A2 Accents and stress (the tilde)

The written accent (´, the tilde) tells you which syllable to stress — and sometimes changes meaning.

The default stress rules

ends in vowel, n or s	stress the second-to-last syllable — casa, comen
ends in any other consonant	stress the last syllable — hablar, feliz
breaks the rule?	it takes a written accent — árbol, canción, inglés

Accents also separate meaning: tú (you) vs tu (your), sí (yes) vs si (if), qué (what?) vs que (that).