written accents are also used to differentiate between words that are pronounced the same but have different meanings (el acento diacrítico): si - if sí - yes mi - my mí - me el - the él - he tu - your tú - you Reggaeton.wav beat from freesound.org Artist: djpuppy's breaks file: duppyReaagetomSoca01-114.wav Trumpet loops from freesound.org Artist: Trumpet Loops 'n' Hits file: TrumpetLoop02.aif