-iar Verbs

Spanish verbs with iarSome Spanish -iar verbs are pronounced with stress on the “i,” and therefore need an acute accent on that letter in certain conjugations.

   

-uar Verbs

Spanish verbs with iarSpanish verbs that end in -uar are conjugated with the same endings as regular -ar verbs, but most -uar verbs require an accent in certain conjugations.

   

Accents

Spanish accentsAccents may look strange to anyone whose native language doesn’t have any, but they are extremely important in Spanish. Leaving off the accent on a word is a spelling mistake, and may cause confusion. There are three different Spanish accents

   

   

Dieresis: ü

Spanish dieresisIn Spanish, when the letter G precedes a U plus a hard vowel, the U and the vowel are both pronounced. In order to obtain this W sound in front of a soft vowel, the Ü comes into play.

   

How to Type Accents in Any OS

It’s just as important to include accents when writing in Spanish as it is to spell words correctly. It drives me kind of crazy when people say, sorry, I can’t type accents on my computer / tablet / smartphone. Yes, you can type accents – yes! even on your old computer. Check out these instructions for Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone, iPad, and Android.

   

   

Tilde: ñ

Spanish letter ñThe ~ accent, called a tilde, on the Spanish letter Ñ indicates that the word used to be spelled with two Ns but now the tilde stands in for the second one.

   

Word Stress

Spanish word stressThe rules for Spanish word stress are fairly straightforward, but the terminology can be a bit confusing. Spanish words are divided into categories according to which syllable is stressed when speaking – and this is the tricky part – whether or not there is a written accent.