Posted on Jun 05, 2022 |
If you are a student of the Spanish language, you will have heard about words with accents that are very important, and the words "agudas, grave, esdrújulas and sobresdrújulas (as known in Spanish language)" are differentiated by their stressed syllables.
In Spanish, each of these words has a prosodic accent, or greater voice strength, in a different syllable and carries an accent or orthographic accent according to the accentuation rules, and this is very important not only to write the Spanish language, but also to speak it. In this way, when speaking of words "agudas, graves, esdrújulas and sobresdrújulas" reference is made to different types of words according to their accentuation.
To know which class a word belongs to, you have to identify its stressed syllable. The following table identifies the stressed syllable and the orthographic accent in the words agudas, graves, esdrújulas and sobresdrújulas.
Next, we’ll explain what they are and when these types of words are graphically accentuated.
What are agudas words?
Acute words are those with the greatest voice strength in the last syllable. They use accents only when they end in -n, -s or in a vowel.
Examples : además (besides), ají (chili), mamá (mom), maní (peanut), sofá (sofa), tacón (heel), animal (animal), calor (heat), pared (wall).
What are graves or llanas words?
Graves words or also known as "llanas" are the ones that have the greatest voice strength in the penultimate syllable. They are graphically stressed only when they end in consonants other than -n and -s. They do not have an accent mark when they end in a vowel or in the consonants -n and -s.
Examples : ámbar (amber), cárcel (jail), césped (lawn), cóndor (condor), difícil (hard), fácil (easy), fútbol (soccer), lápiz (pencil), barco (boat), calendario (calendar), llave (key).
What are esdrújulas words?
Esdrújula words have the greatest voice strength in the antepenultimate syllable and always have a tilde or graphic accent.
Examples : ábaco (abacus), brújula (compass), cámara (camera), esdrújula (esdrújula), médico (doctor), oxígeno (oxygen), pájaros (birds).
What are sobreesdrújulas words ?
The sobresdrújulas words have the greatest voice strength in the syllable before or after the penultimate, that is, the syllable before the penultimate, and they always have a tilde or graphic accent. Sobreesdrújulas are compound words that are infrequent in spoken and written Spanish.
Examples : cayéndoseles (falling out), encontrándomelo (finding it), jurándosela (swearing it to them), permítasenos (allowing us), vendiéndoselos (selling to them)
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