Most Spanish accents tell you where to put the stress in a word. A small group does something different: they distinguish two words that are spelled and stressed identically, but mean different things. These are called tildes diacríticas — diacritic accents. Without them, written Spanish would constantly run into ambiguity. With them, a single typed character separates "I know" from "himself", "more" from a literary "but", and "your" from "you".
This page covers every diacritic pair currently used in standard peninsular Spanish, plus the words that look like they need one but don't — including the cases the RAE has officially abolished in recent reforms.
Why diacritics exist
Spanish has a rich set of monosyllabic function words: articles, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions. By the regular stress rules these are unstressed and never need a written accent. But several of them have a homophonous stressed counterpart — usually a pronoun or a verb form — that is stressed in the sentence.
To disambiguate two words that share the same letters and the same syllable structure, Spanish writes an accent on the stressed one. The accent doesn't change pronunciation in isolation (both el and él sound like /el/), but it changes meaning and tells the reader which word you mean.
El / él — article vs subject pronoun
el— definite article ("the"). Goes before a masculine noun.él— subject pronoun ("he"). Stands for a person.
El coche está aparcado en doble fila otra vez.
The car is double-parked again.
Él me dijo que llegaría tarde, pero no me avisó.
He told me he'd be late, but he didn't let me know.
The two appear together constantly: él tiene el libro — he has the book — same three letters, two different functions, distinguished only by the accent.
Tu / tú — possessive vs subject pronoun
tu— possessive determiner ("your", informal). Goes before a noun: tu casa, tu madre.tú— subject pronoun ("you", informal). Stands alone or before a verb: tú sabes.
¿Tu hermana sigue viviendo en Sevilla o ya se ha mudado?
Is your sister still living in Seville or has she moved?
Tú vienes conmigo y se acabó la discusión.
You're coming with me and that's the end of the discussion.
The tricky case is when tú appears in the same sentence as a noun tu modifies: Tú y tu hermano os parecéis mucho — You and your brother look very alike. The pronoun gets the accent, the determiner doesn't.
Mi / mí — possessive vs object pronoun
mi— possessive determiner ("my"). Goes before a noun: mi piso, mi trabajo.mí— prepositional object pronoun ("me"). Always after a preposition: a mí, para mí, por mí, de mí. (Note: with según, entre, excepto, salvo, menos and incluso, Spanish uses the subject pronoun instead — según yo, never según mí.)
Mi piso es pequeño, pero tiene una terraza enorme.
My flat is small, but it has a huge terrace.
A mí no me gusta nada el cilantro, sabe a jabón.
I don't like coriander at all — it tastes like soap.
Note that mi is also the musical note ("E" in fixed-do solfège), and that older grammars treated this mi as needing an accent. Current RAE rules say no: the note is mi, no accent.
Si / sí — conditional vs yes / reflexive
si— conditional conjunction ("if") or the musical note ("B"). Unstressed function word.sí— adverb of affirmation ("yes") or stressed reflexive pronoun ("oneself", after a preposition).
Si quieres, podemos quedar mañana para tomar algo.
If you want, we can meet up tomorrow for a drink.
Sí, claro que me acuerdo de ti, ¡cómo no me voy a acordar!
Yes, of course I remember you — how could I not?
Habló largamente de sí mismo durante toda la cena.
He talked at length about himself throughout dinner.
The reflexive sí (as in sí mismo, en sí, para sí) is the same accented form as the affirmative "yes". Both are stressed; the unstressed conjunction si is the one without the accent.
Mas / más — literary "but" vs "more"
mas— (literary) conjunction meaning "but". Unstressed.más— adverb/quantifier meaning "more". Stressed.
Quería ir al cine, mas no le quedaba dinero.
(literary) She wanted to go to the cinema, but she had no money left.
Quiero más café, por favor — este se me ha quedado frío.
I'd like more coffee, please — this one has gone cold on me.
