1. Repasemos las reglas de pronunciación—reviewing the pronunciation rules

In Unit 1 we reviewed the Spanish alphabet and phonetic rules for application in speech and writing where the syllabic division is a key factor in having control of our pronunciation and correct spelling. Now we are going to delve deeper into the Spanish orthographic rules. As you know all words have a stressed syllable in Spanish. The stressed syllable or “sílaba tónica” is the one that is pronounced the loudest. The rules to know which is the stressed syllable are as follows:

Regla uno:

Words ending in vowel, n, or s are stressed on the next to the last syllable: ca-ma, li-mo-na-da.

Regla dos:

Words ending in any consonant except, n, or s are stressed in the last syllable: doc-tor, a-mor.

Regla tres:

When rules number one or two above are not followed, is when we use the written accent (acento ortográfico). The name of this written accent is the orthographic accent. A-vión, ja-bón. Each time that you learn a new word, learn correctly how to spell it with el acento ortográfico apropiado.

Regla cuatro:

Written accents (el acento diacrítico) are also used to differentiate between words that are pronounced the same but have different meaning: sí vs si, tú vs tu, él vs el.