In a previous post I shared with you the 4 elements that make for what we call an accent. Today I would like to go back to word stress and resume from there.

All words, even when they don’t take an accent mark, carry stress in one syllable. Take a look at this list of words. Notice the syllable in bold.

• certezas
• ausencia
• reconoció
• fiscal
• ante
• respuesta
• periodista
• pregunta

“Ante la pregunta del periodista, el fiscal reconoció la ausencia de certezas.”

So far so good? Great. Let’s go with another, a bit more twisted, example:

“Ante la pregunta del periodista, el fiscal, claramente incómodado por la pregunta, reconoció la ausencia de certezas y manifestó que la investigación recién comienza.”

This sentence above supplies us with the following groups of meaning:

Under what circumstance – ante la pregunta del periodista

Who – el fiscal

How did he look – claramente incomodado

Why – por la pregunta

What he did – reconoció la ausencia de certezas y manifestó

What he stated – que la investigación recién comienza

We have 5 chunks now:

Antelapreguntadelperiodista, elfiscal, claramenteincomodado, reconociólausenciadecertezasymanifestó quelainvestigaciónreciéncomienza.

Too much too soon? Try and read the resulting sentence observing the stressed syllable and with a falling intonation after each chunk:

Antelapreguntadelperiodista ↓, elfiscal↓, claramenteincomodado↓, reconociólausenciadecertezas↓ ymanifestó↓ quelainvestigación↓reciéncomienza↓.

It’s very important to keep this concept in mind and exercise in this way every time you read something.

Anyway, let me know if I can be of help in any way. I’ll be happy to hear from you!

Happy Spanish learning!

You might also want to read these articles:

• Little wonders
  This post will give you some short phrases to react naturally in conversations.
• Expressions with DE
  Let’s dive in into a few everyday expressions with DE, shall we?
• All Argentinian Food
  This is a great interactive infographic about Argentinian food that I came across online.
• Cachengue
  In this post you’ll see how CACHENGUE fits in the RPS ecosystem.
• Something is better than nothing
  This post is a friendly nudge for learners who stopped pushing towards their language learning goals.
• Estar chocho/a
  This short post will give you a new phrase to practice your CHs