Acute and Grave Accents | Catalan Grammar

Catalan uses two accent shapes because an accent can convey two kinds of information at once: which syllable is stressed and, for e and o, which stressed vowel quality the word has. The acute accent rises to the right (é, í, ó, ú); the grave accent falls to the right (à, è, ò).

This page answers the second question—accent direction. The rules determining whether a word needs a written accent at all are covered on Catalan Accent Rules.

The seven accented letters

The basic inventory is small and has no arbitrary alternatives:

Vowel	Acute	Grave	What the spelling says
a	—	à	stressed a
e	é	è	closed /e/ versus open /ɛ/ in the Central baseline
i	í	—	stressed i
o	ó	ò	closed /o/ versus open /ɔ/ in the Central baseline
u	ú	—	stressed u

Demà anirem al cafè després de dinar.

Tomorrow we'll go to the café after lunch.

La cançó que sona ara és d'un grup de Mataró.

The song playing now is by a band from Mataró.

There is therefore no standard á, ì, or ù. English gives no comparable written cue to open and closed vowel quality. Spanish uses only the acute accent, so copying Spanish accent direction produces forms such as café or canción that do not belong to the general Central Catalan spelling model.

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Make two decisions in order: first, does the word require a written accent? Second, which accent can that vowel take? For a, i, u, direction is automatic. Only e and o require a choice.

É and è: closed versus open e

In the Central baseline, é represents closed /e/ and è represents open /ɛ/. Compare també, després, and és with cafè, interès, and pèsol. The direction is lexical: two words may have the same stress pattern but different vowel quality.

Després del cafè també prendré aigua.

After the coffee I'll have water too.

Aquest préstec té un interès massa alt.

This loan has an interest rate that is too high.

There are useful morphological patterns. Verb endings in the future normally have é: parlaré, dormiré, podré. Many nonverbal final stressed e words have è: cafè, comitè, vostè. Yet these are tendencies, not permission to guess blindly: accés, procés, and progrés have é, while interès has è.

Useful group	Examples	Direction
future forms	acabaré, tindré, sortiré	acute
many nonverbal final-e words	cafè, comitè, vuitè	grave
frequent -és words	accés, procés, progrés	acute
frequent exceptions in -ès	interès, espès, estrès	grave

Demà parlaré amb vostè sobre el procés.

Tomorrow I'll speak with you about the process.

The honest difficulty is that sound and morphology both matter. A learner whose accent merges or shifts open and closed e cannot always recover the spelling by ear. Use a dictionary and compare members of the word family rather than inventing an accent from a Spanish cognate.

Ó and ò: closed versus open o

The parallel distinction is ó for closed /o/ and ò for open /ɔ/ in Central Catalan. Final stressed o is very often ó: cançó, atenció, balcó, raó. Grave ò appears in frequent words such as però, això, arròs, and inclòs, and is common in stressed antepenultimate or penultimate syllables: història, memòria, pròxim, mòdul.

Això és arròs amb verdures, però no porta carn.

This is rice with vegetables, but it contains no meat.

La pròxima reunió serà al saló principal.

The next meeting will be in the main hall.

Useful families expose what isolated words hide. The participle family incloure → inclòs → inclosa keeps grave ò when the vowel remains stressed. The noun family cançó → cançons → cançoner loses the written accent when stress or the word ending changes, but the spelling relationship remains visible.

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An accent belongs to the particular word form, not permanently to a letter sequence. Compare cançó with cançons and cafè with cafeteria: a related form can lose the mark because its ending or stress has changed.

Word families as a spelling tool

Base form	Relative	What changes
cafè	cafeteria	e is no longer the stressed final vowel
cançó	cançons	the plural ending no longer requires a written accent
inclòs	inclosa	the stressed open o remains in the family
camí	camins	high i takes acute when marked; the plural needs no mark
algú	alguns	high u takes acute when marked

Algú m'ha indicat el camí fins a la cafeteria.

Someone showed me the way to the cafeteria.

(regional: Valencian; formal IEC/AVL alternative) In the Valencian orthographic tradition, an acute é is accepted in a defined set of words whose stressed vowel is closed in Western pronunciation: café, comité, francés, comprén, conéixer. This is a legitimate regional standard, not a typo. A guide using the Central baseline writes cafè, comitè, francès, comprèn, conèixer consistently.

Editing exercise

Edit the natural message Dema, despres del cafe, parlare amb la Monica sobre la canço. First locate stress, then choose the accent direction from the vowel quality or known family.

❌ Dema, despres del cafe, parlare amb la Monica sobre la canço.

Incorrect — every required accent has been omitted.

✅ Demà, després del cafè, parlaré amb la Mònica sobre la cançó.

Tomorrow, after coffee, I'll speak with Mònica about the song.

Notice that a diaeresis would not repair any of these words: ï and ü mark vowel separation or pronounced u, not ordinary stress. Likewise, l·l must use a middle dot—not a period—and apostrophes have no surrounding spaces: l'Alícia, col·labora. Each sign has one job.

Common Mistakes

1. Importing Spanish acute accents.

❌ Prendré un café després de la reunió.

Incorrect in the Central spelling model — cafè has an open e and a grave accent.

✅ Prendré un cafè després de la reunió.

I'll have a coffee after the meeting.

2. Using a grave accent on i or u.

❌ Ningù no sabia quin camì havíem d'agafar.

Incorrect — marked i and u always take acute accents.

✅ Ningú no sabia quin camí havíem d'agafar.

Nobody knew which path we had to take.

3. Trusting a cognate instead of the Catalan word.

❌ La próxima funció començarà a les nou.

Incorrect — Catalan pròxima has grave ò.

✅ La pròxima funció començarà a les nou.

The next performance will start at nine.

4. Keeping an accent mechanically throughout a family.

❌ Ens trobarem a la cafèteria nova.

Incorrect — cafeteria is stressed on -ri- and has no accent on e.

✅ Ens trobarem a la cafeteria nova.

We'll meet at the new café.

Key Takeaways

Use grave à, acute í and ú, and choose between acute and grave only for e and o. In Central Catalan, é/ó mark closed vowels and è/ò open vowels. Morphological patterns help, but lexical exceptions are real; word families and a dictionary are more reliable than Spanish spelling or sound alone. Regional Valencian acute é forms are valid when used as part of that coherent standard.

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