Diacritic accent pairs

A diacritic accent (tilde diacrítica) is a written accent mark placed on one member of a pair of words that are spelled identically but belong to different grammatical categories. The accent does not change pronunciation — both words are common, short words — but it signals to the reader which word is meant. The accented member is always the word that carries its own lexical stress: a subject pronoun, a verb form, or an adverb. The bare member is always an unstressed function word: a possessive, a preposition, a conjunction, or a particle.

Apply the accent whenever the word in question is the stressed member of the pair. The following conditions identify each case:

• tú (subject pronoun, «you») vs. tu (possessive determiner, «your»). Use the accent when the word replaces a noun subject or stands alone as a pronoun.

• él (subject pronoun, «he») vs. el (definite article, «the»). Use the accent when the word refers to a person or thing as a pronoun.

• mí (prepositional pronoun, «me») vs. mi (possessive determiner, «my»). Use the accent after a preposition: a mí, para mí, de mí.

• sé (verb: 1st-person singular present of saber, «I know»; or imperative of ser, «be!») vs. se (reflexive/impersonal particle). Use the accent when the word is a verb form.

• dé (verb: present subjunctive / imperative of dar, «give») vs. de (preposition, «of / from»). Use the accent when the word is a verb form.

• té (noun, «tea») vs. te (object/reflexive pronoun, «you / yourself»). Use the accent when the word is the noun meaning the drink.

• sí (affirmative adverb «yes», or reflexive prepositional pronoun «himself / herself / itself») vs. si (conjunction, «if»). Use the accent for the affirmative or the pronoun.

• más (adverb of quantity, «more») vs. mas (literary conjunction, «but»). In everyday writing mas without an accent is rare; más with an accent is the normal adverb.

• aún (adverb of time, «still / yet») vs. aun (adverb / conjunction, «even / even though»). This is the only pair where the two words also differ in syllable count: aún is two syllables (a-ún), aun is one (aun).

There is no morphological process to learn: the accent is simply added to the existing spelling of the stressed word. The table below lists every standard pair with its grammatical category and meaning.

• Dropping the accent on the stressed member. Writing «tu» when you mean the pronoun tú, or «se» when you mean the verb sé, produces a different word entirely. Check: if the word is a pronoun or verb, it needs the accent.

• Hypercorrecting the unstressed member. Adding an accent to the function word — writing «*tú paraguas» or «*mí casa» — is equally wrong. Possessive determiners (tu, mi) never take an accent; they always precede a noun.

• Confusing aun and aún. Aún (with accent) means «still / yet» and is replaceable by todavía. Aun (no accent) means «even» or «even though». A quick test: if you can substitute todavía without changing the meaning, write aún with an accent.