Mastering Punctuation and Accentuation in Spanish
Punctuation
Punctuation aims to help continue the thought of writing, stating in writing pauses, intonation, and emphasis. You cannot write without punctuation or use the signs without knowing their value and meaning, so it was deemed necessary to make a sketch of the most used.
- Comma (,) represents the shortest pause. It is used to:
- Separate phrases, words, or sentences in a series of similar elements.
- Separate the vocative from the rest of the sentence.
- Separate anything set in front of the subject.
- Separate items in apposition.
- Separate the main subject from the verb.
- Separate emphatic expressions that are at the beginning of the sentence.
- Elliptical sentences, and in many other cases.
- Period (.): A period is used to separate sentences within a paragraph when you complete the exposition of a concept. It is also used after abbreviations and when sentences are closely related.
- Paragraph Break: Used when going to expose a new issue and must end a paragraph.
- Final Period: It is placed at the end of a writing.
- Semicolon (;): Can perform the same functions as the period. Also used before adversative conjunctions “more”, “but”, “although”, “however”.
- Colon (:): This sign indicates a pause and states something. Used:
- After a sentence that states a quote.
- When behind them comes a list of items included in the first sentence.
- After a greeting or treatment.
- To make way for a clarification.
- Question Mark (?): Serves only to indicate nuances of intonation and intensity that characterizes those forms of expression.
- Quotation Marks (“): Are used when citing a quotation or part of any text, in titles of works, and to distinguish foreign words.
- Parentheses (): They are used to enclose clauses that disrupt the sense of what is being expressed.
The Accent
The accent is the strongest pronunciation that is loaded onto a syllable of the word (which is called the stressed syllable).
The orthographic accent or tilde is a hairline oblique (‘) that descends from right to left when reading or writing, and it is used, in appropriate cases, on some of the vowels of the syllable where the power load is on the pronunciation of the word.
In Spanish, words have a single stress accent (except for manner adverbs with the suffix -mente), which falls on a particular syllable of each word.
- Acute words are those in which the power of speech is exercised on the last syllable.
- Grave words are those whose pronunciation force is exerted on the penultimate syllable.
- Esdrújula words are those whose pronunciation force is exerted on the antepenultimate syllable.
- Sobreesdrújula words are those whose strength of pronunciation is exercised on the syllable before the antepenultimate syllable. Usually, these are adverbs.
Basic Rules of Accentuation
- All acute words ending in a vowel, n, or s are accentuated.
- Acute words not ending with a vowel, n, or s are never accentuated.
- Never accentuate grave words ending in vowels, n, or s.
- Grave words ending in other letters are always accentuated.
- All esdrújula and sobresdrújula words are always accentuated.
- The diacritic tilde is placed over certain words to distinguish between different meanings of the word, but according to general rules, it is not appropriate to place a tick.
Diphthongs, Triphthongs, and Hiatuses
A diphthong is the combination of two vowels within a syllable, one of which is always a high vowel (i or u). For this purpose, the existence of an h sandwiched between vowels is transparent; it has no effect.
A triphthong appears when there are not two, but three vowels that appear within a single syllable. The vowel in the center is always open, while the extremes are closed. There are only four possible triphthongs: uai (averiguáis), uei (averiguéis), iai (iniciais), and iei (iniciéis).
The presence of an intercalated h does not negate the existence of a possible diphthong or triphthong.
The hiatus is a sequence of two vowels that are not pronounced in the same syllable.