sobresdrújulas

A sobresdrújula is a Spanish word that has its stress on the antepenultimate syllable, meaning the third-to-last syllable. This is the third syllable from the end of the word. For example, in the word "teléfono," the stress falls on the "é," which is the antepenultimate syllable. Other common examples include "rápido," "cámara," and "música."

Words that are sobresdrújulas are relatively rare in Spanish, especially in everyday speech. They often appear in specific grammatical constructions or as part of compound words or verb conjugations. For instance, many imperative verb forms with attached pronouns become sobresdrújulas. For example, the verb "dar" (to give) in the imperative form "dé" (give me) becomes "dámelo" (give it to me). Here, the stress is on the "á," the antepenultimate syllable of "dámelo."

The presence of an accent mark, or tilde, is crucial in identifying sobresdrújulas. The tilde is placed directly over the vowel of the stressed antepenultimate syllable. Without this accent, the word would likely be stressed on a different syllable, following the standard rules for word stress in Spanish. These rules generally dictate that words ending in a vowel, 'n,' or 's' are stressed on the penultimate syllable, and words ending in other consonants are stressed on the last syllable. Sobresdrújulas are an exception to these general rules, hence the need for an explicit accent mark.