Catalan accents and diaereses answer different questions. An acute or grave accent can mark exceptional stress and, on e or o, vowel quality; a diaeresis can separate vowels into different syllables or show that u is pronounced in güe/güi/qüe/qüi. English offers no comparable spelling system, while Spanish supplies tempting but unreliable accent directions and syllabifications.
The most effective repair is diagnostic. First pronounce and divide the word into syllables. Then decide where stress falls and whether ordinary ending rules predict it. Only after that choose the sign: an accent for stress/quality, a diaeresis for hiatus or pronounced u. The complete algorithms are on Accent Rules and The Diaeresis; here we correct the errors learners actually leave in prose.
A four-question proofreading workflow
- Where is the stressed syllable? Classify the word as aguda (final stress), plana (penultimate), or esdrúixola (earlier).
- Does the ending already predict that stress? Words ending in a vowel, vowel + s, -en, or -in normally have penultimate stress; most other endings predict final stress.
- If e or o is accented, which quality does the chosen standard require? Catalan distinguishes é/è and ó/ò; do not automatically copy Spanish acute accents.
- Are adjacent vowels one syllable or two, and is u audible after g/q? If ordinary spelling would hide that pronunciation and no stress accent already solves it, consider ï/ü.
Repairs 1–3: recover stress and vowel quality
1. Mark required final and antepenultimate stress.
❌ La reunio de dema serà sobre musica tradicional.
Incorrect — reunió and demà have exceptional final stress, and música is esdrúixola.
✅ La reunió de demà serà sobre música tradicional.
Tomorrow's meeting will be about traditional music.
The three accents are required for different positions, not because these words are “important.” Every esdrúixola is accented; final-stressed reunió and demà end in vowels and therefore also need accents.
2. Do not import the Spanish accent direction.
❌ Semblava una solució fácil, però no ho era.
Incorrect — Catalan fàcil has grave à, unlike Spanish fácil.
✅ Semblava una solució fàcil, però no ho era.
It seemed like an easy solution, but it wasn't.
Catalan a takes only à; i and u take í and ú. The two-direction choice exists only for e and o.
3. Keep a coherent regional standard for e and o.
Després de dinar prendrem un café a la plaça.
Natural formal Valencian spelling; in a Central-standard text, use cafè for consistency with the selected variety.
✅ Després de dinar prendrem un cafè a la plaça.
After lunch we'll have a coffee in the square. (Central standard)
(Formal, regional: Valencian; AVL) café is correct and records the Valencian close vowel. The same kind of systematic alternation appears in forms such as IEC francès/comprèn and AVL francés/comprén. Do not “correct” a coherent Valencian text to Central spelling; correct inconsistency within the variety being used. Balearic, Northwestern, Northern, and Alguerese pronunciation may also differ without making the shared written form defective.
Repairs 4–6: show hiatus accurately
A diaeresis on ï or ü can show that the vowel belongs to a separate syllable rather than a diphthong. An accent takes precedence when that same vowel is stressed.
4. Separate the vowels in veïna.
❌ La meva veina ha deixat les claus a la bústia.
Incorrect — veïna has three syllables; ï marks the e–i hiatus.
✅ La meva veïna ha deixat les claus a la bústia.
My neighbor left the keys in the mailbox.
5. Use a diaeresis when stress is already predictable.
❌ Han collit el raim massa aviat i encara és verd.
Incorrect — raïm separates a and i; the diaeresis marks the hiatus because final stress is already predictable from the ending.
✅ Han collit el raïm massa aviat i encara és verd.
They picked the grapes too early, and they are still unripe.
In raïm, the ï bears the main stress: the word is pronounced in two syllables, ra-ïm. Final stress is already predicted because the word ends in a consonant other than -n or -s, so no accent is needed; the diaeresis marks the hiatus. This shows that a diaeresis-bearing vowel may itself be stressed when the general accent rule already predicts the stress.
6. Use the accent, not a diaeresis, when stress must be marked.
❌ És un pais petit amb una xarxa ferroviària extensa.
Incorrect — país needs an acute accent to mark stressed í and thereby also signals hiatus.
✅ És un país petit amb una xarxa ferroviària extensa.
It is a small country with an extensive rail network.
The plural is països: stress remains on i, but the ending now predicts penultimate stress, so an accent is unnecessary and the diaeresis marks the syllable break. This is why memorizing “this word has two dots” without understanding syllables fails across inflection.
Repairs 7–8: pronounce u only when spelling says so
In gue/gui and que/qui, u is normally silent. A diaeresis makes it audible: aigües, pingüí, qüestió. This function is different from hiatus even though the sign is identical.
7. Restore pronounced u after g.
❌ Les aigues del port estaven sorprenentment netes.
Incorrect — the u is pronounced in aigües and requires ü.
✅ Les aigües del port estaven sorprenentment netes.
The harbor waters were surprisingly clean.
8. Keep every mark in a word with two independent reasons.
❌ La linguistica catalana té una terminologia molt precisa.
Incorrect — ü marks pronounced u, while à marks the stress in lingüística.
✅ La lingüística catalana té una terminologia molt precisa.
