Are you supposed to put accent marks over capital letters?

Question

I think that someone told me once that you should not put accent marks over capital letters. Is this true?

Creo que una vez alguien me dijo que no debería poner una tilde encima de una mayúscula. ¿Es verdad?

Which is correct?

El está bien.

Él está bien.

Thanks.

good question! - hlsbookworm, Mar 22, 2010

Answer 1

I copied this from here ----> Rules for Spanish Accents

 

7.Although lazy typesetters and other lazy people would love to justify their lack of accents on capital letters, the Royal Academy has never published any rule against accenting capital letters and recommends that words in capital letters carry an accent like any other word.

  The meaning is clear, Capitals get accented like lower case letters

That's exactly what I wanted to know. Thanks, Moe. - alba3, Mar 22, 2010

Although, sadly, the Answer text box doesn't include this facility. - geofc, Jun 10, 2010

Answer 2

No es verdad. Las mayúsculas también se acentúan - por la misma razón que las minúsculas.

Gekkosan - I agree with your answer. I just added my own for greater certainty. I gave you my vote. - Moe, Mar 22, 2010

Thanks, Gekkosan. - alba3, Mar 22, 2010

Thanks Moe. It is good to have the "official" pronouncement and explanation. I just know a lot of these rules by rote. :-) - Gekkosan, Mar 23, 2010

Answer 3

This is from the RAE:

1. Acentuación de letras mayúsculas

Las letras mayúsculas, tanto si se trata de iniciales como si se integran en una palabra escrita enteramente en mayúsculas, deben llevar tilde si así les corresponde según las reglas de acentuación: Ángel, PROHIBIDO PISAR EL CÉSPED. No se acentúan, sin embargo, las mayúsculas que forman parte de las siglas (? sigla, 5b).

Answer 4

When I was in school, they told us to never put accents on capital letters. That was the rule. At least in Mexico is not common to see this. Cuando yo estaba en la escuela, nos dijeron que las letras mayúsculas no llevan acento/tilde. En México no es común ver mayúsculas con acento.

Answer 5

I have goor grammar and good spanish. Only when I came to america I've noticed that people put accent in capital letters. Never before. After the year 1990 I've noticed that people continue to write more and more and adding accent to capital letters.

America, accentS, on/over, - nizhoni1, Jun 10, 2010

Good in Spanish. Apparently, just not that good in English. - cmena, Mar 3, 2014

Answer 6

Usually capital letters need accents too but with él (when it is capitalized) it is acceptable not to accent it.

I read that way back when in school too. I thought it had changed. - 0074b507, Mar 23, 2010

Answer 7

Ahora según la RAE se pone tilde siempre en todas las mayúsculas menos las siglas, como comenta Heidita , pero solo desde hace unos pocos años. Antes no se había pronunciado al respecto y no se consideraba falta no ponerlo.

Answer 8

And since it is very unlikely that you will get shot for using Á ,É, Í, Ó o Ú and since you will have extremely few oportunites to use them, I offer this simple solution.

On a 3x5 card that you keep near your computer with all of the other cool "Tidbits" that you use so seldom you needn't memorize them ...

Holding down the ALT key and typing 0193 on the numeric keypad will give you Á.

ALT 144 - É,

ALT 0205 - Í

ALT 0211, 0218 for Ó, Ú

The beauty of this is that you can also use them where there is no Answer Text Box letters to pick from. (Translate, comments, etc.)

I know there are many ways to get these but why download a program when you need just one letter ... it's not like you are going to use these every day (were that the case, I would expect you would already have a Spanish keyboard program)

No need to go to all that problem. When I'm typing in Spanish I use the Spanish keyboard, that way I don't have to remember anything :~) - Jack-OBrien, Jul 6, 2010

kind of like Á É Í Ó and Ú - Jack-OBrien, Jul 6, 2010

But Jack, you are special. Most of us don't have the Spanish keyboard. - LateToDinner, Jul 6, 2010

Answer 9

Una alternativa del Alt 144 corresponde a los demas; es, É = Alt 0201. Con estos a mano cualquiera computadora le va a servir sin tener que averiguar la programación de ella. Ademas muchos de los text box no provean ayuda extra textual para añadirlos.