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Introduction to Tildes in Spanish – Lesson 25
In this lesson
(Lesson summary)
What are tildes (accent marks) in Spanish? Learn the 6 letters that can have one, and how a tilde shows where the stress goes: rápido, café, corazón.
- What a tilde is
- The 6 letters that can have a tilde
- How tildes show where the stress goes
- The 2 reasons Spanish uses tildes
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(The full lesson)
What is a tilde in Spanish?
Welcome to lesson 25, the last lesson of chapter 1! Today is an introduction to tildes: the little marks you see on top of some Spanish letters, like the é in café.
Quiero un café. I want a coffee.
In English we call this an accent (or accent mark). In Spanish it’s called a tilde. English barely uses them, but in Spanish you’ll see them all the time. Today you’ll learn the main reason why.
The 6 letters that can have a tilde
| Letter | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| á | árbol | tree |
| é | café | coffee |
| í | país | country |
| ó | corazón | heart |
| ú | tú | you (informal) |
| ñ | niño | boy / child |
The five vowels get a small line (á, é, í, ó, ú). Notice the í: instead of a dot, it has the tilde.
And the ñ? As we learned in the alphabet lesson, that’s not an n with a mark: it’s a separate letter, the eñe, with its own sound (“ny”, like in canyon). In Spanish, the wavy line on top is also called a tilde.
Tildes show where the stress goes
The main job of a tilde is to show which part of the word you say the loudest: where the stress goes. Look at this sentence:
Él habla muy rápido. He talks very fast.
Rápido has a tilde on the á, so that’s where the stress goes: RÁ-pi-do. Not ra-PI-do, and not ra-pi-DO.
And él? That one has a tilde for a different reason: él with a tilde means “he”, and el without one means “the”. We saw this in lesson 9. That’s the second reason tildes exist: to tell apart words that would otherwise look the same. We’ll dive into that in a later lesson.
Practice: where does the stress go?
Look at these words and try to say them out loud, with the stress on the letter with the tilde. Then compare:
| Word | Say it like | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| sábado | SÁ-ba-do | Saturday |
| bebé | be-BÉ | baby |
| fácil | FÁ-cil | easy |
| corazón | co-ra-ZÓN | heart |
| niño | NI-ño | boy / child |
Say sábado wrong (sa-BA-do) and it sounds strange to native speakers. Put the stress where the tilde is, and you sound way more natural.
(Wes’s tip)
From now on, every time you see a tilde, pause for a second and think about how the word is pronounced. And listen carefully to how native speakers say words. Getting the stress right is one of the hardest parts of Spanish, but it makes a huge difference in how fluent you sound.
What about words without a tilde?
Most Spanish words don’t have a tilde, and they still have a stressed part. That’s because Spanish has a few simple default rules for where the stress goes. The tilde is only written when a word breaks those rules. We’ll go through those rules in a later lesson. For now, just remember: if there’s a tilde, that’s where the stress goes.
2 reasons for tildes
- Pronunciation: the tilde shows where the stress goes (rápido, sábado, café). That’s what we learned today.
- Meaning: the tilde tells apart words that look the same (él = he, el = the; tú = you, tu = your). More about that in a later lesson.
Practice: tildes
Think about it, say it out loud, then click to check.
1. Where’s the stress in “rápido”?
On the á: RÁ-pi-do.
2. Where’s the stress in “café”?
On the é: ca-FÉ.
3. Where’s the stress in “corazón”?
On the ó: co-ra-ZÓN.
4. What’s the difference between “él” and “el”?
Él = he. El = the.
5. Which 6 letters can have a tilde?
á, é, í, ó, ú and ñ.
6. Is ñ just an n with an accent?
No: ñ is a separate letter, the eñe.
Quiz: introduction to tildes
8 quick questions to finish chapter 1!
Frequently asked questions
Is it a big mistake to forget a tilde?
In speaking, nobody sees it, of course, but you’ll still want the stress in the right place. In writing, a missing tilde is a spelling mistake, and sometimes it even changes the meaning (él / el, tú / tu). So get used to writing them from the start.
How do I type á, é, í, ó, ú and ñ?
On your phone, just hold down the letter and pick the one with the tilde. On a Mac, hold the letter key too. On Windows, the easiest way is to add a Spanish (or US International) keyboard in your settings.
Congrats: you finished chapter 1!
That’s the end of the first chapter: 25 lessons with the basics of Spanish. You’ve learned greetings, numbers, articles, pronouns, your first verbs (querer, tener, ser and estar), question words, restaurant Spanish and so much more. ¡Enhorabuena!
And some good news: all 200 lessons of this course are free. Want to go faster than the weekly uploads, or support the course? On Patreon you get early access to the next lessons, and your support helps me make even more lessons. Every bit truly makes a difference.
See you in lesson 26, the start of chapter 2!
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