Spanish 2 Quiz: Accent Marks And Punctuation
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Accent Marks And PunctuationQuestion 1 of 15

A student writes the sentence: El medico examino al paciente ayer. Which version correctly applies all necessary accent marks according to standard Spanish orthographic rules?

El médico examinó al paciente ayer.
El médico examino al paciente ayer.
El medico examinó al paciente ayer.
El médico examináo al paciente ayer.
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Spanish 2 Quiz

Spanish 2 Quiz: Accent Marks And Punctuation

Practice Accent Marks And Punctuation in Spanish 2 with focused quiz questions that help you check what you know, review explanations, and build confidence with test-style prompts.

What this quiz covers

This quiz focuses on Accent Marks And Punctuation, giving you a quick way to practice the rules, question types, and explanations that matter most for Spanish 2.

How to use this quiz

Try each quiz question before looking at the correct answer. Use the explanations to review missed ideas, then come back to similar questions until the pattern feels familiar.

All questions

Question 1

A student writes the sentence: El medico examino al paciente ayer. Which version correctly applies all necessary accent marks according to standard Spanish orthographic rules?

  1. El médico examinó al paciente ayer. (correct answer)
  2. El médico examino al paciente ayer.
  3. El medico examinó al paciente ayer.
  4. El médico examináo al paciente ayer.
Explanation: When you see a question about accent marks in Spanish, you need to think about two things simultaneously: stress patterns and word classification (aguda, llana, esdrújula). Spanish has clear rules about when written accents (tildes) are required. Start with médico. This word is esdrújula — stress falls on the antepenultimate (third-to-last) syllable: MÉ-di-co. Every esdrújula word in Spanish always requires a written accent, no exceptions. So medico without the accent is always wrong. Now consider examinó. The preterite third-person singular (él/ella form) of -ar verbs places stress on the final syllable, making it an aguda word ending in a vowel — and aguda words ending in a vowel, n, or s require a written accent. Without it, examino looks like the present-tense first-person form ("I examine"), completely changing the meaning. The accent on examinó is therefore grammatically essential. This makes A the only correct answer — it correctly accents both words. Looking at the distractors: B fixes médico but drops the accent on examinó, leaving an ambiguous verb form. C correctly writes examinó but forgets the accent on médico, violating the esdrújula rule. D invents examináo, which is not a real Spanish word — this distractor tests whether you'll be fooled by a random accent placement. A helpful study tip: always check esdrújula words first (they always get accents), then check verb tenses — preterite third-person singular -ar verbs are a classic accent-mark trap on Spanish exams.

Question 2

¿Cuál oración está bien escrita?

  1. ¿Cuánto cuesta.
  2. ¿Cuanto cuesta?
  3. Cuánto cuesta?
  4. ¿Cuánto cuesta? (correct answer)
Explanation: A question in Spanish needs both the opening and closing question marks, and cuánto carries a written accent when it means how much. Option D has both. The most tempting wrong answer is C: it has the accent and closing mark but omits the opening ¿, so it isn't complete.

Question 3

¿Qué par de palabras está bien acentuado?

  1. examen / exámenes (correct answer)
  2. exámen / examenes
  3. examen / examenes
  4. exámen / exámenes
Explanation: Examen is a llana word ending in n, so it needs no written accent. Its plural exámenes shifts the stress to the ex- syllable and becomes esdrújula, so it must carry the accent on the a. The tempting error is exámen, which wrongly accents the singular; the correct pair is examen / exámenes.

Question 4

¿Cuál oración usa bien las tildes?

  1. Para mí, tu libro es bueno. (correct answer)
  2. Para mi, tu libro es bueno.
  3. Para mí, tú libro es bueno.
  4. Para mi, tú libro es bueno.
Explanation: Para mí needs the accent on mí because it is the pronoun 'me', while mi without the accent is the possessive 'my'. Tu before libro is possessive 'your', so it must not have a tilde; tú with the accent is the subject pronoun 'you'. The tempting error is writing tú libro, but possessives never carry an accent.

Question 5

¿Cuál exclamación es correcta?

