When is this accent
The use of the diacritical tilde o the graphic accent is one of the most complex spelling issues in Spanish. It is not always easy for us to know when and how to use it. On the one hand, it is necessary to know and apply the rules of accentuation of Spanish and, on the other, to know the cases in which we can appeal to the use of the diacritical mark to distinguish words that are spelled the same but have different meanings and, thus, avoid the disambiguation. In this lesson from a TEACHER we will deal with one of these cases, that of the demonstrative pronoun ESTE, and we will learn when is this accent and when not.
The Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (DRAE) defines "this" as a demonstrative pronoun, which can be masculine, feminine or neuter, with the meaning of "the one who or what is close to the person who speaks". It is thus opposed, in a deictic space-time relationship, to other demonstrative pronouns such as "that" and "that", used by the speaker to designate things further away from his deictic speech center (say, the "here and now").
Traditionally, grammar prescribed that it should be accentuated demonstrative pronouns like "this" (in sentences like I want this and not the other that you offer me O well This is my brother Paco) in order to differentiate them from "this" that works as an adjective (in sentences like This boy is my best friend or This weekend we are going on vacation to the beach).
However, it should be noted that the New Spelling of the Spanish Language this rule has changed and, currently, it is recommended not to use the accent to accentuate words like "this".
As we have said before, the diacritical tilde on demonstratives like "this" it is not normative; that is, normally words like "this", "that" and "that" should never have an accent, in any case.
Only, the RAE allows (be careful, it does not recommend or advise) the accentuation of "this" in cases where there may be some risk of possible ambiguity, for example, in sentences such as This is the one I like the most.
Therefore, accentuation is optional; that is, it is the speaker himself who must choose whether, for convenience or custom, he prefers to accentuate "this" in ambiguous cases, or else he prefers to adhere to the rules of the Academy according to which it is better not to accentuate it in any case so as not to fall into errors, such as, for example, accenting "this" when it functions as a determiner of a noun, as in the example This boy is very handsome, since, as established by the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), "this" is never accentuated in these situations.
In addition to the previous cases in which "this" works well as an adjective or as a demonstrative pronoun, the word "this" is accentuated as follows: "be" when it corresponds to the first person verb form from the singular or third person singular of the present subjunctive of the verb "estar". When it comes to the conjugated form of the verb "estar", the word "be" is accentuated, but not in the first syllable as in the cases of which we spoke before but in the second syllable, converting the word in acute.
We hope we have helped you solve your doubts about when to emphasize EAST. When in doubt, it is better not to accentuate "this" in any case, so we will not get confused or accentuate when it does not correspond. What's more, the normative thing according to the dictionary is to avoid accentuating it.
In this other lesson from a TEACHER we will discover a complete list of diacritical accents in Spanish.