In contemporary speech, mas (without accent) sounds dated and is essentially absent from everyday conversation. You'll meet it in literature, in journalism aiming for a literary register, and in older texts. The everyday word for "but" is pero. The accented más is one of the most common words in the language.
De / dé — preposition vs subjunctive of dar
de— preposition ("of", "from"). Unstressed.dé— present subjunctive or formal imperative of dar ("to give"), first or third person singular.
Voy a por un vaso de agua, ¿quieres tú también?
I'm going to get a glass of water — do you want one too?
Quiero que me dé una explicación antes de marcharme.
I want him to give me an explanation before I leave.
The accent on dé disappears when an object pronoun attaches to the verb and shifts the stress pattern: deme (one word, no accent), démelo (with accent because three syllables make the new stress need marking). The rule of thumb: dé alone or as last word of the verb form gets the accent; once a clitic glues on and changes the syllable count, the regular stress rules take over.
Se / sé — clitic pronoun vs saber/ser
se— clitic pronoun (reflexive, reciprocal, impersonal, indirect-object replacement). Unstressed.sé— present indicative of saber ("I know") or affirmative tú imperative of ser ("be").
Se lavó las manos antes de sentarse a la mesa.
He washed his hands before sitting down at the table.
No lo sé, te juro que no tengo ni idea.
I don't know — I swear I have no clue.
Sé bueno con tu hermana pequeña, que está enferma.
Be nice to your little sister — she's not feeling well.
The two values of sé (knowing and commanding "be") happen to be spelled the same; context disambiguates them. The clitic se covers an enormous range of functions but is always unstressed and always written without an accent.
Te / té — clitic vs tea
te— clitic pronoun ("you", direct/indirect/reflexive object, second person singular informal).té— noun, "tea".
Te llamo en cuanto salga del trabajo, ¿vale?
I'll call you as soon as I leave work, okay?
Un té caliente con un poco de miel me sentará bien.
A hot tea with a bit of honey will do me good.
This is one of the cleanest of the pairs: nobody confuses the function in writing, but the accent is required nonetheless. Note that té keeps its accent in the plural: unos tés.
Aun / aún — even vs still
aun— meaning "even" (= incluso, hasta, ni siquiera). Unstressed monosyllable.aún— meaning "still", "yet" (= todavía). Stressed disyllable /aˈun/.
Aun los expertos se equivocan a veces — nadie lo sabe todo.
Even experts get things wrong sometimes — nobody knows everything.
Aún no ha llegado el paquete, y eso que lo pedí hace dos semanas.
The package still hasn't arrived, and that's despite ordering it two weeks ago.
The acoustic difference is real here: aún is two syllables (the a and the u are in hiatus, marked by the accent), while aun is one syllable (a diphthong). If you can replace it with todavía, write aún. If you can replace it with incluso, write aun.
O / ó — the abolished accent between numbers
You may have learned, or seen in older books, that the conjunction o ("or") takes an accent when written between two numerals — to prevent confusion with the digit zero: 5 ó 6 meaning "5 or 6", not "506". This rule was abolished by the RAE in 2010.
Since 2010, the conjunction is always o, never ó, in every context. The reasoning: modern typography makes the confusion between o and 0 implausible, and there is no reason to keep a special diacritic only in this context.
Dame cinco o seis manzanas, las que quieras.
Give me five or six apples — whichever you want.
Necesito unos 200 o 300 euros para terminar el mes.
I need about 200 or 300 euros to make it to the end of the month.
Ti — no accent, ever
The prepositional pronoun ti ("you", object of preposition) never takes an accent. Many learners write *tí by analogy with mí, but this is wrong: there is no other word ti to disambiguate from, so no diacritic is needed.
Este regalo es para ti, espero que te guste.
This present is for you — I hope you like it.
Sin ti la fiesta no será lo mismo, ven aunque sea un rato.
Without you the party won't be the same — come even if it's just for a bit.
The same logic applies to fue, vio, dio, di, fe — single-syllable verb forms that don't take accents because Spanish accents don't mark monosyllables unless there's a homophone to distinguish from. Many learners over-apply accents here.