  1. Qué lindo día!
  2. ¡Que lindo día!
  3. ¡Qué lindo día! (correct answer)
  4. ¡Qué lindo día?
Explanation: In Spanish, exclamations need both the opening and closing exclamation marks, and exclamatory words like "qué" carry a written accent. So the correct form is "¡Qué lindo día!" The tempting mistake is writing "Que" without the accent or leaving out the opening ¡; without both, the exclamation is not correctly punctuated.

Question 6

Elige la oración correcta.

  1. No se dónde vive.
  2. No sé dónde vive. (correct answer)
  3. No sé donde vive.
  4. No sé dónde vive?
Explanation: Use sé with an accent for 'I know'; se without it is a pronoun, not a verb. In 'No sé dónde vive', the word dónde is part of an indirect question, so it also needs the written accent. The sentence is a statement, so it ends with a period, not a question mark. The tempting mistake is 'No sé donde vive', which has correct sé but drops the required accent on dónde.

Question 7

Consider the word solo. Under current Real Academia Española guidelines, which statement most accurately describes when it requires a written accent mark?

  1. It never requires a written accent mark because the 2010 RAE reform eliminated the mandatory tilde on solo in all its uses, including when it functions as an adverb meaning 'only,' though writers may still use it optionally in genuinely ambiguous sentences. (correct answer)
  2. It always requires a written accent (sólo) when it functions as an adverb meaning 'only,' because the tilde is mandatory to distinguish it from the adjective meaning 'alone,' just as tú/tu and él/el must always be distinguished by a tilde.
  3. It requires a written accent only when it appears at the beginning of a sentence, regardless of its grammatical function, because words in initial position follow stricter orthographic conventions that override the standard llana accent rules.
  4. It requires a written accent only when both the adverb form and the adjective form appear together in the same sentence, because the tilde serves exclusively to resolve ambiguity when the two forms co-occur and could confuse the reader.
Explanation: When Spanish orthography questions appear on an exam, pay close attention to reform dates and official RAE rulings, since rules have genuinely changed and answer choices often exploit outdated information. The 2010 Ortografía de la lengua española issued by the Real Academia Española officially eliminated the mandatory tilde on solo. Before 2010, writers were required to write sólo (adverb, "only") to distinguish it from solo (adjective, "alone"). The reform determined that context almost always makes the meaning clear, so the accent mark is no longer required in either function. However, the RAE acknowledges that writers may optionally retain the tilde in the rare case where genuine ambiguity would otherwise arise. Answer A captures this precisely — no mandatory accent, optional use in truly ambiguous cases — making it correct. Answer B describes the pre-2010 rule, not the current one. It also draws a false parallel: pairs like tú/tu and él/el still require diacritical accents because those distinctions involve different word classes (pronoun vs. determiner) the RAE continues to mandate. Solo/solo was specifically reformed away from that system. Answer C is entirely fabricated. Spanish orthography has no rule requiring accents on words simply because they appear at the beginning of a sentence. Sentence position does not override standard accent rules. Answer D is a partial truth twisted into an error. While ambiguity resolution was the spirit behind the old rule, the current guideline does not restrict optional use only to sentences where both forms co-occur simultaneously. Study tip: For orthography questions, always anchor your answer to the 2010 RAE reform — it's the most commonly tested update at the Spanish-2 level.

Question 8

A student must decide whether to write continúo, continuo, or continuó to complete the sentence: Ella   trabajando a pesar del ruido. Which form is correct, and what accentuation rule justifies the choice?

