Orthographic accents in Spanish

Spanish

asked by
Rafal published
about 5 years ago
Hi! I'm learning Spanish and I'm trying to understand how orthographic accents actually work. Can you help me?
1 answer
answered by
Genesis Diaz published
about 5 years ago

Hola! 😀 yes, they are pretty difficult. I know.

One day I was teaching Spanish to a group of kids of third grade. The lesson was about orthographic accents. One of my children immediately said: “¡Oh no! Los acentos son mis enemigos, ellos no me gustan ni yo les gusto a ellos” that is"Oh no! Accents are my main enemies, I don’t like them just like they don’t like me”.

What he tried to say was that Tildes in Spanish are kind of difficult, and that, of course, it’s true. I agree with that kid one hundred percent. Even, as a native speaker, it is hard for me to know when exactly I have to use accents. I am a teacher of Spanish and most of the time I am checking exams with lots of errors of placing orthographic accents.

By the time I have found out that it is not that difficult. There are two main rules that we must learn in order to know how, when and where to put accents in Spanish words.

I have to point out that it is very important to know these grammar rules because the absence of one tilde may change the sense of the message you want to give.

The accent is a sign called tilde in Spanish. They are placed above the vowels (á, é, í, ó, ú).

The First rule we must know is simple:

Monosyllable (Word with only one syllable) are not accentuated.

For example words like: Mil (Thousand) , pan (bread) , yo (me)

Second rule:

There are three main groups of words: Agudas, graves y esdrújulas. So let’s take a closer look at each one.

AGUDAS: This group of words have the accent in the last syllable. (Only when these end up in n, s or a vowel).

CAFÉ (coffee)

Other words:

When the stress is in the last syllable, but it finish in other consonant than n, s or a vowel, the accent mark is not added.

HABLAR (to talk)

Other words:

GRAVES: These are the words which have the stress in the penultimate syllable.

ÁRBOL (tree)

Other words:

When these words finish in N, S or a vowel. These are not accentuated.

MONO (monkey)

Other words:

ESDRÚJULAS: These are words that the stress is in the antepenultimate syllable.

PÁJARO (bird)

These words always have mark accent on the stress syllable.

Other words:

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