ayuda por favor!
could someone please give me a brief explanation of the tilde in spanish words,how to pronounce words with tilde? I know about nino.senorita,pinata..I know how to read these words with tilde,but other words like Jose,medicos, el,.these ones I don't know gracias
2 Answers
While it is true that the symbol on top of the ñ is a tilde, it is not just a sound modifier, but part of the letter Ñ. The letter W was created by combining two V, but we you don't say that Well is spelled as V, V, E, L L. The words "Pena" and "Peña" do not only sound different, but they are completely different words with different meanings, because they are written with different letters.
Having said that, the sound for the letter Ñ (letra eñe) does not exist in English, so you have to hear a native pronounce it for you. Do not believe anyone who tells you that it sounds like NY in canyon in English, because it is not true.
The (acute) accent, that símbol (´) on top of the vowels, is used to tell you where the stress of the word is. In "I refuse", the stress is on the last syllable, while in "the refuse" is on the first. In Spanish we indicate this by writing "réfius" and "refiús" (these words are not Spanish, but just to make a point).
The acute accent marks on vowels, e.g., é and á, do not change their pronunciation. They indicate, instead, where emphasis should be placed (and sometimes to distinguish two words that would otherwise be spelled the same, such as tu and tú).
The diacritical mark sometimes placed over a “u” does change the pronunciation. For example, in pingüino, the pronunciation would be PIN-GE-NO, without the dieresis. With it, the pronunciation is PIN-GWI-NO.
