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.

Asking Questions In Spanish

To ask a simple yes/no question in Spanish, all you need to do is take a normal statement and then put the verb in front of the noun.

El gato es simpatico ( Normal statement)  ¿Es simpatico el gato ? ( Now becomes a question)

El gato es enojado (Normal Statement)  ¿Es enojado el gato? (Now becomes a question)

To remember that the verb comes first when asking a simple question, picture this:

                        The verb comes in first place and beats the noun when asking a simple question in Spanish.

What Does It Mean To Conjugate a Verb ?

To conjugate a verb, you change the ending so that the verb matches the subject of the sentence.

If you did not do this, we would all sound like Tarzan.

In this photo, Tarzan did not conjugate the verb to be.  He should have said, " I am Tarzan. You are Jane."

This is what it looks like when a Spanish text book conjugates a verb

SER  (to be)

soy  (I am)..........................      somos  (We are)

eres (you are - informal)

es   (you/he/she is)...........        son  (You guys/ they are)

Tanto...Como

Use Tanto... Como when you want to say as many as. 

Example: Yo tengo tanto bikinis como tú. ( I have as many bikinis as you)

Tanto...Como looks a lot like Tan...Como.
But ususally the word that goes  between tan... como is an adjective
and the word that goes  between Tanto... como is a noun.

Lucky for us Tanto has a "toe" sound at the end of it and a toe is a noun.

Tengo tanto dedos de pie como yo ( I have as many toes as you)

So continue to think of  the two goofballs comparing their tans from the previous Tan...Como lesson but just add some toes into the mix.