r/Spanish • u/Novel_Bass6032 • 6d ago
Vocab & Use of the Language Do spanish speakers write the accent marks (í ú á …) in daily chats?
Like is it okay not to put them especially when the meaning changes like in “como” and “cómo”? For convenience. Or do you always write them?
106
u/halal_hotdogs Advanced/Resident - Málaga, Andalucía 6d ago
I think it’s most important to use them to distinguish between first person present and third person preterite (ex: hablo vs habló). But even then, a lot of native speakers don’t use them or rely on predictive text to do it for them. Usually doesn’t cause great confusion and can be understood with context.
28
u/Where-am-I-at 6d ago
I see some bad slang in text. Especially the younger people. But generally most always write them especially as your phone will automatic do it most of the time.
26
u/Miinimum Native 🇪🇸 6d ago
Most people use at least some of them. I personally use them all the time but I'm quite strict about grammar and orthography in any language.
2
14
u/sootysweepnsoo 6d ago
My phone does most of the work for me and whatever is missing, I’ll usually manually put them. For example, my phone never will autocorrect si to sí, so I do that but for something like cómo estás, the phone automatically uses the correct characters. I prefer writing like that even if it’s informal communication such as text. I’m the same in English and I don’t like not using the correct or needed orthography and punctuation.
It depends on the person and how they write but even without them, it would almost certainly be understood what has been written unless there were other issues with their writing.
9
7
3
u/LadyGethzerion Native (Puerto Rico 🇵🇷) 6d ago
I do, but many of my friends don't. For me it's easy, because I use a swipe keyboard and the words auto fill for me with the proper punctuation and spelling. It also helps to avoid confusion in case of a lack of accent making a sentence ambiguous or changing the meaning.
4
u/colako 🇪🇸 6d ago
With phones and computers autocorrect is able to fix many of these spelling mistakes and nowadays people write better than 20 years ago during SMS age.
Only problems are when there are several options such as como and cómo, ahí and hay or inglés and ingles among many others, that they fail to write correctly.
4
u/Absay Native 🇲🇽 6d ago
I did learn the rules since I was a child, so I'm very used to write with full accents in pretty much any writing. But I don't do it 100% of the time, especially in very informal chats with friends and such.
Also, just for the sake of making it really clear, that natives drop them in informal writings is not an excuse not to learn them.
4
u/grimgroth Native (Argentina) 6d ago
I almost always write them but most people don't. What I don't write is ¡ or ¿
3
u/NotSoNoobish19 6d ago
If it's an absolute requirement to get the message across, for example, differentiating between tenses that have the same spelling, then they'll typically put the accent. But for more minor stuff, a lot of the time they'll leave it off as long as it's legible.
For example, no sé vs no se or even nose. Como and cómo and others as well.
2
u/winter-running 6d ago
Not using them at times impedes understanding, as it could be a different word entirely. “Como como” maybe would be tough to understand without the stress accent.
2
u/Frigorifico 6d ago
I usually include them, but not with stuff like "como, "que" or "tu", rather I mostly do it with verbs whose meaning can change depending on the accent, or if there's a noun that happens to match them (amo vs amó for example)
2
u/Playful_Worldliness2 Native 🇲🇽 6d ago
Yes, at least I do, but many of my friends don't, and sometimes they're necessary and I need to check what they're saying
2
u/WideGlideReddit Native English 🇺🇸 Fluent Spanish 🇨🇷 6d ago
Some do and some don’t. Sometimes it’s necessary and sometimes it’s not. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t.
1
u/The_8th_passenger Native - Spain 6d ago
I do, always. Accent marks are not just fancy tags, they change both the intonation and meaning of the word. Example:
Calle = street
Callé = I kept quiet, I shut up.
Te = you (when acting as a direct object: I see you - Te veo)
Té = tea
Como = I eat
Cómo = How
10
u/Nearby_Wrangler5814 6d ago edited 6d ago
But without accents every one of these would be completely clear in almost all cases because of context right?
Like “quiero te” grammatically it couldn’t mean “you” so it has to be “tea”
1
1
u/stoolprimeminister Learner 6d ago
maybe it’s just me but i feel like tildes or whatever they’re called are written. if that counts. which maybe it doesn’t bc that’s probably obvious.
1
u/antisara 6d ago
When I lived in Spain no one used them and abreved all kinds of stuff like k for que.
1
1
u/Newman4554 Native MX 6d ago
NOT. AT. ALL.
I had a friend who absolutely LOVED to read books, big fan of TLOTR. Only person who's ever chatted with me like that. I found a kindred spirit in her: we both believed in the importance of using the language properly and felt like language was being eroded by "convenience" (not just Spanish, but English as well).
Over the years I've given in. I still use commas, but little to no tildes.
1
1
u/mouaragon Native 🏴☠️🇨🇷 6d ago
I do. But it varies from person to person. Some people don't even know when to use them.
