Is there a lesson for the rules on Spanish accents and if not why not?

Question

My understanding was that the accent falls on the penultimate syllable unless another syllable is accented. Given that where does the accent fall on “peinar”?  Is it not split into pe in ar?

Accepted Answer

Hola Johan
We have no lessons testing where to accentuate a word yet. However we have information about the different types of words depending on where they are stressed. Here is the information:
Palabras agudas
Palabras llanas
Palabras esdrújulas
Palabras sobresdrújulas
The word "peinar" has two syllables: pei-nar (vowels e and i are forming a diphthong making them stay in the same syllable). The stress is on the last syllable (on the -a) but it does not have a written accent because for that, it should end on a vowel or an -n or -s)
We will soon have more information in the system about diphthongs and hiatuses.
I hope this helps.
Inma

Answer

I read elsewhere that -ir verbs in the reflexive vosotros form take an accent (vestirse --> vestíos) - if that's a rule, it might be nice to add that to the article :)

I also kept (incorrectly) adding an accent to the vosotros form, not realising that it isn't needed. It might be helpful to explicitly mention that it doesn't usually take an accent ~

Thanks, love your lessons

Answer

Hola Johan and J
I thought you might be interested in seeing these new lessons we added some time ago about accents:
where to stress a word
accents on hiatuses
accents on diphthongs
Saludos
Inma