Miss

1. Word ends in a vowel
 (a) Normal stress falls on the 2nd-to-last syllable (no written accent):
pa-ta-ta, ha-bla
 (b) Disregard n or s at the end of a word:
pa-ta-tas, ha-blan
 (c) Writtenaccent shows stress in an abnormal position:
es-pec-tá-cu-lo, ha-bló, ha-bla-rás
2. Word ends in a consonant
 (a) Normal stress falls on the last syllable (no written accent):
pa-pel, ha-blar (b) n & s at the end of a word do not count as consonants:
pa-pe-les   ha-bla-ron
 (c) Written accent shows stress in an abnormal position:
ár-bol   al-cá-zar
3. Vowel combinations
 (a) a e o —“strong” vowels, so they remain in separate syllables:
pa-se-o, pa-se-ar, pa-se-ó
 (b) i u — “weak”, so they combine with another vowel to form a diphthong:
pa-tio, fa-tuo, pa-se-a-bais, pa-sión
 (c)Written accent on i or u shows that it is stressed, not forming a diphthong (therefore “strong”, remaining separate):
po-e-sí-a, a-cen-tú-a, co-me-rí-ais
 (d) Disregard h between vowels:
prohi-bi-do pro-hí-be
4. Distinguishing between stressed and unstressed forms of a word
 (a) Adjective and pronoun:
 
ADJECTIVE (unstressed) | PRONOUN (stressed) |
este chico | éste |
mi casa | para mí |tu casa | tú bailas |
 (b) Relative pronoun, conjunction, interrogative adjective/pronoun:
 
Conjunction (unstressed) ('that') | Dice que han cantado una copla |
Relative pronoun (unstressed)('that/which') | No conozco la copla que han cantado |
Interrogative adjective (stressed) 
('which/what') | ¿Qué copla han cantado? 
Dime qué copla han cantado |
Interrogative pronoun(stressed) 
(= 'what/who') | ¿Qué han cantado? 
Dime cuál han cantado 
Tú sabes qué han cantado 
No importa quién haya cantado |
Conjunction (unstressed) 
('where/like') | Se sentó donde había un pocode sombra 
Cantaron como pájaros |
Interrogative adverb (stressed) 
('where/how') | No recuerdo dónde se sentó 
No me preguntes cómo cantaron |
 (c) Exclamations:
¡qué tío tan pesado! ...