Basic Word Stress

Level 1

Stress falls on a particular syllable; spelling rules determine when it receives an accent.

How It Works

Words stressed on the last syllable take an accent when they end in a vowel, vowel + s, -en or -in: català, arròs, entén. Words stressed on the next-to-last syllable take an accent when they do not have one of those endings: fàcil, exàmens. Earlier stress takes an accent: música.

The rule does not say every word ending in s behaves alike. Exàmens ends in -ns, which is neither vowel + s nor -en/-in. Llibres has ordinary next-to-last stress: llibres. A final i or u that belongs to a falling diphthong follows the diphthong spelling rule: museu has final stress without an accent.

Some short words have distinguishing accents, such as és/es and té/te. Listen for stress and learn syllable boundaries; do not guess an accent from an English or Spanish cognate. An accent's direction on e/o additionally indicates vowel quality.

Examples (3)

  1. Els exàmens comencen demà.

    The exams begin tomorrow.

  2. Aquests llibres són de música.

    These books are about music.

  3. El museu és al centre.

    The museum is in the center.

How It Connects

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Basic Word StressLevel 1

Learn This First

Recognize written accents before applying the default-stress spelling rules.

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Patterns that build on this one.