Download LA TILDE (ACENTO ORTOGRAFICO)

LA TILDE (ACCENT MARK)
Rule #1 to know when to write an accent mark:
Irregular stress
What is an accent?
PART A:
When we talk about accents, we may be talking about two
different things::
1) STRESS: The extra strength with which we pronounce a
particular syllable (vowel) in a word:
In Spanish almost all words have a syllable which is
pronounced more strongly or with more intensity than the rest
(this is sometimes called the tonic syllable), e.g. casa, amigo,
amor, papel, árbol, avión, rápido, cálculo (calculus), calculo
(I calculate), calculó (he calculated)
•
•
Exceptions: some words do not have a tonic syllable (=they are
atonic), such as clitic pronouns (me, te, etc.), prepositions (a, en,
etc.), articles (el, la, etc.)
2) ACCENT MARKS: the mark (tilde) with which we
sometimes mark a stressed vowel
Only a minority of Spanish words have an accent mark on the
tonic syllable. Usually this is done to indicate that the stress
doesn’t go where we would expect it, but somewhere else.
What is a syllable?
•
Words can be divided into syllables, which are sounds that are
pronounced together as we speak. Usually, there is one
syllable for each vowel (a, e, i, o, u), e.g. ca-sa, di-ne-ro
•
•
Note that in Spanish, consonants usually go with the following
vowel to form a syllable. Only when there is no vowel does the
consonant go with the preceding vowel, e.g. cam-po, ciu-dad
(except when there are two consonants in a row and the second
consonant is an L or an R; then both consonants go together
with the following vowel, e.g. ha-blar, bra-zo, a-brir, se-cre-to)
So, when there are two vowels next to each other, in Spanish
they typically form two syllables, e.g. fe-o, se-a. But if one of
the two vowels is either a i or a u, then typically the two vowels
together form a syllable, e.g. pie, tie-ne, pei-ne, bue-no, Euro-pa. This is important, as we shall see.
Words than end in a vowel, or the consonants n or s,
usually have their stress on the penultimate syllable (next to
the last, or second from the end), e.g. ca-sa, li-bro, ca-mi-no,
a-bri-go, ve-o, tu-ve, ha-ble (present subjunctive), pa-pa
(=potato). Because this is the normal or regular thing, we
never write an accent mark on the stressed vowel of words
that follow this pattern.
But if a word that ends in a vowel, or the consonants n or s
does not have the stress in the penultimate syllable, then we
indicate where it actually goes by means of an accent mark
(tilde), e.g. mamá, jóvenes (pero: joven), común (pero:
comunes), inglés (pero: ingleses), autobús (pero autobuses),
rápido, avión (y todas las palabras en -ión), jugó (he played),
hablé (pretérito), dámelo (give it to me), papá (dad)
PART B:
• Words that end in a consonant (other than n o s), typically
have their stress on the last syllable of the word, e.g. a-mor,
sa-ber, pa-pel, re-loj, ciu-dad. Because this is the normal or
regular thing, we never write an accent mark on the stressed
vowel of words that follow this pattern
•
But if a word that ends in a consonant (other than n o s) does
not have the stress on the last syllable, then we indicate where
it actually goes by means of the tilde, e.g. árbol, carácter, lápiz
•
NOTE: Words that only have one syllable usually do not have an accent
mark (where else would it go?). That’s why, for example, although the yo
and él/ella/usted form of the preterit have an accent mark on the ending (e.g.
dormí I slept, durmió he/she/usted slept), in verbs such as ver and dar, we
do not write it, e.g. yo lo vi, él me lo dio, etc.
Rule #2 to know when to write an accent mark:
Antidiphthongs
•
•
As we saw earlier, in Spanish the combination of an i or u
plus another vowel are typically pronounced together in one
syllable; that is to say, they form a diphthong, e.g. avión,
piano, vuelo, etc.
But sometimes the i or u does not join its neighboring vowel to
form a syllable, that is, it is pronounced as a separate syllable
(this potential but not actual diphthong is called an
antidiphthong), as in the word Ma-rí-a, which has 3 syllables
(compare with the word Ma-rio, which only has two syllables).
This happens almost always when the i o u es is the stressed
(tonic) vowel. In these cases we write an accent mark over the
i or u to indicate that it is not a diphthong, e.g.; rí-o (river o I
laugh); ac-tú-o, even if the word follows the pattern in Rule #1.
Rule #3 to know when to write an accent mark:
Homophones
•
Sometimes in Spanish, as in English, there are words that
sound and are written the same, but have different meanings.
In English we have, for example, bear, the animal, and bear,
the verb. In Spanish, for example, we have él = he vs. el = the;
tú = you vs. tu = your (E.g. tú estabas en tu casa)
•
For a handful of Spanish pairs such as these it was decided,
by convention, to mark one of the words in the pair with an
accent mark, to distinguish it from the other (just in case there
is any confusion). Otros ejemplos: sí (=yes) vs. si
(=if/whether); de (=of/from) vs. dé (presente de subjuntivo del
verbo dar); mí (pronoun= me) vs. mi (adjetivo posesivo= my);
éste (demonstrative pronoun = this one) vs. este
(demonstrative adjetivo = this).
•
Note that interrogative pronouns are a special case of this
pattern. Interrogative pronouns in Spanish always bear an
accent mark, because these words can also be used with noninterrogative (question) functions, e.g.
•
¿Qué (=what) viste? (What did you see?) vs. El hombre
que (=that) viste (the man that you saw)
•
Quiero saber dónde está Juan (I want to know where Juan
is) vs. No conozco el lugar donde está Juan (I don’t know
the place where Juan is)
•
Cuando vine, vi a Juan (When I came,I saw Juan) vs. No
saben cuándo vendrá Juan (they don’t know when Juan
will come)
Dr. Jon Aske
Department of Foreign Languages
Salem State College
November 4, 2004