Oh my beloved vowels: a,e,i,o, and u. The heart and soul of the Spanish language. They are a pure, one-letter sound and not the diphthongal (two-letter) English pronunciation. In Spanish, the vowels are pronounced the same anywhere you put them. Feel free to sigh in relief. However, what do vowels have to do with accent marks? Well, you can only emphasize a vowel. Try to emphasize a consonant, I dare you. Pretty difficult, isn't it? When we accent a vowel within a syllable in a Spanish word, it will determine the meaning of the word as much as its pronunciation.
In order to mean what you say, I have put together easy rules to remember.
A word that ends in a consonant (except n or s) emphasize on the last syllable:
español.
A word that ends in a vowel or the consonant n or s emphasize the next-to-last syllable:
española, trabajan
A word that does not fit in either of these two categories gets a WRITTEN accent:
simpática
So there you have it, the rules made easy.
