Stress in Spanish

One of the things that sets Spanish apart from English is the use of stress and accent marks. Spanish being more of a phonetic language, the accent marks become necessary.

BASIC RULES:

• If a word ends in a vowel, n or s, the stress is on the penultimate (next to last) syllable. For example, toro, computadora, joven and zapatos all have their accent on the next-to-last syllable. Most words fit this category.
• Words than end in other letters have the stress on the last syllable. For example, hotel, hablar, madador and virtud all have the accent on the final syllable.
• If a word isn't pronounced according to the above two rules, an accent is placed over the vowel of the syllable that gets the stress. For example, común, lápiz, médico, inglés, and ojalá all have the stress on the indicated syllable.

You should be aware that sometimes accent marks are used only to distinguish two similar words, and they don't affect pronunciation (because the marks are already on a syllable that is being stressed). For example, el and él are both pronounced the same way, even though they have quite different meanings. Similarly, some words, such as que and quien, use accent marks when they appear in questions, but usually not otherwise. Accents that don't affect pronunciation are known as orthographic accent