Coffee Break Spanish - How to know which syllable to stress - Spanish accent marks | The Coffee Break Spanish Show 1.06

Episode Date: November 23, 2023

Episode 6 of the Coffee Break Spanish Show is all about pronunciation, with a focus on long words in Spanish. Join Mark and Concha as they talk about where to place the stress when pronouncing Spanish words. By the end of this episode you'll sound more like a native speaker!➡️ Click to access the blog article and worksheet which accompany this episode ⬅️ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Coffee Break Spanish. Welcome back to the Coffee Break Spanish show. I'm Mark. And I'm Concha. How are you? How are you? I'm super well. Because we're going to talk

of the pronunciation. Yes, exactly. It's tricky, but we are going to learn it very well in this episode. Absolutely. Exactly. So in this weekly episodes, we help you improve your Spanish one coffee break at the time. If you're watching the video version of this,

then you can subscribe to our whole series on our YouTube channel. And if you're listening to the podcast version, then make sure you subscribe to the podcast wherever you get your podcasts. So we're talking about pronunciation. In particular, we're talking about pronouncing long words today. Exactly. Yeah. So when it gets tricky, when I don't know where to put the stress, that's what we're going

to be looking at today. Let's get started. Let's get started. So tell us about this, Conce. Yes. So we are going to be talking about pronunciation. So how to stress the words. So there is one thing.

that we need to know. And it's that if we see an accent, like the actual accent that we see sometimes on letters, that is an indicator of what the stress is. Yeah. So, for example, in a word like cafe. We know exactly where to pronounce that accent. Cafe. Yes.

And if we look at the other types of words, we have four in total. So based on how we stress words, we have four different types. Okay. Now, earlier, Concha was telling me about the names for these. these types of words. And I have to be honest, a couple of them I had never heard of. Yeah. So you don't need to worry about these names, but we're going to teach you them anyway, because I think they're cool words. Yes, I like them too. It helps me wrap my head around all the different types and how to pronounce them. So the first type is Palabras Agudas.

So literally in English, that would mean acute words. Exactly. Okay, but we're not going to really focus on that. Yeah. So what are Palabas Agudas are the ones that are stressed on the last syllable. So like we said, cafe. Yeah, cafe. But it doesn't need to have an accent in order for it to be stressed on the last syllable. Exactly. Not necessarily. So, for example, if we say

Acer, that is also aguda. Yeah. So, in fact, most infinitives will be aguda. Yes. Yeah. Alar. That's the first type. So that's the first type. Yeah. The second one is Palabras yannas. Okay. And that is when we take the stress to the last, second last syllable.

Right. So let's be clear about this. Agudas have their accent on the last syllable. And then yannas are words which have their accent. And we're not talking necessarily about a written accent. They're talking about the stress, the pronounced stress on the second last syllable. Exactly. And a fun fact is that 80% of the words in Spanish belong to this category.

We like that. We like that. We do. We do. So give us some examples. So, for example, caha. Yeah, a box. So caja. Yeah, and there's no accent there, caha.

No, same as, for example, ta'a. Yeah, tatha. But we do sometimes see a word that falls onto this category with an accent on that second last syllable. Yeah, so for example, a-d-bool tree has an accent. And the reason for that is because because it ends in L, then quite often words that end in L will have their accent on the last syllable they will be aguda like natural

but if we want to force the accent or force the stress elsewhere then we can use the accent the written accent to force that just to indicate this word is stressed in the second last syllable yeah so so far we've got agudas then we've got yanas

so aguda's final syllable Janas's second last syllable so there's a word for a word that's stressed on the third last syllable. Yes, which is esdrujula. It's a crazy word. Esdruchula. And really interestingly, this word is an edrujula itself.

Exactly, yes. I love it. And it has an accent, if you see, it's drujula that has an accent, and old words that are esdrucholas have an accent on them. Okay. So these words are not, obviously, es droujula is quite a complex word,

but there are very, very common words, which are estrusula. That's, for example, musica. Musica. So musica, a third last syllable pronounced.

Okay, so musica, mucia, musica, and that's an isrujula. Yes. And there's an accent on the mu.

That's. Or, for example, Miercoles. And now there is rojula. Miercoles. So again, our accent sits on

that first E in the word miherkoles. And we are stressing the, third last syllable or the anti-penultimate syllable. There you go. That's another fun word for you.

