Sharp, flat and proparoxytones
In Castilian there are some general rules of accentuation that allow us to know which words must have a tilde (that is, they are accentuated in writing).
To do this, we must begin by distinguishing between unstressed syllables and tonic syllables:
In any word, regardless of whether it is stressed in writing or not, one of its syllables is pronounced with more intensity (tonic syllable) than the others (unstressed syllables).
In the following table we mark the tonic syllables with red:
Horse
Pilot
Parsley
Hake
Veronica
Depending on what place this tonic syllable occupies in the word, we can distinguish between:
Sharp words: the accent falls on the last syllable of the word.
Madrid
Rudder
Wall
Trousers
Brush
Plain words: the accent falls on the penultimate syllable of the word.
Bag
Beach
Bell
Chalice
Perez
Esdrújulas words: the accent falls on the penultimate syllable of the word.
Parasite
Bird
Camera
Rogue
Logical
We see how in the examples there are times that the words are accented and other times that they are not. Each type of word (sharp, flat or Esdrújula) follows a particular rule of accentuation that we will see in the next lesson.
In Castilian there are some general rules of accentuation that allow us to know which words must have a tilde (that is, they are accentuated in writing).
To do this, we must begin by distinguishing between unstressed syllables and tonic syllables:
In any word, regardless of whether it is stressed in writing or not, one of its syllables is pronounced with more intensity (tonic syllable) than the others (unstressed syllables).
In the following table we mark the tonic syllables with red:
Horse
Pilot
Parsley
Hake
Veronica
Depending on what place this tonic syllable occupies in the word, we can distinguish between:
Sharp words: the accent falls on the last syllable of the word.
Madrid
Rudder
Wall
Trousers
Brush
Plain words: the accent falls on the penultimate syllable of the word.
Bag
Beach
Bell
Chalice
Perez
Esdrújulas words: the accent falls on the penultimate syllable of the word.
Parasite
Bird
Camera
Rogue
Logical
We see how in the examples there are times that the words are accented and other times that they are not. Each type of word (sharp, flat or Esdrújula) follows a particular rule of accentuation that we will see in the next lesson.
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