Why is MI not accented?

The diacritical tilde (or diacritical accent) is one of the most important linguistic elements that we have to consider when we write in Spanish since it allows us to differentiate words that are written the same but that are pronounced differently and mean things various.

In this lesson from a TEACHER we are going to study one of the cases in which two words that are spelled the same differentiate semantically and phonetically from the diacritical mark: MI and ME, something that can do us question Why doesn't MI have an accent? Read on to find out when ME is accentuated and when MI is not accented!

To know when to use the diacritical mark, it is very important to take into account different aspects such as the grammatical category of the word that we are analyzing, as well as the words that are placed before and after it and, finally, how we pronounce said word within a string of words; that is, within a complete sentence.

MI should not have a tilde when it comes to a possessive pronoun

which always precedes a noun, as we see in the following sentences: This is my book; I introduced you to Jaime, my childhood friend that I have told you so much about.

On the other hand, the possessive pronoun MI is not stressed because, unlike the personal pronoun, it is not a tonic, but it is unstressed and in the phonic chain when we pronounce a sequence like "my work", the possessive pronoun does not present a own accent but joins the next word, which is tonic and, therefore, is the one that sustains the stroke of voice.

For this reason, it is important to pronounce both pronouns, the personal and the possessive well, because this allows us to differentiate them and write them correctly, accentuating the personal and not the possessive.

Following the previous idea, when pronouncing the words aloud to be able to determine whether or not we should accentuate them, it is essential that we always enunciate them within a chain of words; In other words, it is useless to say "my" and that's it, since this does not get us out of doubt. We shall always pronounce it within a sentence or complete phrase, in order to be able to perceive more clearly if it is a tonic or unstressed word, in addition to being able to guide us if it is preceded by a preposition or followed by a name.

Compared to the previous one, when we accentuate ME we are using a personal pronoun of the first person singular, which we use before a preposition, as we can see in the following sentence: For me, lentils is a very healthy food. Similarly, this preposition can be any other, as we see in the following sentences: You have nothing to do against me; They are going to the movies without me; This holiday is celebrated by me.

The pronoun MÍ accented with a tilde is a tonic word; that is, it has its own syllabic accent and that, when pronouncing it, we must emphasize it, in order to differentiate it from ME without accent.

Therefore, it is important to take into account the accentuation of words in Spanish, because this allows us to differentiate meanings. In the case of MÍ con tilde, we refer to the first-person singular personal pronoun, which is usually introduced by a preposition, while that we must use the pronoun MI without accent when we want to use the possessive pronoun, also in the first person singular, but that does not carry tilde because it is not a tonic and it precedes a noun or name, which can give us a good clue when we have doubts as to whether or not to accent words.

We always must pay attention to context of enunciation, both to the word that precedes the pronoun and to the word that is used just below.