More fascinating facts about Spanish accent marks

If you read my previous post about Spanish accent marks and decided to try your skills at placing accent marks on the ten words given, please find answers below to compare with yours. 

If you are ready to become an advanced user of Spanish accents, keep reading!  Some Spanish words require accent marks, not for purposes of pronunciation, but to differentiate two words that are spelled the same but have different meanings. 

Tú means "you;" tu means "your;"  él means 'he;" el means "the;" té means "tea;" te means "you-object;" mí means "me;" mi means "my;" dé means "give;" de means "of."

And you probably would rather not know at this point that adverbs made from adjectives that carry an accent mark retain the accent mark, as when fácil (easy) becomes fácilmente (easily).  Whew!

It's amazing that one tiny mark running from bottom left to top right (the acute accent) can be the cause of such consternation to language learners.  English speakers find the marks annoying because they are not a feature of the English language, except for a few words borrowed from other languages, such as sauté from French.  Placement of accent marks is just one more thing to have to learn.

But you may be surprised to learn that written accent marks are often troublesome for native Spanish speakers as well.  If you think about it, they already know how to pronounce words, so whether a word uses an accent mark or not is of little interest to them unless they are required to write the word correctly. Spanish teachers for decades have marked down Spanish-speaking students because they just were not interested in putting on those little marks.  

Recently, I found myself leaving off Spanish accent marks, but not without some feelings of guilt.  I learned my Spanish in the classroom where a forgotten or misplaced accent mark was always corrected in red ink!  But on my favorite on line language learning program, Duolingo, the web version has a special feature.

If you beat the clock, you receive 20 points instead of the regular 10 points.  I was not beating the clock very often because I was taking time to write accent marks. (Yes, I know how silly that may sound!) Then I remembered that Duolingo does not count accent marks usage as an error!  The program informs you that you have made an accent error, but the answer is accepted anyway. I was on my way to doubling my point count!  

Now that we have exhausted the topic of when to use Spanish accent marks, do you know how to write a vowel with an accent mark using an electronic device?  The method you use will depend on which device you have, but my life became a lot easier when I started using an iPad and an iPhone. When composing, a quick swipe up on any vowel will give you options, one of which is the acute accent.

Best of luck with placing Spanish accent marks. They are truly not so elusive, and just think of how superior you will feel! 

ANSWERS:  1. apellido 2. aquí  3. árido  4. dócil  5. dogma  6. dogmático  7. eficaz  8. ejecutivo  9. duración  10.  estrés