  1. continuó — a preterite third-person singular form; since stress falls on the final syllable, it is an aguda ending in a vowel, which requires a written accent to show that the action was completed in the past. (correct answer)
  2. continúo — a present-tense first-person singular form; the tilde is required because the sequence u-o would otherwise be read as a diphthong, and the accent breaks the diphthong to show that each vowel carries independent stress.
  3. continuo — an adjective meaning 'continuous/continual'; it is a llana ending in a vowel and therefore needs no written accent, and it fits the context of describing ongoing, uninterrupted action.
  4. continuó — a present-tense third-person singular form; the tilde is needed because present-tense verbs conjugated for ella must be distinguished from their corresponding infinitive forms by means of a written accent.
Explanation: When you see a question like this, you need to identify three things simultaneously: the subject of the sentence, the tense being used, and how Spanish accentuation rules apply to that specific verb form. The subject here is ella and the action is clearly completed — she continued working despite the noise. That points to the preterite tense, third-person singular. The preterite form of continuar for ella is continuó. Notice where the stress falls: on the final syllable (-ó). In Spanish, words stressed on the final syllable are called agudas, and they require a written accent when they end in a vowel, n, or s. Since continuó ends in a vowel, the tilde is mandatory — making A correct. Now let's clear up the distractors. B describes continúo, which is actually a real form — but it's first-person singular present tense (yo continúo, "I continue"). The tilde there breaks the u-o sequence into two separate syllables rather than a diphthong. This form doesn't match ella, so B fails on both subject agreement and tense. C offers continuo (no accent), which does exist as an adjective meaning "continuous," but adjectives don't pair with the gerund trabajando the way a conjugated verb does — the sentence needs a verb, not a descriptor. D is the trickiest trap: it correctly identifies continuó as the answer but gives a false rule, claiming present-tense ella forms always need accents to distinguish them from infinitives. That's simply not a real rule in Spanish. Your takeaway: always verify who is acting, when the action occurs, and then apply accentuation rules — don't let a correctly spelled word with a wrong justification fool you.

Question 9

Which of the following sets of words is spelled correctly in ALL cases, with no missing or misplaced accent marks?

  1. facil, difícil, útil, ágil — the llana accent rule applies only to words of three or more syllables, so fácil, as a two-syllable word, is exempt from the tilde requirement.
  2. fácil, difícil, util, ágil — llanas ending in -l generally require a tilde, but útil is exempt because the u in its stressed syllable already signals stress through its position in a closed syllable, making the accent redundant.
  3. fácil, difícil, útil, agil — llanas ending in -l require accents, but ágil is an exception because it ends in the consonant cluster -gil, which follows different orthographic conventions than simple -l endings.
  4. fácil, difícil, útil, ágil — all are llanas ending in -l (a consonant other than -n or -s), so all require written accents under the standard llana accentuation rule. (correct answer)
Explanation: When you see a question about Spanish accent marks, your first instinct should be to identify the word's stress pattern and its final letter. Spanish has two main rules: agudas (stressed on the last syllable) get tildes when ending in a vowel, -n, or -s; llanas (stressed on the second-to-last syllable) get tildes when they do not end in a vowel, -n, or -s. All four words here — fácil, difícil, útil, ágil — are llanas ending in -l, a consonant that is neither -n nor -s, so every single one requires a written accent mark. That makes D the only fully correct set. Answer A is wrong because it leaves fácil without its tilde, falsely claiming two-syllable llanas are exempt. Syllable count is completely irrelevant to the llana rule — only the final letter matters. Answer B drops the accent from útil, inventing a bogus exception about "closed syllables signaling stress." No such exception exists in Spanish orthography; the tilde requirement for llanas ending in -l is absolute. Answer C omits the accent from ágil, fabricating a fictional rule about consonant clusters like -gil behaving differently from simple -l endings. Spanish makes no such distinction — -gil ends in -l just like -ful, -fícil, or any other -l ending. A useful memory trick: think of the llana rule as a mismatch signal. A tilde appears whenever the word's stress pattern mismatches the default (which assumes stress on the second-to-last syllable only if the word ends in a vowel, -n, or -s). When a llana ends in anything else, the tilde flags that mismatch — no exceptions based on syllable count, vowels within the word, or consonant clusters.

Question 10

A student writes: El examen fue mas dificil de lo que esperaba, pero aprendi mucho. How many written accent marks are missing from this sentence?

