100 Examples of Esdrújulas Words (explained)

Words Esdrújulas

The esdrújulas words are those whose stressed syllable (the one that is pronounced with more emphasis) is the penultimate. These types of words always have an accent. For example: tea-you-fo-no, EC-lu-la.

For a word esdrújula to exist it is necessary that the word has at least three syllables. For example: pa-gi-na, pa-ja-ro.

The other two most common classes of words when it comes to stress are the sharp words, that are stressed on the last syllable, and the serious words, which are accentuated in the penultimate.

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When do they have an accent?

The proparoxytones always accentuate. While the accentuation rules for high-pitched words and low-pitched words are more complex, in esdrújulas the criterion is very simple: they always have orthographic accent (or accent mark). For example: geWildman, wildebeestMere.

Exception

When it comes to esdrújulas words that correspond to adverbs ending in -mente, the accentuation of the adjective that originates it is maintained, and the rule of always placing an accent is rejected.

For example: faithlizmind golozmind or cabalmind.

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Examples of esdrújulas words

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Loudness of esdrújulas words

The sonority of the esdrújulas means that they are used very frequently in poetry and music, which has made that some poets decide to take certain licenses to 'play' with these kinds of words and obtain texts memorable.

The song 'To you', Written and performed by the famous Catalan singer-songwriter Joan Manuel Serrat, is a clear example of this, since it has in the first three stanzas and in the last all rhymes esdrújulas, which has helped to achieve a beautiful song, whose first four stanzas are transcribed below (the esdrújulas underlined):

“You who run after him success, executive of movie, aggressive man and energetic with ambitions politics. To you who is a man practical and resides in a flat central, watering flowers of plastic and pending telephone. What do you know about numbers and consists of more than one payroll, which is already a madman, with a position solid.

Wouldn't you like not to go to work tomorrow and not ask anyone for excuses, to play the game that you play best and that you like the most ...?”

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