Why does "déjame" have an accent and deja doesn't? Is it the same for all verbs?

Question

Una pregunta Please forgive my ignorance o grammatical terms. I'll explain as well as I can.

you conjugate a verb to present indicative

eg: dejar - dejo, deja etc.

Then you conjugate it to th Imperative I think it is called

eg: dejar - Déjame

and you add an accent to the letter E.

Is there a rule that you could point out where I could learn this? I often wonder if it is just a few verbs that it works with.

Thank you

Answer 1

It's déjame and it is to keep the accent on the same syllable when the atonic pronouns are added to the end of the word. Deja has the accent on the first syllable and so does déjame.

Here are some examples using prestar:
presta
préstame
préstamelo
prestar
prestarme
prestármelo
prestando
prestándome
prestándomelo

But is this the same for all verbs? - dewclaw, Nov 16, 2010

Yes. When atonic syllables are added to the end of an afirmative command, infinitive, or gerund, they do not move the accented syllable, so if the normal rules would result in a change, an accent is added to keep it on the same syllable. - lorenzo9, Nov 16, 2010

Since you said that you are not that familiar with grammatical terms...atonic syllables are non-accented syllables ...the pronoun me for example. The pronoun mí is a tonic pronoun since it is accented. - 0074b507, Nov 16, 2010

He's more familiar than I am with grammatical terms....I had no idea what an 'atonic syllable' was. :~) - Jack-OBrien, Nov 16, 2010