a,e,i,o,u accents

Question

I m learning spanish. But the only thing i'm confused about is that,"Why we use a,e,i,o,u with accents like.....

                            á,é,í,ó,ú

instead of using real vowels..? I mean there must b a reason.....

Welcome to our rinconcillo! We prefer to use proper English (& Spanish!) here, for the benefit of the entire forum... so, Spanish, I'm, be... for starters! Thanks... :) - cristalino, Jan 2, 2012

Answer 1

Accents are critical in Spanish.

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For example, an accent can completely change the meaning of a word.

Examples:

El/él (the/he)

Esta/está (this/third person singular in the present indicative of the verb estar)

Tú/tu (Subject pronoun you/possessive pronoun you)

Qué/que (What?/that)

In addition, they distinguish different verb forms.

For example, "caminar"

In the present tense, "I walk" would be camino.

In the preterit tense, "he/she/you formal walked" would caminó.

This is common for all regular -ar verbs...the accent is key in order to know whether we are using the present or the preterit tense.

Without that accent, we would have no idea which verb form was used and who the real subject was.

Finally, they tell you how to pronounce a word.

They show you where to stress a word, which is key in order to have successful Spanish conversation.

Well done, amiga:) - migelis, Jan 2, 2012

Excellent answer. - gringojrf, Jan 2, 2012

Thanks, los dos! - SonrisaDelSol, Jan 2, 2012