The tilde diacrítica, the RAE reforms, the raya — and proofreading your own Spanish
At C2 your Spanish is judged as writing, not as speech — and written Spanish is unforgiving in ways English is not. English lets you put a comma almost anywhere. Spanish has rules, the Academy publishes them, and educated readers notice. Accents are not decoration: esta, está and ésta are three different words and one of them no longer exists.
This lesson is a working reference and a proofreading method. Read it once, then come back to it every time you write something that matters.
| Type | Stress falls on | Accent when | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aguda | last syllable | it ends in vowel, -n or -s | canción, jamás, café · but reloj, pared |
| Llana | second-to-last | it ends in anything except vowel, -n, -s | árbol, césped, fácil · but casa, examen, crisis |
| Esdrújula | third-to-last | always | médico, rápido, pájaro |
| Sobresdrújula | fourth or earlier | always | dígamelo, entrégaselo → entrégaselo |
When a weak vowel (i, u) carries the stress next to a strong one (a, e, o), it takes an accent regardless of the rules above.
país, día, raíz, baúl, oír, reír, continúa, púa — all hiatus.
Compare: aire, causa, ciudad, bien — diphthongs, no accent.
Single-syllable words take no accent — unless the accent is doing the work of telling two words apart.
| With accent | Without |
|---|---|
| tú (you) | tu (your) |
| él (he) | el (the) |
| mí (me) | mi (my) |
| sí (yes / oneself) | si (if) |
| sé (I know / be!) | se (pronoun) |
| té (tea) | te (you, object) |
| dé (give, subjunctive) | de (of) |
| más (more) | mas (but — literary) |
| aún (still, yet) | aun (even) |
qué, quién, cuál, cómo, cuándo, dónde, cuánto, por qué take an accent when they ask or exclaim — including inside an indirect question, where learners routinely drop it.
✓ No sé qué quieres. · ✓ Pregúntale dónde vive. · ✓ Me explicó cómo se hace.
Versus the relative, with no accent: El libro que compré. · La casa donde vivo. · Lo hizo como le dijeron.
| Old | Now |
|---|---|
| sólo (= solamente) | solo — never accented, even when ambiguous |
| éste, ése, aquél | este, ese, aquel — demonstratives never take an accent |
| 4 ó 5 | 4 o 5 — the o between numerals is not accented |
| guión, truhán, fié | guion, truhan, fie — treated as monosyllables |
| ex marido | exmarido — ex- joins the word (but ex primer ministro, when the base is two words) |
| Qatar, Irak variation | Catar, Irak recommended in Spanish spelling |
| ch and ll as letters | Not letters of the alphabet since 2010; they are digraphs. The alphabet has 27 letters. |
| Mark | Spanish rule |
|---|---|
| ¿ ? ¡ ! | The opening mark is obligatory and goes where the question starts, not where the sentence does: Si no puedes, ¿por qué no lo dices? |
| La raya — | Dialogue and parenthetical asides. In dialogue: —No lo sé —respondió—. Pregúntale a él. No space between the dash and the word it touches. |
| Comillas | Order of preference: «angulares» first (esp. Spain), then "inglesas", then 'simples' — nested in that order. |
| Puntos suspensivos … | Exactly three dots, never more. Followed by a space; if the sentence ends, no fourth dot. |
| Dos puntos : | Followed by lowercase, except before a direct quotation or after a letter salutation: Estimado señor: Le escribo… (new line, capital). |
| Punto y coma ; | Separates clauses too closely linked for a full stop; obligatory before a connector like sin embargo when no full stop is used. |
| Decimals | Decimal comma in Spain and most of South America (3,14); decimal point in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. Thousands: a thin space (1 000 000), never a comma. |
① La coma criminal. Never separate the subject from its verb.
✗ Los alumnos de tercero, aprobaron el examen. ✓ Los alumnos de tercero aprobaron el examen.
② No comma before a restrictive que.
✗ El libro, que compré ayer es malo. ✓ El libro que compré ayer es malo. (restrictive)
✓ Mi hermano, que vive en Lima, viene mañana. (non-restrictive — commas on both sides)
③ The vocative is always fenced.
✓ Juan, ven aquí. · ✓ Ven aquí, Juan. · ✓ Dime, Ana, qué pasó.
| Lowercase in Spanish | Examples |
|---|---|
| Days and months | lunes, enero, el 3 de marzo |
| Languages and nationalities | hablo español; es mexicano |
| Titles and posts | el rey, el papa, el presidente, la ministra |
| Religions and movements | el catolicismo, el romanticismo |
| Book/film titles after the first word | Cien años de soledad, El amor en los tiempos del cólera |
Capitals are for proper nouns, the first word of a sentence, and the names of institutions as institutions (el Ministerio de Hacienda, la Real Academia Española).
| Pair | Which is which |
|---|---|
| haber / a ver | haber = the verb; a ver = "let's see". A ver si viene. |
| hay / ahí / ay | there is / over there / ouch. Ahí hay un hombre que dice ¡ay! |
| porque / por qué / porqué / por que | because / why? / the reason (noun) / "for which". No sé por qué lo hizo, pero lo hizo porque quiso; ese es el porqué. |
| sino / si no | "but rather" / "if not". No es rojo sino azul. · Si no vienes, me voy. |
| también / tan bien | also / so well |
| sobre todo / sobretodo | above all / an overcoat. You almost always want two words. |
| haya / halla / allá / aya | subjunctive of haber / he finds / over there / a nanny |
| echo / hecho | from echar (to throw) / from hacer. Te echo de menos — no h. |
| valla / vaya / baya | fence / subjunctive of ir / berry |
| ti | Never accented. ✗ tí — there is nothing to distinguish it from. |
Write the word correctly.
Write the word as Spanish spells it.
Your Spanish is now mechanically clean. The remaining C2 lessons put it to work in the registers educated speakers actually read and write — starting with the academy, where the grammar of Lessons 3, 4 and 5 all arrive at once.