Nouns with accents on the last syllable

Question

I’ve noticed that nouns with accents on the last syllable, such as el motín, el bastón, and el almacén, are masculine (of course the feminine ión ending is an exception).  Is this a general rule?  It helps to us automatically think of ataúd and laúd as masculine without having to remember them separately.

Answer

Hola Marcos,
Good observation! I don't think there is any rule saying they should be masculine if the nouns have an accent on the last syllable but it's true that's the tendency. I can also think of el café, el rubí... but to be honest I think it may be more to do with the ending in -n, because if the stress is on the last syllable and it ends in -n, it will always take the tilde (unless monosyllabic) and there are endings that are typically masculine ending in -n (-in, -on) and also in -u an d -i (el menú, el colibrí..) so, more that then accent it is to do with the letter at the end. 
There are lots of feminine nouns that are "stressed" (although no written accent, but still stressed) on the last syllable and they are feminine: la multitud, la verdad, la libertad...
But very good observation...
Saludos

Answer

My grammar book [by Butt and Benjamin] does actually give these two as "rules":

[i] Nouns ending in a stressed vowel are masculine; [Inma's examples + tisú, sofá, puré, Canadá, champú; [compare those with 'la tribu', ending in an with unstressed 'u']

and

[ii] Nouns ending in '-án' are masculine [el refrán, el mazapán].

It does not say anything about nouns ending in '-ín', '-én' or 'consonant+'-ón'. So perhaps these last three cases just tend to be masculine? ... If there were only a few exceptions, then it might be worth remembering this; [however, I have already found five: la razón, la sazón, la sartén, la comezón, la desazón; (but none in '-ín' so far)].

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I wish there was a tool where we could search a word list for “feminine nouns ending in *ón” or “feminine nouns ending in án, én, ín”.  Haven’t had much luck looking for one.

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Hi there Marcos -My “Diccionario ... CLAVE” (Ediciones SM, Madrid) included a CD with a reverse alphabetic option, enabling students to view all words carrying a specified ending. This has been quite useful - showing for example that all "-erir" and all "-ertir" verbs change e>ie in their conjugation - see: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/362109849_How_I_remember_eie_and_ei_vowel-changes_in_many_Spanish_verbs - [which gives a few other guidelines too];and another: The majority of nouns ending in "-cia" do not stress their final "i"; see:   https://www.academia.edu/19680103/Spanish_nouns_ending_in_ía_with_stressed_i_as_apart_from_ia_That^ CD would probably answer your question. Unfortunately, the book is 20 years old - so its disk was designed for WINDOWS XP, and does not work in my current laptop. It is possible, though, that a Computer Agency would be able to set up a system capable of reading it. Or, if the text has been reprinted recently, its disk should presumably be compatible with WINDOWS 10.I actually maintain a little notebook, and have been listing nouns which do not conform to the commonly cited "rules for deciding gender"; (it even includes all the feminine nouns ending in 'e' which I've encountered during the last 20 or so years !) ... Its 'feminine section' does not contain any other words ending in '-*ón', '-én' or '-ín', apart from the five mentioned earlier.Cheers !David Mc

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By e-mail, Inma agrees that "Nouns ending in a stressed vowel are masculine" is quite a useful rule, citing "la mamá" as an obvious exception, plus also those nouns that allow both genders, for example "el marroquí - la marroquí",  "el hindú - la hindú".