Catalan linguistics has very precise terminology.
Do not replace ü with u because the word remains recognizable. The spelling tells the reader that gu is not the ordinary hard-g digraph with silent u.
Repairs 9–10: learn the morphological exceptions
The diaeresis appears in many verb forms (conduïa, traduït, estudiï) but is omitted in the infinitive, gerund, future, and conditional endings of -ir verbs where the morphology already makes the reading conventional: conduir, conduint, conduiré, conduiria.
9. Do not overmark the infinitive.
❌ Encara no sé conduïr de nit quan plou.
Incorrect — the infinitive is conduir, without a diaeresis.
✅ Encara no sé conduir de nit quan plou.
I still don't know how to drive at night when it rains.
Compare conduïa “was driving” and ha conduït “has driven.” The apparent inconsistency is real and morphological; there is no honest one-line rule that eliminates the need to learn the exempt endings.
10. Do not omit the diaeresis in a present subjunctive.
❌ La tutora vol que la Júlia estudii una mica cada dia.
Incorrect — estudiï needs ï to keep the final vowels in separate syllables.
✅ La tutora vol que la Júlia estudiï una mica cada dia.
The tutor wants Júlia to study a little every day.
Related verb forms can change their written marks because stress and suffixes change. Proofread the complete form in front of you rather than copying the spelling of its infinitive.
Missing accents that leave a different valid word
The reduced modern list of diacritical accents distinguishes especially common homographs. Omitting one may create a perfectly valid sentence with the wrong meaning.
Aquest te crema.
Grammatical with another meaning: te is ‘tea,’ so this says ‘This tea burns.’
✅ Aquest té crema.
This one has cream.
El sol encara és calent.
Grammatical with another meaning: sol means ‘sun.’
✅ El sòl encara és calent.
The ground is still warm.
Other high-frequency contrasts include és/es, té/te, més/mes, sí/si, són/son, ús/us, món/mon, mà/ma, bé/be, and pèl/pel. The 2016 IEC reform reduced the list; accents found in older editions may therefore be historical rather than careless. In current IEC spelling, soc “I am” is unaccented, and os denotes both “bone” and “bear”; older sóc and ós reflect the earlier policy. Formal AVL usage is substantially aligned on the reduced inventory, with documented lexical conventions.
A short correction task
Correct this message by naming the reason for every sign: La veina diu que dema estudiara linguistica en un pais on les aigues son molt fredes.
✅ La veïna diu que demà estudiarà lingüística en un país on les aigües són molt fredes.
The neighbor says that tomorrow she will study linguistics in a country where the waters are very cold.
The answer combines hiatus (veïna, país), exceptional stress (demà, estudiarà), pronounced u (lingüística, aigües), and meaning-changing són “are.”
Common Mistakes
❌ Despres del dinar anirem a passejar vora el riu.
Incorrect — després needs an acute accent to mark final stress.
✅ Després del dinar anirem a passejar vora el riu.
After lunch we'll go for a walk by the river.
❌ Encara no han resolt aquesta questió tècnica.
Incorrect — qüestió needs ü for pronounced u and ó for final stress.
✅ Encara no han resolt aquesta qüestió tècnica.
They still haven't resolved this technical issue.
❌ La Mar ha traduit el document abans del termini.
Incorrect — traduït needs ï to mark the hiatus in the participle.
✅ La Mar ha traduït el document abans del termini.
Mar translated the document before the deadline.
Key Takeaways
- Determine stress and syllable structure before choosing any written mark.
- Accents mark exceptional stress and vowel quality; diaereses mark hiatus or pronounced u.
- Reapply the rules after inflection: país/països and conduir/conduïa deliberately differ.
- Treat valid regional spellings and meaning-distinguishing accents as lexical information, not ornament.
Final proofreading checklist
- Have you located the stressed syllable in every doubtful word?
- Does the ending predict that stress, or is an accent required?
- If e/o is accented, is the acute/grave direction correct for the selected standard?
- Do adjacent vowels form a diphthong or a hiatus?
- Is u pronounced after g/q, requiring ü?
- Does an unaccented spelling form another valid word with a different meaning?
- Have you preserved all other Catalan signs—apostrophe, hyphen, ç, and l·l—instead of substituting look-alike punctuation?
Now practice Catalan
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Start learning Catalan →Related Topics
- When Catalan Words Take a Written AccentA1 — Decide when Catalan stress must be marked by classifying words as aguda, plana, or esdrúixola.
- The Diaeresis: ï and üB1 — Use Catalan ï and ü to mark hiatus or a pronounced u, and recognize the systematic contexts where the mark is omitted.
- Diphthongs, Hiatus, and the DiaeresisA1 — Learn when adjacent Catalan vowels share a syllable, when they separate, and what the diaeresis tells you to pronounce.
- Acute and Grave AccentsA1 — Choose the correct Catalan accent direction and use é, è, ó, and ò to preserve stressed vowel quality.
- Apostrophe and Elision ErrorsA2 — Fix misplaced Catalan apostrophes in articles, de, and weak pronouns, including glide exceptions and spacing errors.