esa and ésa

I have listened to this over and over again and I cannot hear a difference between esa and ésa ( and esta and ésta). Therefore I am not able to say the accented version and get it correct. Is there a trick to it?

Hola Julie.  No trick. The pronunciation is the same for both of your examples.  The accent is only used to distinguish it in use.  It has no affect on the pronunciation of these words because the first syllable is already stressed based on basic Spanish pronunciation.  There are other examples of using the accent mark to distinguish from the non-accented word in Spanish: de & dé, se & sé, el & él, etc.

esta ésta = this
esa ésa = that

the non-accented version should be followed by a noun (esta calle)
the accented version should not.  It is simply "this" or simply "that" without a specific noun attached as the context of the conversation makes it obvious.  

All that being said, I read somewhere that the Real Academia de Español was going to get rid of the accent mark for ésa and ésta.  However, I don't know if that is official or not.

Thank you so much!

de nada :)
 

Clarifying this information is very helpful it can cause a bit of concern but mostly assist when writing the language.