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acento

accent

noun ah-SEN-toh Rare
Communication Language

Origin: From Latin accentus (tone, stress), calque of Greek prosōidia.

Also means

stress mark

Usage Note

Acento has two closely related senses: a spoken accent (tiene acento argentino — he has an Argentine accent) and the written accent mark (tilde). In strict orthographic usage, tilde is the written mark and acento is the spoken stress, but in everyday speech acento covers both. The phrase poner el acento en means 'to emphasise' or 'to focus on'.

Examples

"Tiene un acento muy marcado del norte del país."

Natural Translation

He has a very marked accent from the north of the country.

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