Syllables and Stress

If a word ends in an N or an S or a Vowel ( A, E, I , O, or U), the stress (or verbal emphasis) is put on the 2nd to last syllable.

If the word does not end in one of these letters, the stress is put on the last syllable.

If the word disobeys the above rule, it will have an accent sign above the syllable that is stressed.

The Spanish accent sign is the little slanted line that is sometimes found above certain letters.

The easiest way to remember this is  to remember which words get the emphasis on the second to last syllable..because this is the majority of the Spanish words.

When I think of stress, I think of diving boards and the jumpy part of  diving boards look like the Spanish accent sign.( I will prove this below)

Picture this: All the vowels and the letters N and S are climbing up a ladder of a high dive. And in the tradition of all great lifeguards, the lifeguard at this pool is shouting out pool rules...only this lifeguard is barking out a Spanish syllable stress rule.

Just because I used the diving board/accent sign to indicate where the emphasis should go, this does not mean that you use the accent sign . That would be wrong. Accent signs only go on words that do not follow this rule.

I encourage anyone to send me a better way to explain this in the comments below.