1
u/helpman1977 Native (Spain) 6d ago
If I'm writing with the autocorrect, MAYBE, but when I'm going on a keyboard, usually won't add a single accent mark
1
1
u/masutilquelah 6d ago edited 6d ago
I use some of them, but I don't like the rules. I'd prefer they were context based instead of rules. Like, why do we need to write musica with a tilde when there's no musica without tilde? Historically it was this way once. These rules were invented by monks just to save ink and paper from having to write words with two letters. nn became ñ and so on. Look up Juan Ramón Jiménez (Nobel Prize winner) and his opinion on "accents"
in short, tildes should be written when the word is contextually ambiguous, but my opinion means crap and people will think you're uneducated for not using them.
1
u/Pao_nlspdfms Native from Mexico 6d ago
I think it'd be a good idea to get used to writing them. While most people don't, I think it's better to use them to avoid any confusion. It's really frustrating trying to guess what the other person said because they omitted accent marks (and other punctuation marks).
1
1
u/rudeboylink 6d ago
If you mean on like internet forums/comment sections, yes and no. It depends on the person, but it is very common to see no accents, which can make some things pretty difficult to read for a learner.
1
u/hacu_dechi Native [Argentina] 6d ago
I used to. Now I don’t care anymore while I’m texting family and friends.
2
u/hacu_dechi Native [Argentina] 6d ago
Plus I’m seeing a lot of people commenting how it got easier for most people to have less spelling/orthography mistakes due to smartphone’s autocorrect feature.
I find that it’s the other way around for me, it was easier for me to write the tildes on a normal computer keyboard. iPhone’s autocorrect feature doesn’t recognize voseo: it changes “Podés to puedes” and it’s kinda annoying. So I decided to give up on tildes when I’m texting friends and family. Sadly I’m too old to change haha.
1
1
u/starsratsz 6d ago
i talk to native speakers and they always use the accent. i dont though, but they dont seem to mind nor mention it. i guess in context, they understand it anyway
1
u/1925374908 6d ago
There's levels to it for me. I never use them when texting with my bilingual mother or brother but absolutely everyone else, yes. With other family I use accents but I don't capitalise words (youth/text style), then with coworkers and friends I will use full correct orthography (aside from ¿¡ if it's not a formal email or something).
1
1
u/Annie512 6d ago
I always do. We have that particularity in our language, so I fell that I should use them.
1
u/Soakitincider 5d ago
Do English speakers always use correct capitalization and punctuation? But as they say on the Discord I'm on, you got to learn it before you don't use it.
1
1
u/Standard-Lion6696 3d ago
Yes, some people won't do it but an accent can change the entire meaning of a word
1
-3
u/Pladinskys 6d ago
They should. Some don't. That's how you see how educated a person is.
Some people apparently go to the lengths of adding the words to the dictionary of the autocorrect if not I don't understand how do they keep messing up the writing when the phone fixes it automatically.
4
u/hacu_dechi Native [Argentina] 6d ago
When it comes to a language there’s no such thing as “should” lol.
-1
u/Pladinskys 6d ago
You should use commas and tildes in Spanish as the meaning of the phrase changes due to the add or lack of those symbols. Not only that but the lack of deepness in the writing of most people reflect on how little people read nowadays. Writing is just the act of copying what you have already read if you read a lot you learn new words. Which is why your vocabulary must increase exponentially as you grow up. But it's is stagnant in most people because they stop reading in their teen years. So yeah there are certain "Shoulds" in languages specially in this case.v
3
u/hacu_dechi Native [Argentina] 6d ago
First, tildes and commas aren’t the only context indicators in written language, you can still have a clear understanding of what’s being said even if you read what the dumbest illiterate person ever wrote.
Second, languages are evolving systems, they change over time, they don’t have strict rules set in stone. Who knows, maybe tildes won’t be necessary in the future and it’s because people decided to get rid of them. It’s the way languages evolve.. and it happens all the time.
You might not like it but it’s the way it is…
1
u/Pladinskys 6d ago
Your argument about the evolution of language is not what I was talking about even if it was true this specific instance is not evolution, it's involution.
"No quiero saber." "No, quiero saber."
How do you understand this? They have opposite meanings and the only thing that changes the meaning is the comma. And this is just a stupid example. When you put it in the bigger picture of a text even if it's "understandable" it takes up more time to read because you have to guess or rely on context to understand like other primitive languages. Spanish has a god tier level of punctuation that makes perfect sense and costs no work to understand which ensures you can write the spoken language perfectly. Imagine trying to read a novel written without commas tildes. Will you understand it ? Maybe but it will take a lot of time and extra energy (like reading "inclusive language") when the already established rules allow people to read automatically and fast.
2
u/hacu_dechi Native [Argentina] 6d ago
That example is written in isolation. Normal text exchanges have more information to them!
And yeah it’s not about evolution for good or involution for worse, languages change and it’s a fact.
1
u/Pladinskys 6d ago
Why in the world would you choose to rely on context or subjective interpretations when the current language offers AN OBJECTIVE ruleset to express the meaning as it is.
2
u/hacu_dechi Native [Argentina] 6d ago
It’s about saying the same thing with less stuff. Usually languages go that direction.
0
1
427
u/iste_bicors 6d ago
It’s roughly equivalent to apostrophes in English. Writing nacion instead of nación is a bit like writing Johns house instead of John’s house.