How do you put the accent on Spanish words?

It lets you know which syllable is accentuated. All Words have accents. For example, in English the Word 'express' can be pronounced in two different ways depending on the usage. You can say:

'The express bus is late'

which puts an emphasis on the first syllable

'I'd like to express my feelings.'

which puts the emphasis on the second syllable.

In English, you typically just look at the context of the sentence to know which pronounciation is adequate. In spanish, there are rules for natural emphasis on certain vowels and accents are the exceptions to those rules.

The rule is that for Words that end in 's', 'r', or vowel, the emphasis naturally falls on the second last syllable. If this rule is broken, an accent is added in. A good way to illustrate this is with the difference between papa and papá.

Papa ends with a vowel and so it has a natural emphasis on the second last syllable. This Word means 'potato'.

Papá has an unnatural accent on the last syllable and it means 'dad'.