Definition of Diacritical Accent

The accent diacritical, also called accent mark diacritical, it is an indication that some words incorporate and that is used to distinguish them from others that are written exactly the same, but have another meaning different. Remember that in Castilian there are many words with one spelling and an equal pronunciation and that, at the same time, have more than one meaning.

It is not the same to say "yes" as "yes", because the first word is a adverb affirmative and the second a conjunction.

The diacritical accent of monosyllables

Monosyllable words have only one syllable. Some of them have more than one meaning and therefore have to be differentiated in some way. Three illustrative examples would be the following: "te" pronoun does not have an accent or diacritical accent and it does take it when it is a noun and refers to the infusion of tea, "el" does not have this accent when it is Article and "yes" takes it if it is a pronoun and the word "more" does not go with an accent if it is a conjunction and it takes it in the case of being an adverb.

The list of monosyllables with and without diacritical accent is extensive: you and you, me and my, give and de, know and se, etc.

The diacritical accent in the demonstratives

The demonstratives this, this, that, that, that and that do not have to have a diacritical accent in any case. It is considered that it is not necessary, since by the context of a sentence it is possible to distinguish its meaning without having to incorporate a tilde.

Observing the words that are used as interrogatives or exclamatory

Words like what, how much, where, what or who have to be accentuated when they indicate some kind of question or exclamation. This rule can be seen in the following sentences: "tell me what you want", "how much do you need", "where are you going this morning" or "what do you want it for".

Other cases

The word "solo" does not have a diacritical accent in any case. This rule is relatively new, because until 2010 there were two options: if it was only an adjective, it did not have an accent, but it did if it was an adverb that only meant.

The word "even" has an accent when it means yet (for example, "my friend to the party"). On the contrary, it does not take it if "even" is equivalent to also, even, not even or until ("even the losers won" could be replaced by "until the losers won" and for this reason does not have an accent mark).

Photo: ABC