I want a bigger monitor but I ' ve been spoiled by my 144 hz 1 ms and I just can ' t go back to 60 , especially since I play csgo all day . Even watching movies I notice the difference ! <| sep |> continued . Of course , stress is related to the notion of syllables , but a syllable cannot exist without a vowel . A syllable may be a vowel alone , a vowel with a consonant or consonants before , a vowel with a consonant or consonants after , or a vowel between consonants . And teaching syllabification as the first step for understanding stress patterns is indeed the traditional approach , but this actually confounds the matter . And of course , accent marks in Spanish are on a single vowel , never on a consonant , and certainly never on an entire syllable . So why not teach students to quickly and easily find that single vowel ? Accent marks are on a single vowel precisely because that is the heart of every syllable . In Spanish , to find the number of syllables , just count the vowels making sure to count I or U together with a neighboring vowel . Phonetic spellings in dictionaries showing syllable division and stress marks after the entire syllable are not real language , and don ' t seem to be an appropriate measuring stick to judge any pedagogy addressing real language and real spelling . Focusing on counting vowels and finding the target vowel does not confound nor contradict the notion of syllable in fact as a first step , it makes learning formal syllabification very easy . I have to say that the proof is in the pudding after the traditional approaches , most native speakers , most of my Spanishteacher colleagues , and most Spanish majors have only a vague understanding of accent marks . Even highly accurate use of accent marks is usually related to memorization lots of exposure to accurate written language that ' s just how it ' s spelled . In contrast , virtually all of my students understand accent marks for pronunciation with a high degree of accuracy within a few days , and the patterns are continually reinforced every time they seesayhearwrite a word . When they learn the days of the week , it is no surprise to my beginning students why sbado has a written accent , but domingo does not . And why lunes , martes , jueves , and viernes don ' t , but mircoles does . There is no mystery . It ' s logical . In fact , it ' s not only helpful but easy . When students learn the colors , the pronunciation rojo and rojos totally makes sense , and even tricky examples like marrn and marrones do , too . Adis , acento ! The traditional methods and timeline leave accent marks as some strange mysterious aspect of Spanish for years , and do little to clarify it for most students when finally introduced . I wholeheartedly disagree with the traditional pedagogical perspective that diacritical accents are the most important accent marks for beginners to learn . This flips the main reason Spanish has accent marks on its head the primary purpose of accent marks in Spanish is for pronunciation . Why is the RAE continually removing diacritical accents ? If they don ' t help pronunciation , ditch ' em . The 5050 breakdown you mention is based on frequency of accent marks in your text an overall tally , but if you made a simple word list , the list of words with diacriticals would probably be less than 15 , while the list of orthographic accents for pronunciation would be in the hundreds . An exhaustive list of diacriticals tops out at a very small number . These are off the top of my head dnde donde cundo cuando cunto cuanto cul cual quin quien qu que s x 2 si ms mas l el t tu m mi t te d de s x 2 seI can only think of 14 , not including plural and gender variations . What have I forgotten ? In my curricular timeline , after understanding accent marks for pronunciation purposes in only a few days , it ' s very easy to add the diacriticals as they come up t tienes tu libro or l tiene el libro . And they do start showing up pretty quickly . As I mentioned in a previous comment , examples like Mara , panadera , and contina actually contradict the traditional rules ! According to the rules , words ending with a vowel that are stressed on the penultimate syllable do not have a written accent . I am quite confident that my articulation of the pattern is more than merely ' convenient '. As I mentioned before , in a traditional articulation , the reasons for the loudest syllable of pairs like seorseora or espaolespaola have to be different i . e . , two different rules . But in mine , the reason is the same i . e . , one rule . I suggest reading Eduardo Benot ' s Examen crtico de la acentuacin castellana . It is very , very interesting ! The point of the rules is to make the system as efficient as possible , i . e . , the fewest accents possible . By ignoring final n and s , some extra accents have to be added inglsinglesa or alemnalemana , but it is a net reduction in written accents comecomen or tacotacos . These were very conscious decisions . Benot himself says this about a final n and s with regard to stress no cuentan . I am comfortable taking that one step further to say that with regard to stress , a vowel after the last consonant also does not count in the case of most words i . e . , nouns and adjectives , it is a space reserved for an unstressed vocalic morpheme inflectional suffix that simply indicates gender . In his first few chapters , Benot also has a lot to say about Academia in general , which from his mid to late 1800 ' s perspective is surprisingly relevant today . From grafo dagrafo 1 . m . Ling . Secuencia de dos letras que representa un solo sonido p . ej . , en espaol ll , en francs ou , en cataln ny . From dechylldelabecedario Se excluyen definitivamente del abecedario los signos ch y ll , ya que , en realidad , no son letras , sino dgrafos , esto es , conjuntos de dos letras o grafemas que representan un solo fonema . If I asked , How many letters does the word churro have ? , I think the answer would be six , not four . If I asked asked , How many vowels does this word have ? , I think the answer would be two . If I asked asked , How many consonants does it have ? , I think the answer would be four , not two . I don ' t see much problem in identifying each letter of a diagraph as a consonant or a vowel ll is is a combination of two consonants , ou is is a combination conjunto of two vowels , ny is a combination of two consonants , regardless of the soundphoneme they represent . Perhaps in a phonetics class , it would be less than adequate !