Reír in the preterite? Rió or Rio?
Hi guys,
I'm currently having a small problem whether or not "Reír" in the preterite tú form has an accent on the "o."
I checked multiple sources on the internet, including this very website. http://www.spanishdict.com/conjugate/re%C3%ADr
The reason why I suspect there is an accent is because my teacher actually told my class when I asked. She said the accent on "Reír" tú preterite form is an on-going controversy, and that for simplicity's sake and for our class, I should just remember it as "rió," instead of "rio."
Is there a correct conjugation? Is the website wrong (highly doubt)? OR is my teacher wrong?
3 Answers
La Real Academia Española passes judgements from time to time on these things. Mostly for the third person singular preterite tense (regular verbs) you need an ó, so it cannot be confused with other parts of the verb . Eg hablo (I speak, with accent on the first vowel) and habló (he or she spoke, where the accent is on the o). In the case of rio no accent is really needed as i is a weak vowel and the accent is on the o. Note how the pronunciation is different for río, river. Another way of looking at it is that the accent on rió is superfluous and achieves nothing, unlike habló etc so not to give rio an accent is the best option.
Remember that in Spanish every tilde is placed in a specific place for a reason. Even though río (present tense) and río (river) sound and are written the same way, they are both right, but you will need to judge which one are you reffering to by context. This lso happens in English in many cases! I.E lie (untruth) and lie (lie down), also tear (in the eye) tear (rip)
Present:
- Yo: río
- Tú: ríes
- Él: ríe
- Nos: reímos
- Vos: reís
- Ellos: ríen
- Preterit
- Yo: reí
- Tú: reíste
- Él: rió
- Nos: reimos
- Future
- Yo: reiré
- Tú: reirás
- Él: reirá
- Nos: reiremos
- Vos: reiréis
- Ellos: reirán
