Catalan: Stress

Stress and Accentuation

FIRST RULE: The stress falls on the penultimate syllable in all words ending in -a, -e, -i, -o, -u, -as, -es, -is, -os, -us, -en, -in, except where i or u are part of a diphthong.

Barcelona

filla

daughter

plaça

place

puja!

come up!

SECOND RULE: The stress falls on the last syllable in all words with a different ending than those mentioned in the first rule.

diumenge

Sunday

esforç

effort

poder

to be able to

podran

they'll be able to

podrem

we'll be able to

THIRD RULE: The words with stress not complying to the above rules, bear a written accent. The accent is always acute (´) when placed over an i or a u, and grave (`) when placed over an a. When the accented vowel is an e or an o, the accent is acute if the vowel is close and grave if the vowel is open.

atenció

attention

això

this

bústia

mailbox

Català

Catalan

podia

I was able to

podré

I'll be able to

típica

typical.

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