  1. Four: más, difícil, aprendí, and esperába all require written accents in this sentence.
  2. Two: only difícil and aprendí are missing accents; mas does not need one because it is functioning as a conjunction equivalent to 'but.'
  3. Three: más, difícil, and aprendí each require a tilde that is absent in the student's version. (correct answer)
  4. Two: only más and difícil need accents; aprendi is a llana ending in a vowel and therefore follows the default pattern requiring no written accent.
Explanation: When tackling accent mark questions in Spanish, your first move should be to classify each word by its stress pattern and ending, then check whether a written tilde is required. Let's walk through the three words in question. Más (meaning "more") always carries a tilde to distinguish it from mas (meaning "but"), a conjunction that appears almost exclusively in formal or literary writing. In everyday modern Spanish, when the meaning is "more," the accent is obligatory. Difícil is an esdrújula word — stress falls on the antepenultimate syllable — and esdrújulas always require a written accent, no exceptions. Aprendí is a preterite yo form; the stress falls on the final syllable -dí, making it aguda. Agudas require a tilde when they end in a vowel, n, or s — and since aprendí ends in a vowel, the accent is required. That gives you three missing tildes, confirming C is correct. Choice A is wrong because esperaba is a llana (stress on the second-to-last syllable) ending in a vowel, which follows the default pattern and needs no written accent. Adding one would actually be an error. Choice B makes the opposite mistake with más — it incorrectly applies the literary conjunction mas rule to a context where the word clearly means "more," so the tilde is needed. Choice D misclassifies aprendí: it's not llana, it's aguda, and agudas ending in a vowel do require a written accent. A reliable study habit: always identify a word's stress category (aguda, llana, esdrújula) before deciding whether it needs a tilde — that sequence prevents nearly every accent error.

Question 11

Which of the following correctly explains why aun and aún are written differently, and identifies the sentence where the accented form is required?

  1. Aún (with accent) is an esdrújula that always takes a tilde because stress falls on the antepenultimate syllable; aun (without accent) is a llana that follows default rules for words ending in -n. The accented form is required in: Aún cuando llueve, salimos a caminar.
  2. Aún (with accent) is used exclusively in negative sentences to reinforce the negation and cannot appear in affirmative contexts; aun (without accent) is used in affirmative sentences. The accented form is required in: Aún llegó tarde al examen.
  3. Aún (with accent) means 'still/yet' and functions as an adverb of time replaceable by todavía; aun (without accent) means 'even' and functions as a concessive adverb replaceable by incluso. The accented form is required in: Aún no ha llegado nadie. (correct answer)
  4. Both aun and aún are pronounced identically and refer to the same concept, so the written accent carries no grammatical distinction; it is a purely optional stylistic choice that writers may use or omit freely in any sentence, including Aun/Aún no ha llegado nadie.
Explanation: When Spanish uses a written accent to distinguish two words spelled the same way, it's signaling a difference in meaning and grammatical function — not just pronunciation. This is called a tilde diacrítica, and aun/aún is one of the most tested pairs. The key distinction is this: aún (with accent) means still or yet — it's an adverb of time that you can swap out for todavía. Aun (without accent) means even — a concessive adverb interchangeable with incluso. So in the sentence Aún no ha llegado nadie, you can substitute Todavía no ha llegado nadie and it works perfectly, confirming the accented form is correct. That's exactly what answer C explains, making it the right choice. Answer A is wrong because neither word is esdrújula — both have only one syllable in speech. The accent on aún is diacritical, not phonetic stress-based. Answer B creates a false rule: aún is not limited to negative sentences. It can appear in affirmative sentences too (e.g., aún queda tiempo), and the example given, Aún llegó tarde, doesn't demonstrate the time-meaning clearly. Also notice that aun cuando in A's example actually calls for the unaccented form, since it means even when — making A's own example sentence contradict its rule. Answer D is flatly false: the accent carries real grammatical meaning, and the choice is never optional or stylistic. Your go-to strategy: whenever you see aun/aún, ask yourself — can I replace it with todavía? If yes, use the accent. If incluso fits better, drop it.

Question 12

Which of the following sentences uses inverted punctuation marks AND accent marks in full compliance with standard Spanish mechanics?

