The verb rehusar

Question

Why does the verb "rehusar" have an accent on the u in some of its present tense conjugations? Is it an irregular -ar verb?

Answer 1

The R A E also has written accents. I assume that the reason is that 'h' is silent and, thus, (for example in 'rehúso') the 'e' and 'u' could be expected to form a diphthong and, since 'u' is a 'closed' vowel, one might expect the stress to be on the 'open' vowel ('e'). However, in point of fact, the stress is on the 'u'. hence, the need to write a tilde to reflect the actual pronunciation.

good thought, but then why is it not the same for rehusamos? - Goyo, Jun 13, 2010

Answer 2

According to this conjugation chart I do not see the accents you are describing. Can you explain further?

Darn my slow typing! : ) - mar959, Jun 13, 2010

That's weird...When I googled the conjugation of rehusar I got this 123teachme website (which spanishdict won't let me post) and it says it has a radical change u to u (con acento) when it has un acento tonico (whatever that means). - Sofia2010, Jun 13, 2010

Answer 3

I have alerted [e-mail] of this apparent error in the conjugator.

Thanks, Greg! - mar959, Jun 13, 2010

Answer 4

Well, I just checked the conjugator at WordReference, and they are showing tildes. I also found a blog post about it, so it does seem to need a tilde. Maybe someone with more grammar knowledge can explain why, but it seems to be related to the "u".

Reverso.net also has tildes. - Goyo, Jun 13, 2010

Answer 5

Welcome to the forum, Sofia.

According to the conjugation tool at the top of the page under more, it doesn't have any tildes except for vosotros, and it appears to be a regular -ar verb.

Have you seen it with tildes somewhere else?

That's weird...When I googled the conjugation of rehusar I got this 123teachme website (which spanishdict won't let me post) and it says it has a radical change u to u (con acento) when it has un acento tonico (whatever that means). - Sofia2010, Jun 13, 2010