¿Vi o ví? y ¿Por qué?

Question

He saw. Preterite. Does it have the accent or not? I've seen vi written with and without. I think it would be Ví because that is the way on understand the first person singular conjugation. (I've always wanted to write that.... first person singular ).

So which is it? Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

It's vi without the accent. But it means "I saw" not "he saw". It's treated as an irregular verb in the preterite, therefore has no accents in the preterite.

Yes, I not he saw. I forgot that ver is an irregular verb. That was the missing key. Thank you. - aprender100, Jul 9, 2010

Ha. Ver wasn't on my list of irregular verbs. Now that I know what to look for I was able to Google it! - aprender100, Jul 9, 2010

Ha. I went over the lesson and know that I know what to look for.... I found it. - aprender100, Jul 12, 2010

Answer 2

I don't think it needs the accent. There's no where else for the stress to fall, so no conflicting standard rules to override. And there's NO other word (that I know of) that it can be confused with.

And there is N O other word that it can be confused with (diacritical accent) - 0074b507, Jul 9, 2010

Great explanation. - 0074b507, Jul 9, 2010

ah, thanks for the catch! - felix23, Jul 9, 2010

Answer 3

Qfreed and felix, I have read that the accent is used to distinguish between what the interrogative "¿Qué" and what "Que" the relative pronoun.

I am thinking that Spanish is more exact than English. I learned that Spain has the Real Academia Española (REA), a government body that regulates the usage of the language. I can imagine that there is a group of people with a list of meanings and spellings deciding how things should be said/written.

Being a native English speaker I can't imagine anything like that. On the other hand I might be more aware of this because I'm trying to understand an unfamiliar language to me.