What about America? America is also estrujula and it also has an accent. So America. Yeah. So far, we've had agudas, janas, edrujulas, but there is another category. There is another category, which is the one that we're going to be focusing on today,

actually, which is so very zdrugula. So above is droujula. So these words sobre esdroujulas, these are when the stress comes on any syllable that's nearer the front of the word than the third last syllable. Exactly, yeah. It sounds much more complicated than it is.

I know. So let's have a look at an example. Yeah, I think so. So these words, Soresdrujulas, normally are words that come from another word. Okay. So, for example, an adverb that comes from an adjective.

And we were discussing this with Annabel, not so long ago. And we took adjectives like, for example, FASIL, and then turned that into an advert by adding Mente. So Facilmente. So if we're thinking about that 80% that you mentioned earlier of words in Spanish, which are pronounced, which are stressed on the second last syllable, we could start to think, is it Facilmente? Uh-huh.

Yes, I know. but because Fafil has an accent then the advert maintains the same pronunciation well not the same pronunciation but the stress is still on that A

on that first A because we have the actual accent on the A so instead of being Facilmente now it's Facilmente Okay and so therefore

it's sobrez rujura exactly right so so sobrezrujulas are always have accents what you said. Yes, same as isdruchulas and sobreedzdrugulas both always have accents. Yeah. Okay. So we were saying that soresdrujula's normally come from a word that comes from another word. So another example of this is when we have a verb in the imperative, for example.

Yeah, I see where you're going. Okay. So if I have the verb pass in the imperative and I say pass. Yeah. Okay. So pass. Exactly. So if I want to say um, pass, pass. me the cup, for example. Passame la taza. So passame la taza. But if I want to remove the tatha from the sentence as well, I can say passamela. Passamela. Okay, so passame la taza.

So passame, one word. La taza, a separate word. But passamela all running together. That means pass me it. and the pasa yes has an accent exactly

okay so that's to maintain the stress on that first syllable passamela yes because you look at that

and you see P-A P-A-M-E-L-A yes and you think ah passamela exactly but no we need to

maintain the stress that we had in the initial verb which was pasa Pasa Pasa okay

I'm thinking of another example a verb I really like is the verb devolver to return to give something back or hand in your homework for example. So how would we say give it back to me? Okay. So we take the verb devolver in the imperative, devuelve and then to me, devuelve me,

devuver me, that's. And then we add the it. So devuelve me lo or devolve me la. Yeah, depending on what it is. Yeah. But the stress there goes where? Goes in the same place as the original advert. De whelbe melo.

De whelve melo. So it becomes so brestrujula. Yeah. Okay. I think we've got a little test to finish the episode. Yes, exactly. Go for it. So first I want you, Mark, and you viewers or listeners,

to form the adverb of the adjective rapido. So take that word. and turn it into an adverb. Okay, so rapido, rapido has an accent in it. Therefore, we're going to keep that accent in it. We're going to stick Mente on the end, and it will become rapidly.

That's very well with the pronunciation. Rapidimente. I have to be honest, I think until this moment in my entire Spanish speaking life, I've mispronounced that word and said it rapidly. Oh, yeah. It's very common. Oh, no, of nothing.

I have another one for you so how would you say the short version of Escribe Una carda Ami Okay, so we're going to replace the unacarta with la

and ami with me Right, so let's think about this we've got Escribe and then we'll add me and la but we need to keep the stress with Escribemela

So do we have an accent? Yes. And where do we have the accent? Scribe me. That's perfect. Very well. Okay.

Let's do one more. Okay. I'll give you one more. So again, the short version of Decir a message a me. Decir a

a message a me. Okay. So, Dic in the imperative is D and then

a me will be come, Dime. And a message would replace that with Lo. So, Dimmelow. That's, very

with that. With that, with that, exact. Very good. Now, we hope that you have enjoyed this lesson. As I see,

I have had a little bit of a brainwave in this lesson looking at rapidly in the pronunciation of that. And the key thing here is seeing

where these accents come. So if you would like to see the written version of this episode, then head over to our blog. included the link in the description.

And if you would like more help with your Spanish, you can sign up for our free email lessons. So just visit coffeebreaklanguages.com slash Spanish. And you can look out for that next email listen in your inbox very soon if you sign up for our list. That's just that. Well, yeah. Proximate.

That's. Sores Droujula. Sores Droujura to finish with. Until la proxia. Happy coffee breaking. You have been listening to. to a Coffee Break Languages production for the RadioLingua Network. Copyright 2023 RadioLingo Limited.

Recording copyright, 2023, RadioLingual Limited. All rights reserved.