Hey, there! How are you doing? I hope you are really good! Today I’ve got a controversial topic. Why am I saying that? Since I have been teaching Spanish in the United Kingdom, I’ve realised that students don’t care about accents. Ey! I completely understand your point of view, but you should consider the point of view that the Spanish language system has, shouldn’t you?
If I write this sentence in a formal context:
Its not my book.
Perhaps you notice that I’ve written something wrong. I, as a Spanish native speaker, could say “but it’s only an apostrophe!”. And you could reply: “an essential apostrophe”. Basically, if you write its, you refer to a possessive pronoun, however if you write “it is”, you have a personal pronoun and a verb. Substantial difference, isn’t it? This happens with Spanish accents.
I have decided to make a table with some words which can change according to the accent position. Don’t you believe me? Continue reading!
| WORD | TYPE OF WORD | MEANING |
|---|---|---|
| Inglés | Noun | English |
| Ingles | Noun | Groins |
| Cantó | 3rd person singular from indefinite verbal tense (indefinido). Indicative mode. | He/she sang |
| Canto | 1st person singular from present tense. Indicative mode. Noun | I sing Singing |
| Té | Noun | Tea |
| Te | Personal pronoun (átono) | You use this pronoun in pronominal verbs or in verbs which need an indirect object. E.g: ¿Te gusta esta camiseta? (Do you like this t-shirt?) Yo me llamo Inés. (My name is Inés). |
| Calculó | 3rd person singular from indefinite verbal tense. Indicative mode. | I calculated / I estimated / I computed |
| Calculo | 1st person singular from present tense. Indicative mode. | I calculate / I estimate / I compute |
| Cálculo | Noun | A calculation, a count, a computation |
| Celebré | 1st person singular from indefinite verbal tense. Indicative mode | I celebrated |
| Celebre | 2nd person singular from imperative mode. | Celebrate! |
| Célebre | Noun | Celebrated, famous |
Have you changed your point of view about the importance of accents in Spanish? I hope so! See you soon!
Finally, if you want to contact with me, you can write an email to: belenriescospain@gmail.com . Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have doubts or other kind of questions. Furthermore, if you have liked this post, you can share it with your friends! Thank you. 🙂
Letras en español – Belén Riesco©
REFERENCES
Cambridge Dictionary (online) from: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/
Letras en español 