  1. ¿Cuántos libros compraste en la feria del libro esta semana? (correct answer)
  2. ¿Cuantos libros compraste en la feria del libro esta semana?
  3. ¿Cuántos libros compraste en la feria del libro esta semana
  4. ¿Cuantos libros compraste en la feria del libro esta semana.
Explanation: When answering Spanish mechanics questions, you need to check two things simultaneously: punctuation marks (both opening and closing) and accent marks on question words. Missing either one counts as an error. In Spanish, interrogative words like cuántos, cómo, dónde, and qué always carry a written accent mark to distinguish them from their non-interrogative counterparts. Additionally, every question must be framed with both an inverted opening mark (¿) and a standard closing mark (?). Sentence A — ¿Cuántos libros compraste en la feria del libro esta semana? — gets both right: the accent on cuántos is present, the opening ¿ is in place, and the sentence closes with the required ?. That makes A the only fully correct option. Choice B fails because cuantos is missing its accent mark. Without the tilde, the word loses its interrogative identity in formal writing — a common slip students make when typing quickly. Choice C has the accent mark correct but drops the closing question mark entirely, leaving the sentence mechanically incomplete. Choice D combines two errors: cuantos is missing its accent, and the sentence ends with a period instead of a question mark, which directly contradicts the interrogative structure opened by ¿. A useful trick: treat Spanish question marks as a pair — ¿ opens, ? closes — and mentally flag every question word (qué, quién, cuándo, dónde, cómo, cuánto) as needing an accent. If either element is missing, the sentence fails standard Spanish mechanics. Checking both layers every time will help you avoid mixing up the distractors on exam questions like this one.

Question 13

A student wants to write an exclamatory sentence in Spanish expressing surprise: What a beautiful day! Which version is fully correct in terms of both punctuation and accent marks?

  1. ¡Que día tan hermoso!
  2. ¡Qué día tan hermoso! (correct answer)
  3. ¡Qué día tan hermoso¡
  4. Qué día tan hermoso!
Explanation: When writing exclamatory sentences in Spanish, you need to keep two rules in mind simultaneously: the use of accent marks on question/exclamation words, and the proper placement of punctuation marks. In Spanish, words like qué, cuál, cuándo, and cómo carry a written accent mark whenever they are used in exclamatory or interrogative contexts — this accent is what distinguishes them from their conjunction/relative pronoun counterparts. So que (meaning "that" or "which") becomes qué in exclamations and questions. Additionally, Spanish requires both an opening and closing punctuation mark for exclamations: ¡...! — the inverted mark at the beginning is not optional. Choice B — ¡Qué día tan hermoso! — satisfies both requirements: the accent on qué signals its exclamatory function, and the punctuation opens with ¡ and closes with !, making it fully correct. Choice A fails because que is missing its accent mark. Without it, the word reads as a conjunction, and the exclamatory meaning is grammatically incomplete — even if a native speaker might understand it in speech. Choice C has the correct accent on qué but inverts the closing punctuation mark (¡ instead of !). Punctuation marks in Spanish are not interchangeable — ¡ only opens, and ! only closes. Choice D is missing the required opening inverted exclamation mark entirely. Spanish does not allow you to use only a closing mark, even if that might look familiar from English. A helpful tip: whenever you write a Spanish exclamation, mentally checklist two things — does my exclamatory word have its accent? and do I have both ¡ and !? Missing either one is a guaranteed error.

Question 14

In the sentence ¡Qué sorpresa tan grande!, the word qué carries a written accent. If the same word were used in the sentence No sé qué hacer, would it still require the accent, and why?

