Why are there squiggly lines over the vowels and 'N's?
Why do the 'N's 'O's 'I's 'E's and 'U's have squiggly lines or dashes over them?
ñ ü ú ó í é ????
3 Answers
They are accents (called diacritics) that help to make clear the meaning and proper pronunciation of a word.
The Spanish "n"sounds pretty much like the English "n", but "ñ" sounds like "ny".
The accents above the vowels typically indicate which syllable of a word should be emphasized. They are also often used in questions on words that are not accented in statements. For instance, "que" often means "that", but "qué" often means "what".
Corrections are appreciated.
Hello nikidoodle...(Love that name)! The Spanish language follows a 'fairly' rigid pattern of stress. Usually, where words ending in vowels and 's', the stress most often falls on the penultimate syllable. Where words end in all other consonants, the stress more often falls on the last syllable. When the two rules above are broken, the acute accent mark is there to make the pronunciation correct. A good example is: Límite (boundry). Limite (he/she limits). Limité ( I limited). Without the accent marks, all three words, which are spelt the same, wouldn't make any sense when written down. Ciscocaja has the tilde over the n...'ñ' very well explained. I hope that this explanation hasn't made your brain go '*@~##**~??@!!!' Larntm put it just as well in only one line!...Jool.
It shows where the word should be stressed because they don't follow the normal rules.
