acento
nounCEFR B2
What does “acento” mean in English?
accent — a regional or foreign way of pronouncing a language, revealing origin; also written accent mark and stress pattern
accent — a regional or foreign way of pronouncing a language, revealing origin; also written accent mark and stress pattern (tener un acento regional; poner el acento en)
Example sentences
Aunque vivió veinte años en Madrid, nunca perdió del todo el acento de su ciudad natal en el norte.
Although she lived twenty years in Madrid, she never entirely lost the accent of her home city in the north.
El informe pone el acento en la necesidad de invertir en formación profesional.
The report emphasises the need to invest in vocational training.
En español, las palabras esdrújulas llevan siempre acento ortográfico.
In Spanish, proparoxytone words always carry a written accent.
How to use it
El acento (noun, masculine) has three intersecting meanings at B2: (1) a regional or foreign accent in speech, (2) stress/emphasis on a syllable (el acento tónico), and (3) the written accent mark (el acento ortográfico / tilde). In social and language-learning contexts, sense 1 is dominant. Key collocations: tener/perder/marcar el acento; acento regional/extranjero/andaluz/porteño; poner el acento en (= to emphasise something). Don't confuse with entonación (intonation) or pronunciación (pronunciation).
Common mistake
English speakers sometimes use *acentuación for 'accent (regional)' — the correct term is acento. The metaphorical poner el acento en is extremely common in journalism and academic Spanish and should be learnt as a fixed phrase. Note that tilde refers specifically to the orthographic mark, while acento covers both stress and mark.