Accentuation of compound words

Sometimes it is not easy to write correctly all the accents in Spanish. Many of us frequently forget to write them and even more so if they are compound words since they lead to confusion in many cases. First of all, if it is a simple word we must pay attention to a series of accentuation rules general that help us to discern when words should have their graphic accentuation, thus distinguishing between words sharp, flat or esdrújulas. However, what about compound words? Do they follow the same spelling rules? In this lesson from a PROFESSOR we are going to reveal to you what is the correct stress of compound words. Keep reading!

First of all, it is important to highlight what a compound word although it seems obvious. A compound word is formed from or more simple words, that is, two or more lexemes or roots, for example: video game, basketball, Supermarket etc. In this way, with the union of two simple words we can form another more complex word. In addition, sometimes compound words can be formed from two morphemes as can be the case with the word because.

Compound words can be made up of words of different morphological rank, that is, they have different composition and these can be:

• name + name: cobweb, basketball, turning
• name + adjective: cheeky, redhead, gaping
• adjective + name: supermarket, midnight, low tide
• name + verb: handcuff, splash
• verb + name: corkscrew, can opener, birthday
• name + adverb (or vice versa): moodiness, malnutrition
• adjective + adjective: bittersweet, chiaroscuro, red and white
• adjective + adverb (or vice versa): likewise well spoken, spoiled
• verb + verb: sleep, wake up, go back and forth, laugh at it
• verb + adverb (or vice versa): well-being, morning singer, boss
• verb + pronoun (or vice versa): anyone, whoever, to do
• adverb + adverb: the day before yesterday

Also, these words may or may not be hyphenated between the two simple words by which it is formed, or they can be simply adverbs formed from the ending -mind. It is important to know a piori this classification to be able to accentuate the words correctly. In the following sections we show you what is the accentuation of these three types of compound words.

If we find words that are made up of two or more lexemes and do not have a hyphen, we must add the accent following the basic rules of accentuation; this is explained as follows:

• Sharp words: are the words whose stressed syllable is the last. Its graphic accent must be written if the word ends in -n, -s or vowel. Examples: saloon, calling, mom, frying pan, peanut, song
• Plain words: are the words whose stressed syllable is the penultimate. Its graphic accent must be written if the word ends in a consonant other than -n, -s. Examples: tree, football, sugar, album, grass, fossil
• Words esdrújulas: are the words whose stressed syllable is the penultimate. Your graphic accent should always be written. Examples: code, spherical, show, parenthesis, phone, synonym
• Words sobreesdrújulas: are the words whose stressed syllable is before the third to last syllable. Your graphic accent should always be written. It happens that many of these words are adverbs that end in -mente and for them there is a particular accentuation that we will see later. Examples: eat it, cook it, skillfully, logically, tell me, eagerly

In this way, if we find, for example, these compound words without a hyphen, their accentuation will attend to the basic rules. We leave you here a series of examples:

• make me laugh = laugh at me
• send + more = boss
• sin + end = endless
• half + day = noon
• lamp + holder = lamp holder
• twenty + three = twenty-three
• tenth + second = twelfth
• toe + foot = kick
• water + snow = sleet
• grass + good = peppermint

On the other hand, if we find words from two or more lexemes that are separated by a hyphen its accentuation is independent, therefore also they follow the basic rules of graphic accentuation but individually. We show you examples here:

• social democrat
• Asturian-Leonese
• theoretical-practical
• price quality
• impulsive-compulsive
• physiochemical
• Franco-Germanic
• vocal-musician
• artistic-plastic
• Chinese Japanese

Finally, many of the compound words are adverbs ending in -mind. In this case the graphic accent has to be put in the first word, which is normally an adjective, only if this independent word has an accent. We highlight several examples here:

• Fstrong + mind = strongly
• theoretically + mind = theoretically
• agile + mind = agile
• courteous + mind = courteously
• brief + mind = briefly
• quickly + mind = quickly
• educated + mind = politely
• lightly + mind = slightly
• happy + mind = happily
• great + mind = great