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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