Solo / sólo — the abolished adverb accent
For decades, Spanish writers were taught to put an accent on solo when it functioned as an adverb meaning "only" (= solamente), to distinguish it from the adjective solo meaning "alone". So Vivo solo meant "I live alone" and Vivo sólo meant "I live only".
In 2010, the RAE declared this distinction optional. In 2023, it went further: writers may use the accent only when there is genuine ambiguity in the specific sentence — and even then it's not required. The default recommendation now is to omit the accent in all cases.
Vivo solo en un piso pequeño cerca del parque.
I live alone in a small flat near the park.
Solo quiero un café, no me apetece nada más.
I just want a coffee — I don't fancy anything else.
You'll still see sólo in books from before 2010 (and from older writers who keep the older convention). It's not "wrong" per se, but it's no longer the recommended norm.
Demonstratives — also abolished
The same 2010 reform abolished the diacritic accent on demonstrative pronouns: éste, ése, aquél (and feminine/plural forms). The old rule said to accent the pronoun ("this one") to distinguish it from the adjective ("this NOUN"). Since 2010, the unaccented forms cover both uses: este libro and este me gusta.
Este me gusta más que aquel, aunque los dos son bonitos.
I like this one more than that one, though both are nice.
Aquellos eran tiempos difíciles, pero nos divertíamos.
Those were difficult times, but we had fun.
The neuter forms esto, eso, aquello never took accents and still don't — they have no adjective counterpart to disambiguate from.
Qué / cuál / cómo / dónde / cuándo / quién / cuánto
These accented forms are interrogatives and exclamatives — they ask or exclaim. Their unaccented counterparts (que, cual, como, donde, cuando, quien, cuanto) are relatives or conjunctions. The accent here functions the same way as the diacritics above: it marks the stressed, content-bearing version.
¿Qué quieres tomar? Yo creo que un café con leche.
What do you want? I think I'll have a coffee with milk.
Hace lo que quiere sin pedir permiso a nadie.
He does what he wants without asking anyone's permission.
The interrogative qué takes an accent even in indirect questions: No sé qué quiere — I don't know what he wants.
Common mistakes
❌ Este regalo es para tí.
Wrong — ti never takes an accent. There's no other 'ti' to distinguish it from.
✅ Este regalo es para ti.
This present is for you.
❌ Sólo quiero un café, gracias.
Outdated since 2010 — RAE removed the accent on adverbial 'solo' and now recommends omitting it entirely.
✅ Solo quiero un café, gracias.
I just want a coffee, thanks.
❌ Mi madre y mi hermana ya han llegado, mí padre todavía no.
Wrong — 'mi' before a noun is the possessive; 'mí' is only the object pronoun after a preposition.
✅ Mi madre y mi hermana ya han llegado, mi padre todavía no.
My mother and sister have already arrived; my father hasn't yet.
❌ El me dijo que vendría.
Missing the diacritic accent — without it, 'El' reads as the article, not the pronoun 'he'.
✅ Él me dijo que vendría.
He told me he'd come.
❌ Necesito unos cinco ó seis euros.
The accent on 'o' between numbers was abolished by RAE in 2010 — write 'o', never 'ó'.
✅ Necesito unos cinco o seis euros.
I need about five or six euros.
Key takeaways
- Diacritics distinguish stressed content words from unstressed function words that happen to be spelled identically.
- Learn the pairs as pairs: el/él, tu/tú, mi/mí, si/sí, de/dé, se/sé, te/té, mas/más, aun/aún.
tinever takes an accent — there's no homophone to disambiguate from.- The 2010 RAE reform abolished the accents on ó (between numbers), sólo (adverb), and demonstrative pronouns (éste, ése, aquél). Modern writing omits them.
- Interrogatives and exclamatives (qué, cómo, dónde, cuándo, quién) keep their accents in both direct and indirect questions.
- Single-syllable verb forms like fue, vio, dio, di take no accent — they have no homophonous counterpart that needs distinguishing.
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