The Spanish acute accent — called la tilde or el acento ortográfico — is the small diagonal mark that leans to the right, as in á, é, í, ó, ú. It is the only diacritical mark used on vowels in Spanish, and it has three main jobs: marking exceptions to the stress rules, breaking diphthongs into hiatus, and distinguishing otherwise identical words. Mastering the tilde is essential for writing Spanish correctly.
Where Tildes Can Appear
The acute accent can appear on any of the five Spanish vowels:
| Accented | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| á | árbol | tree |
| é | café | coffee |
| í | país | country |
| ó | canción | song |
| ú | música | music |
El café está frío.
The coffee is cold.
Mi país favorito es México.
My favorite country is Mexico.
Job 1: Marking Stress Exceptions
The primary purpose of the tilde is to mark a syllable that is stressed against the default rules. Review the three rules in Stress Rules. Whenever a word breaks Rule 1 or Rule 2, it must have a written accent.
| Word | Ends in | Default stress | Actual stress | Accent needed? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| árbol | l | last syllable | second-to-last | Yes |
| habló | vowel | second-to-last | last | Yes |
| música | vowel | second-to-last | third-to-last | Yes |
| casa | vowel | second-to-last | second-to-last | No |
| hablar | r | last | last | No |
Mi música favorita es la salsa.
My favorite music is salsa.
Juan habló con el profesor.
Juan spoke with the teacher.
Esdrújulas and Sobreesdrújulas
Words stressed on the third-to-last syllable (esdrújulas) always require an accent, no exceptions. Words stressed on the fourth-to-last syllable (sobreesdrújulas), often formed by adding object pronouns to a verb, also always require an accent.
La música del teléfono me despierta.
The phone's music wakes me up.
Cuéntamelo otra vez.
Tell it to me again.
Cuéntamelo is a sobreesdrújula: its stressed syllable (cuén) is four back from the end.
Job 2: Breaking Diphthongs into Hiatus
When a weak vowel (i or u) sits next to a strong vowel (a, e, o), the default is to form a diphthong (one syllable). To force the two vowels into separate syllables — creating a hiatus — Spanish places a tilde on the weak vowel. The accent overrides the diphthong rule.
| No accent (diphthong) | With accent (hiatus) |
|---|---|
| hacia (toward) — ha-cia | hacía (I/he/she was doing) — ha-cí-a |
| continuo (continuous) — con-ti-nuo | continúo (I continue) — con-ti-nú-o |
| rio (river, as in Río de Janeiro) | río (I laugh) — rí-o |
Todos los días voy al café.
Every day I go to the café.
Mi país está lleno de montañas.
My country is full of mountains.
El maíz es un alimento básico.
Corn is a basic food.
In día, the accent on the í creates a hiatus (dí-a, two syllables). Without the accent, dia would be one syllable with a diphthong.
Job 3: Distinguishing Homophones (Diacritical Accents)
Some Spanish words are spelled identically but have different meanings. Spanish uses a tilde to tell them apart, even when the stress is not technically an exception. These are called diacritical accents (tildes diacríticas) and are covered in detail in Diacritical Accents. Here are a few previews:
| Unaccented | Accented |
|---|---|
| tu (your) | tú (you) |
| el (the) | él (he) |
| si (if) | sí (yes) |
| mi (my) | mí (me) |
| te (you, object) | té (tea) |
| se (oneself) | sé (I know) |
Tú bebes tu té.
You drink your tea.
Sí, sé que él es mi amigo.
Yes, I know that he is my friend.
Job 4: Questions and Exclamations
Interrogative and exclamatory words always carry a written accent to distinguish them from their relative or conjunction counterparts. This holds even when they are used in indirect questions.
| Interrogative / Exclamatory | Relative / Conjunction |
|---|---|
| qué (what) | que (that) |
| cómo (how) | como (like, as) |
| dónde (where) | donde (where) |
| cuándo (when) | cuando (when) |
| quién (who) | quien (who) |
| cuál (which) | cual (which) |
| cuánto (how much) | cuanto (as much as) |
¿Qué quieres?
What do you want?
Dime qué quieres.
Tell me what you want.
Quiero que vengas.
I want you to come.
Note that qué carries the accent in both the direct question (¿Qué quieres?) and the indirect question (Dime qué quieres), but not in Quiero que vengas, where que is a conjunction.
See Also
- Stress Rules for the underlying logic.
- Diacritical Accents for the full list of word pairs.
- Spelling Overview.
Related Topics
- Stress RulesA2 — The three rules that determine which syllable of a Spanish word is stressed
- Diacritical AccentsA2 — Accent marks that distinguish pairs of words that are otherwise spelled the same
- Spelling Rules OverviewA1 — An introduction to Spanish spelling rules and the letters that cause the most confusion