  1. No, because indirect questions in Spanish follow the same punctuation rules as relative clauses, so the relative conjunction que (no accent) replaces the interrogative qué (with accent) once the question is embedded.
  2. No, because qué only requires a tilde in sentences that use inverted exclamation marks (¡…!); in declarative sentences the diacritical accent is dropped and the word is written que.
  3. Yes, but only because hacer is an infinitive that follows directly; when a conjugated verb follows que, the accent is removed to signal subordination rather than interrogation.
  4. Yes, because qué in No sé qué hacer functions as an interrogative/exclamative pronoun in an indirect question, and interrogative/exclamative pronouns always carry a tilde regardless of whether the sentence ends with a question mark. (correct answer)
Explanation: Whenever you see a question involving qué vs. que in Spanish, ask yourself: is the word functioning as an interrogative/exclamative pronoun, or as a simple relative conjunction? That distinction — not punctuation marks — determines whether the accent is required. In No sé qué hacer, the word qué introduces an indirect question embedded inside a declarative sentence. It still carries interrogative meaning ("I don't know what to do"), which means it functions as an interrogative pronoun. Spanish orthographic rules state that interrogative and exclamative pronouns (qué, quién, cuándo, cómo, etc.) always carry a tilde, whether they appear in a direct question, an exclamation, or an indirect question buried inside a larger sentence. So D is correct: the accent stays because the grammatical function — not the surrounding punctuation — governs the accent. A is wrong because it confuses grammatical categories. Indirect questions do not convert interrogative qué into a relative conjunction que; they remain structurally different words with different functions. B makes a common but false claim — the tilde on qué is a diacritical accent based on grammatical function, not a side effect of exclamation marks. Removing the accent in declarative sentences would be incorrect. C contains a grain of real grammar (infinitives can follow qué in indirect questions), but the rule it invents — that a conjugated verb after que triggers accent removal — is entirely fabricated and has no basis in Spanish grammar. Your study tip: always identify what job the word is doing. If qué/quién/cuándo/cómo introduces a question (direct or indirect) or exclamation, accent it. If it links clauses as a relative pronoun or conjunction, no accent needed.

Question 15

The noun imagen is a llana ending in -n. If its plural form is imágenes, which principle of Spanish accentuation explains why the plural requires a written accent while the singular does not?

  1. The plural morpheme -es always triggers a written accent on the syllable that was stressed in the singular form, because Spanish orthography requires readers to be able to identify the root's original stress pattern across all inflected forms of a noun.
  2. Adding -es shifts the word to a four-syllable form, but the stress stays on the same vowel it was on in the singular. That syllable is now the antepenultimate (third-to-last), making imágenes an esdrújula, and all esdrújulas require a written accent without exception. (correct answer)
  3. Adding -es makes imágenes end in -s, and the llana rule states that llanas ending in -s require a written accent whenever the word contains more than three syllables, which is the case here since imágenes has four syllables.
  4. The -n ending of imagen functions as an inherent stress marker that keeps the penultimate syllable stressed without a written accent; dropping this -n before adding -es removes that marker, so a compensatory tilde must be written on the stressed vowel.
Explanation: When a Spanish word changes form through inflection, the rules of accentuation apply fresh to the new form — and that's exactly what this question tests. You need to track both where stress falls and how many syllables the word has, because the category a word belongs to (llana, aguda, or esdrújula) determines whether a written accent is required. Here's the logic behind answer B: imagen is a two-syllable llana (i-MA-gen) stressed on the penultimate syllable, ending in -n, so no written accent is needed — llanas ending in -n follow the default. When you add -es, you get i-MA-ge-nes, a four-syllable word where the stress hasn't moved but now sits on the third-to-last syllable. That makes it an esdrújula. In Spanish, every esdrújula — no exceptions — requires a written accent. Hence imágenes. Answer A is a fabricated rule. Spanish orthography does not preserve a "root stress pattern" across inflections as a special principle — the rules simply apply to each word form independently. Answer C misidentifies the category. Imágenes ends in -s, which means if it were truly llana and stressed on the penultimate syllable, no accent would be needed (llanas ending in vowel, -n, or -s follow the default). The issue isn't the number of syllables triggering a special llana rule — it's that the stress is no longer on the penultimate syllable. Answer D invents a grammatical mechanism. The -n ending has no "inherent stress marker" function; it's simply one of the default endings for llanas. Your strategy: always recount syllables and re-identify stress position after any suffix is added — the word's accentuation class can change entirely.