To tilde or not to tilde

Question

I was working on a few sentences today and needed to know whether or not to use a tilde.

The words I was working with were:

Éste and este

Ése and eso

Aquél and aquello

I Had understood that with éste, ése and aquél that the tilde was used without the noun and no tilde was used with the noun.

Example:

Este libro es pesado, no tilde.

Éste no lo es. with tilde.

Now I go off to RAE, and find that there is no longer a requirement for the tilde in these cases.

I go to a writers site and they say, that in spite of RAE they will continue to use the tilde for emphasis in their work.

Question:

Is there a really a right or wrong here?

Answer 1

When "este" means "this", there is no NEED for a tilde anywhere. The natural stress is on the first "e". You can put the tilde there if you want to, but it's redundant.

Este, esta, ese, and esa (and all their plural forms) can both be demonstrative pronouns or demonstrative adjectives, and the reason for putting the tilde was to distinguish those used as pronouns from those used as adjectives (the pronouns are the ones that carry the tilde). The DRAE now says that pronouns don't need to have tildes to differentiate.

The rule has nothing to do with where the stress falls, since the stress on either one falls on the first syllable anyway.

Thanks for clearing this up for us! :) - GuitarWarrior, May 31, 2011

Answer 2

When "este" means "this", there is no NEED for a tilde anywhere. As far as pronouncing, the natural stress is on the first "e".

When "este" means "it is (the subjunctive of estar)", then we put an accent on the second "e", because the stress is not natural there, and we need to make a distinction.

"Aquél" means "those". It could have an accent on the "e", but we don't pronounce it like "áquel", so the "a" accent should not be used. "Aquel" and "Aquellos" don't need accent marks because the natural stress already sounds like the following: "Aquél, Aquéllos"

Answer 3

I learned that "tilde" is the little squiggly line over the n to form the ñ. And that "acento" is the mark over a vowel that tells you to stress that syllable. But I know that kids in Latin America use the word "tilde" and "acento" interchangeably.

When you use demonstrative pronouns as adjectives to modify nouns, eg., ese carro, este carro, esa silla, esta silla, aquel hombre, aquella mujer, then they are not accented.

When they stand alone (without being followed by a noun), then they are accented. Prefiero éste, prefiero ése, prefiero ésta, prefiero aquél, but prefiero aquella with no accent. Prefiero aquella casa but prefiero aquél (speaking of a car).

The Real Academia in Spain (composed of 2 representatives of each Spanish speaking country) makes all rules on grammar, spelling, etc. They got rid of the letter "ll" and of the "ch" so you don't find those separately in new dictionaries. If they changed the rule on these accents, some people follow them and some don't. For example, I remember when dió (ella me dió un perro) was accented when I was in grade school, but now the accent is gone. I still write it with an accent but when I taught my students, I taught it as the Real Academia rules.

http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltConsulta?TIPO_BUS=3&LEMA=tilde It can be used for the squiggly mark over the ñ or generally to be an accent mark, umlaut, etc. - 0074b507, Jun 1, 2011

Answer 4

I Had understood that with éste**, éso** and áquel that the tilde was used without the noun and no tilde was used with the noun.

The pronoun eso never had a accent, even when accents were required, as there is no eso demonstrative adjective to differentiate it from. (There are no neuter demonstrative adjectives as they modify a specific noun).