Spanish accents: copy and paste

What are the Spanish accented letters?

What does the accent mark do?

The accent on á, é, í, ó, and ú shows which syllable you stress when speaking. The vowel sounds the same with or without it. [1]

Spanish has two default stress rules, and the accent marks the words that break them:

• Words ending in a vowel, n, or s are stressed on the second-to-last syllable: casa (CA-sa), hablan (HA-blan).
• Words ending in any other consonant are stressed on the last syllable: hablar (ha-BLAR), ciudad (ciu-DAD).
• A word that breaks these rules carries an accent on the stressed vowel: café, canción, árbol, teléfono.

Which words does the accent tell apart?

Some short words are spelled the same but have different meanings, which are denoted by the specific accent mark:

Question and exclamation words take an accent too: qué, quién, cómo, dónde, cuándo, cuánto, cuál.

Why is ñ its own letter?

Ñ is a separate letter of the Spanish alphabet, called eñe, and comes right after n in the dictionary. It sounds like the "ny" in canyon: niño (NEE-nyo), mañana (ma-NYA-na).

Medieval scribes saved space by writing a double n (nn) as one n with a small line above it, and that line became the tilde. [2]

When does u have two dots?

In the syllables gue and gui, the u is silent: guerra (GEH-rra), guitarra (gee-TA-rra). The two dots on ü tell you to say it: pingüino (peen-GWEE-no), vergüenza (ver-GWEN-sa), bilingüe (bee-LEEN-gweh).

Ü only appears before e or i, so it is the rarest of the Spanish accented letters.

Why does Spanish use upside-down question marks?

Spanish opens every question with ¿ and every exclamation with ¡, which indicates the type of sentence from the beginning. The Real Academia Española recommended them in 1754. [3]

• ¿Dónde está el baño? Where is the bathroom?
• ¡Qué bonito! How pretty!

The opening mark goes where the question or exclamation starts, which is not always the start of the sentence: Y tú, ¿de dónde eres? (And you, where are you from?). Many people skip the opening marks in casual texts, but use them in anything formal.

Do capital letters keep their accents?

Yes. The Real Academia Española says capitals keep their accent marks: Ángel, África, ÉXITO. [1] People started dropping them because old typewriters could not print them.

How do you type Spanish accents on a keyboard?

If you type Spanish often, a shortcut is faster than copying. On Windows, hold Alt and type the code on the number pad. On a Mac, press the first combination, let go, then type the letter.

On a phone, press and hold a letter to see its accented versions. For step-by-step instructions on every device, including the US International keyboard, see how to type Spanish accents.

Accent letter copy tool

Click any of the letters below to copy it with its accent mark.