25.6 PRONUNCIACIÓN Y ORTOGRAFÍA / PRONUNCIATION AND SPELLING

EL ACENTO EN LOS VERBOS DEL PRETÉRITO PERFECTO SIMPLE

The 1st and 3rd person singular forms of the simple past always require the use of written accents:

• (Yo) hablé
• (Él/ella/usted) habló

	The following forms of ser and ir don’t use accent marks and are pronounced as one syllable (diphthong): (Yo) fui (Él/ella/usted) fue

The remaining forms of ser and ir don’t have written accents and are pronounced as diphthongs:

• (Tú) fuiste
• (Nosotros/as) fuimos
• (Vosotros/as) fuisteis …

Remember: the vowels i and u when stressed and beside a/e/o, are pronounced as two syllables (hiatus) and always carry an accent mark. The written accent is needed because some verb tenses are only differentiated by the accent:

Recuerda: Cuando la palabra acaba en sonido [i] sin acento, no se escribe i, sino y:

• rey ~ reí
• ley ~ leí
• hoy ~ oí
• hay ~ ahí

	Escucha y repite las siguientes frases:

Now record your voice in an audio note and check your intonation.

Now record your voice in an audio note and check your intonation.

Now record your voice in an audio note and check your intonation.

Now record your voice in an audio note and check your intonation.

Now record your voice in an audio note and check your intonation.

Now record your voice in an audio note and check your intonation.

	Algunos tiempos verbales solo se diferencian por la posición del acento: (yo) canto → Presente de indicativo (él/ella/usted) cantó → Pretérito perfecto simple

	Escribe siempre la tilde porque hay palabras que solo se diferencian así: corto (adjetivo) ~ cortó (verbo cortar) baile (nombre) ~ bailé (verbo bailar)