Let’s talk about the Spanish accent marks! 🗣️

Whether you just started learning Spanish or you consider yourself a pro, you’ve definitely come across those famous written marks that go above Spanish letters. And they are important to know because an accent mark can completely change the meaning of a word.

To better understand why it’s essential to master the Spanish accent marks, let’s take a classic example: the words si and sí. Si, without the accent, means “if” or “whether”. On the other hand, sí, with the accent, means “yes”. Even though they are pronounced the same, the meaning is different.

Spanish accent marks: What are they?

In a nutshell, accent marks tell you which part of the word will be said with the most emphasis, a bit louder and longer than the rest of the word. Another thing to note is that accent marks only appear above vowels: á, é, í, ó, and ú.

1. Spanish accent marks tell you what to stress

Does an accent mark change the pronunciation of the vowel? No! The vowels are pronounced the same, whether they have an accent or not, but the accents tell you where the stress is! And by stress, we mean which syllable is pronounced louder or longer than its neighbors.

Here are some examples in Spanish:

• la panadería (the bakery) is pronounced panadeRIa
• el sofá (the couch) is pronounced soFA
• útil (useful) is pronounced Util
• el teléfono (the phone) is pronounced teLEfono
• la decisión (the decision) is pronounced decisiON

2. Spanish accent marks help you tell words apart

Do you recall the example above of si and sí? Besides showing you where the stress goes, accent marks will also help you distinguish between Spanish words. And we’re talking about those specific words that are spelled the same but have different meanings.

These are the most common examples in Spanish:

• mi vs. mí: mi (without an accent) means “my” (mi casa “my house”), and mí (with an accent) means “me” (para mí “for me”) and is used after a preposition
• mas vs. más: mas means “but”, while más means “more”
• tu vs. tú: tu means “your” (tu casa “your house”), while tú means “you” (tú estás aquí “you are here”)
• te vs. té: te means “you” (te recomiendo “I recommend you”), while té means “tea” (tomes mucho té “drink a lot of tea”)
• el vs. él: el means “the” for masculine nouns (el libro “the book”), while él means “he” (él está aquí “he is here”)
• si vs. sí: si means “if” (si quieres, nos podemos tomar unas cervezas “if you want, we can have some beers”), while sí means “yes” (sí, gracias “yes, thank you”)
• que vs. qué: que means “that” and is used to connect sentences (espero que vengas pronto “I hope that you come soon”), while qué means “what” only when used to ask a question (¿qué quieres hacer? “what do you want to do?”).

IMPORTANT: “What” is an interrogative word, and all the interrogative words have accents when used to ask questions in Spanish. As a rule, if you see an interrogative word with an accent mark, it means it’s asking a question. On the other hand, when the same interrogative is used in a statement, you won’t see (or add) an accent. And there is no difference in pronunciation. 

The special case of ñ

The Spanish accent mark on top of the letter “n” is called a tilde. The interesting part is that you’ll find both letters n and ñ in the Spanish alphabet. N is pronounced like the English letter “n,” while ñ is pronounced more like “ni” in “onion”: baño (bah-nyoh, “bathroom” or “bath”), muñeca (moo-nyeh-kah, “wrist” or “doll”), mañana (mah-nyah-nah, “tomorrow”).

TIP: I recommend using Spanish Accents software, which provides a quick and intuitive way to type accented characters used in Spanish.

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