1. An accent mark indicates stress on a syllable other than the next-to-last for words ending in –n, -s, or a vowel: está, estás, están, médico

2. An accent mark indicates stress on a syllable other than the last one for words ending in any consonant other than –n or -s: fácil, lápiz, carácter

3. An accent marks stress on a weak vowel (i, u) followed or preceded by a strong vowel (a, e, o): mío, grúa, sonríe

4. Pronouns such as cómo, dónde, qué, quién, cuándo, cuál have accents when used as question and exclamation words, even in indirect questions: ¿Dónde vives? . ¡Cómo habla! No sabe qué decir (indirect question)

5. Only a few one-syllable words have accents to signal different meanings:

dé give	él he/him	más more	mí me	sé I know	sí yes	té tea	tú you
de of, from	el the	mas but	mi my	se pronoun	si if	te you	tu your