Placement of Tildes in Spanish

In Spanish, tildes (also known as accent marks) are small diagonal lines placed over vowels to indicate stress or distinguish between words that are otherwise spelled the same. For example, tú (you) and tu (your) have different meanings, and the tilde in tú helps us tell them apart.

Tildes also show where the natural stress of a word falls when it doesn’t follow standard stress rules. Learning when and where to use tildes is essential for correct pronunciation, spelling, and meaning in Spanish.

In this lesson, we learn the rules for placing tildes (accent marks) in Spanish words so you can spell and pronounce them correctly.