Diacritical accent . Use of the tilde to differentiate words that are written and pronounced the same, but have different meanings.
Summary
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- 1 Spelling accent
- 1 Examples of monosyllables
- 2 Function of the diacritical mark
- 3 The diacritical mark in interrogatives and exclamations
- 2 Sources
Orthographic accent
In the spelling of the Spanish language, the accent that is used to distinguish meanings in pairs of words , usually monosyllables, of which one is regularly tonic, while the other unstressed, in speech, marking the accent of the tonic. The words that make up these pairs can have the same etymological origin (for example more and more, both from Latin MAGIS), or they can be of different etymology (for example mi, short for mine, from Latin MEUS and me, from Latin MIHI or ME).
The diacritical mark is used to differentiate words that are written in the same way but have different meanings. That is, it is the one that allows to distinguish words with the same form, written with the same letters, but that belong to different grammatical categories.
The diacritical accent or diacritical accent serves to give a letter or word some distinctive value.
In this category fall, for example, monosyllable words, which as a rule are not marked.
Examples of monosyllables
Mi / Mí It has an accent when it is a personal pronoun : “They told me something else”. It is not branded when used with the possessive adjective function : “This is my house.” Nor does it have an accent in the case of referring to the musical note “my”.
Tu / Tú Like “me”, it has an accent when used as a person pronoun: “You are very kind.” Also, as before, it does not have an accent if it is used as a possessive adjective: “Your car won’t let me pass.”
El / He will have an accent when acting as a personal pronoun: “He took me there.” It will not carry the accent when it is a definite article: “I liked today’s program.”
Se / Sé It has an accent when used as a verb , to be or to know: “I know that you will approve”. It is not branded when it acts as a personal pronoun, reflex pronoun, or reciprocal pronoun. Nor when it is a sign of impersonality or passivity: “They spent the whole day working.”
De / Dé Se branded when used as a verb: “She told him to give it to her.” When it is a preposition , it will not have an accent: “The light outside does not work.
Yes / Yes It is marked when it is an affirmation adverb : “Yes, I agree”. Also, when it comes to the personal pronoun of the third person: “He’s very busy with himself.” In the case of a conjunction (conditional or interrogative), it will not have an accent: “If it seems appropriate I will do it.” Neither will it have an accent in the case of referring to the musical note “yes”.
More / More This word will be marked when it means quantity adverb: “I like the other option better”. On the other hand, it will not be branded when it is synonymous with “but”, that is, when it is an adversative conjunction: “I like this, but the above was better”.
Te / Tea It has an accent when it refers to the infusion: “At five we will have tea.” It does not have an accent when it refers to the personal pronoun: “Is it okay?”
Even / Still This word will have a tilde when it means in the sentence adverb of time, that is to say, synonymous with “still”: “The party has not started yet”. It will not have an accent when this word is a component of the conjunctive mood “even when”: “Even though I forbade it, it ignored me. Another case in which it will not have an accent is when it has a prepositional value and means “until” or “even”: “It was difficult even for the most experienced”.
Example sentences:
- I told you, the TEA cup is very hot.
- YOU never take care of YOUR house.
- MY neighbor’s dog always plays with HIM.
- Each one must be in charge of learning what I KNOW.
- It may be MORE or less what you see, MORE must be seen very clearly.
MY car is painted in a color specially requested by ME.
- IF I should always say YES, I would be lost.
- Occasionally people need to be given a corrective
To the previous monosyllables, other words that have a diacritical accent must be added to avoid confusion, which is known as amphibology (in case there is no confusion, the accent can be dispensed with):
still (temporary adverb or mode with the meaning of still): Has it not arrived yet? even (meaning even): Not even he could do it.
In general, the tonic forms (those that are pronounced with a prosodic accent or intensity) have a diacritical mark and the unstressed forms (those that lack a prosodic accent or intensity within the spoken chain) do not have it.
There are, however, some exceptions, such as the case of the names of the letters te and de and those of the musical notes mi and yes that, being stressed words, do not carry an accent (as do their respective unstressed homophones : the preposition de, the personal pronoun te, the possessive adjective mi and the conjunction si); or the word more, which although it tends to be unstressed when used with an addition or addition value (two plus two equals four) is written with an accent.
Function of the diacritical tilde
The diacritical tilde does not distinguish pairs of words in the same way and that are always tonic, as I gave from the verb to say and I from the verb to give, was and was from the verb to go and was and was from the verb to be, go from the verb to see and see from the verb go, it came from the verb to come and it came from the noun , etc.
Monosyllable words are not stressed. However, there are monosyllable words that have the same form, but belong to different grammatical categories, and therefore do not mean the same thing. For this reason, it is necessary to accentuate them or use the diacritical accent or accent, in order to differentiate them.
To put the diacritical accent it is not enough that the two words are written or pronounced in the same way. They have to belong to a different grammatical class, have a different grammatical function, and generally be tonic. And this different grammatical function is what is decisive for the application of the diacritical accent rule.
For example: de is a preposition, and give is the verb form of the verb to give; se is a reflexive or impersonal pronoun , and se is a verb form, both of the verb to know and of the verb to be; more is an adverb, and more is an adversative conjunction.
Therefore, if two words that are written or pronounced in the same way belong to the same class of words, that is, they have the same grammatical function, for example both are verbs and both are stressed, they should not be differentiated with the diacritical accent.
It is the case of go, which can mean to see or to go, but in both cases it is an imperative verb . Therefore, it does not have a diacritical accent in any case, because the two words belong to the same grammatical category and are tonic. In pronunciation they differ in that the vowel e de ve in the sense of go is more open.
The diacritical mark in the interrogatives and exclamations
All the interrogative and exclamatory particles, both direct and indirect, have a diacritical accent to differentiate them from the relative and from the conjunction that:
What did he said? Come see him tomorrow. Whoever says such a thing is lying. Who dares to say such a thing? What a beautiful city!
He asked her what kind of seafood she liked.
The words where, how, what / is, how, when, how much / a / os / as, where, what and who / is, which have interrogative or exclamatory value, are tonic and carry diacritical marks.
The interrogative and exclamatory statements introduce interrogative and exclamatory sentences: Where are we going ?; How have you become !; What’s yours?; How beautiful it is !; When do you have to come back ?; How old are you?; Where did it happen?; How lucky you have been !; Whose idea was it?
They also introduce indirect interrogative or exclamatory sentences: Ask them where the town hall is; I know when it will come; They had nothing to eat; He was sure who was going to win; Imagine how it must have grown that I did not recognize it; You will see how cold it is inside.
In addition, they can function as nouns: It was proposed to find out the how, when and where of those events.
In the case of: where, how, which, how, when, how much, where, what, who; When these words are unstressed (except which, which is tonic when preceded by an article) they function as relative or conjunctions and are written without an accent. Examples:
- You will like the place where we go.
- Who goes wrong, ends badly.
- The one who knows it to say so.