

Do native Spanish speakers appreciate properly-placed accents in writing or does it not matter much? (Which is to say, should I spend my time looking up accents or am I wasting my time?)




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    Please take care, in spanish "acento" is a general word. All words have accent. But not all words have "acento diacrítico" or "tilde" that is the sign that you use for remark the accent. – Leandro Bardelli Jun 1 '12 at 23:30
  • Nowadays tildes can be seen more often in informal chats thanks to the autocorrect function – Rol Dec 16 '15 at 17:55
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    Aunque genera ciertas confusiones, no cuesta mucho comprender textos sin tildes. Tampoco que cambies g por j, o qu por k, etc. Ya ha habido una propuesta de reforma en ese sentido. El problema es que con ese enfoque «económico» comienzas por comerte las tildes y acabas escribiendo "Orrible kalamidad del kasteyano, jeneralmente, son las tildes o asentos. Esta sankadiya kotidiana desaparese kon la rreforma: aremos komo el ingles, ke a triunfado unibersalmente sin tildes". N.B.; léase el pdf enlazado en voz alta. – Fran Sep 28 '18 at 19:59
  • Sarria, Sarría and Sarriá are three different places in Spain. – aerobiomat Feb 11 at 8:48

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    I think everyone should consider that technology wasn't developed with Spanish in mind. This has two implications. The first is that when sms texting became popular, accented letter were more expensive and sometimes made the text arrive cropped, so it became not only a custom but a rule to avoid them. On the other hand, you had to put an apostrophe above a letter to get accented letters in old typing machines, and this didn't work on capitals. I think that's why there is the thought that accents can be omitted in this case. That was the custom even in formal documents – Emilio Mar 15 '18 at 19:09

In my opinion, the accents are very important to ease the readability of your text. Since Spanish is an inflectional language, we make from a single root many words (e.g. verbal conjugation) whose only difference is the syllable having the stress:

El camino → (the road)
Él cami → (he walked)
Yo camino → (I walk)

Also, another example being we have the diacritic accent (éste vs este):

Toda la culpa la tiene éste.
Toda la culpa la tiene este hombre.

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    @SergioRomero: I don't understand then why you don't consider it's important to also write English properly in comments to this question. For instance, every properly written sentence in English must include a verb. Or maybe it's just a case that when asked some people feel writing properly is important, but in practice often write casually rather than properly. – hippietrail May 2 '12 at 15:40
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    how important are capital letters and punctuation marks in english. although im pretty sure everybody understand me its a headache dont you agree – Ra_ Jan 12 '17 at 11:14

Accents are essential when there is a possibility of confusion.




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  • Or "arteria/artería" – user14029 Nov 19 '16 at 13:48

Imagine you are writing about this situation:



Meaning "beasts", for doing what they are doing.

Imagine you add an accent to the word and write:


Meaning "encourage them"!



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  • @guifa fair enough. Then we should restrict my example to places where we use and not vos. – fedorqui 'SO stop harming' Oct 10 '15 at 9:40


My name in the spelling and culture of Mexico is García. Here on the Tex/Mex border we are proud of our heritage and continue to speak Mexican Spanish fluently on a daily basis throughout the Rio Grande Valley.

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As a native speaker, I would say you should try to write them everywhere, unless you are in a particular situation when writing with perfect orthography is difficult or impossible (e.g., writing an urgent SMS). In general, many Spanish native speakers find it annoying to read Spanish texts without correct accent marks.




como = comme, en francés = like, en inglés

cómo = comment, en francés = how, en inglés

que = que, en francés = that, en inglés


si = si, en francés = if, en inglés

sí = oui, en francés = yes , en inglés

se = on, en francés = we , en inglés








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  • It is very important – Krauss Jan 12 '17 at 8:28

It depends on the setting.

I agree with you that often, taking a lot of care with spelling and accents can make a foreigner stick out like a sore thumb. I for one have found myself in that situation. But I was already pretty noticeable to begin with; and writing with careful spelling and accents never brought any negative repercussions. If I had slummed and written more sloppily, it wouldn't have made any difference on my ability to integrate into the local community.

That said, there are settings where careful spelling and properly placed accents are important and much appreciated, and this site falls into that category.

I would recommend to all Spanish learners that they develop good spelling and accenting habits right from the start, and continue in this way. I would recommend that to any child or teenager who is a native speaker as well; but for someone learning Spanish as a second language, it's especially worthwhile, for several reasons:

  • Your writing will be better understood and more influential/more entertaining
  • It will help you understand and appreciate better the language, including relationships among words, meanings, grammar, etymology. In short, it will help you build your knowledge of the language and your respect for and attachment to the language and the people who speak it.
  • It will thus help you progress better in your learning.
  • It will help you pronounce Spanish correctly and beautifully, which will help you communicate succesfully, and connect with people better.
  • You will be showing respect for another group's language and culture.
  • It will speed some realizations that will help you understand English better, too.

That is not to say that if you forget some accents or place some in funny places, you'll be despised! I'm just saying that your spelling efforts will bring you extra respect (i.e. brownie points).

In short, I definitely don't see learning to place accents correctly as a waste of time.

Update 10/2/19: It may be easier to learn to write accents correctly if you install a Spanish spellchecker in your word processor and your browser.
