When do you know when to put accent marks?

Question

como esta

Please use proper capitalization and punctuation on this site. It will help those who are trying to learn English. It will help the rest of us to understand what you are trying to say. Thank you. - Nicole-B, Oct 7, 2009

I also changed the category from "General Discussion" to "Vocabulary Grammar", which is a better category for your question. - Nicole-B, Oct 7, 2009

Answer 1

For interrogatives (Qué, cómo, por qué, cuál, dónde, cuánto, cuándo etc) I used to remind myself that the accent is placed over the first pronounced vowel that is not a u (I believe that this holds true for all of them except quién).

Remember that if these words are not used to form questions (or exclamations) then they will not usually be accented.

For the forms of the verb estar, you will just have to memorize when it is appropriate to place them.

Answer 2

I am convinced that there are only three people in the world who know where the accents go. One is Paralee, one is Heidita, the other has yet to be announced, but I'm pretty sure he's on this site.

lol...you gotta love that guy! - ChamacoMalo, Oct 7, 2009

I'll introduce you. His name is Tilde Smith. - Nicole-B, Oct 7, 2009

Now that's funny. - Seitheach, Oct 7, 2009

;))) lol - Issabela, Oct 7, 2009

Me? - Zoltán, Oct 7, 2009

Answer 3

esta

ésta

está

mean 3 different things. You have to learn where the accents are when you learn the words.

Answer 4

Is there a reference section on this? Nevermind. I found it. Accents

Where you trying to make that a hyperlink? - Izanoni1, Oct 7, 2009

No, but thanks. I guess I should have. - Seitheach, Oct 7, 2009

Answer 5

I found the following site useful. (San Diego State University) I am sure they are many others perhaps much better, but this was good enough for me.

Nice link Zoltán - Izanoni1, Oct 7, 2009

Sorry, I was posting this while the philmikki/Izanonil answer appeared. - Zoltán, Oct 7, 2009

I'll take all the help I can get. - Seitheach, Oct 7, 2009

Answer 6

The accent goes over the last "o" and the last "a", I think. I'm horrible at accents...but I am exceedingly excellent in expressing myself in spoken spanish, if I do say so myself! The best thing about this site is that there are lot of people far more educated than myself that will tell you the proper way to do it.