In the Spanish language, why is the accent eliminated when a sentence is composed into the plural tense?
For example, la lección becomes las lecciones.
Notice how 'ó' becomes 'o' (without accent).
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1The cause of the lost accent is not the plural but the way the word is pronounced. There are rules on when to put the accent or not and one of those rules says that if the stress sylable is the last one and the word ends in vowel or in «n» or «s» it will have accent. Lección matches the rule but Lecciones does not.– DGaleanoAug 22, 2019 at 18:29
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You should read this answer with all the rules. spanish.stackexchange.com/questions/661/…– DGaleanoAug 22, 2019 at 18:32
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1 Answer
Perhaps you are used to languages where the accent changes the sound but in Spanish it indicates stress (and a few other things which need not concern us here).
In the singular the accent is needed because the final syllable is stressed and according to the normal rules as a syllable ending in «n» it should be.
When you add the suffix «es» for the plural, the stressed syllable is no longer the last one and so it is required NOT to mark it. It is still stressed though.
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I edited the answer to make it more clear, because it is not true that in the plural the accent is "no longer required" but instead it is forbidden. If the stress is in the penultimate syllable and the word ends in vowel or n or s it will not have the accent mark.– DGaleanoAug 22, 2019 at 18:41