"como"(no accent) as "how" in Rosetta Stone (if it´s not a mistake, please explain)

Question

I came across the following sentence in Rosetta Stone: "Este granjero español le muestra a su nieto como manejar un tractor."

Should they (Rosetta Stone) have written it "cómo" (with the accent) instead? For me (a beginner), the sentence screams that "como" means "how" here, but, every dictionary I´ve looked at says only "cómo" (with accent) means how. All these dictionaries say "como" accent means thinks like as, like, since, if, about, etc... (depending on part of speech).

Did Rosetta Stone make a mistake? If not, please explain.

This is definitely a mistake! Good for you to notice it being only a beginner! The accents on interrogatives can be a very tricky concept for native and non-native speakers a like - pescador1, May 3, 2013

Answer 1

These sentences from my dictionary might help illustrate the problem.

Me lo llevé como recuerdo.

I took it home as a souvenir.

Respondí como pude.

I answered as best I could.

Me dio como miedo.

It kind of frightened me.

Llamé como a diez personas.

I rang about ten people.

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¿Cómo se traduce esta palabra?

How do you translate this word?

No sabemos cómo pasó.

We don’t know how it happened.

Ya sabes cómo se enfada.

You know how angry he gets.

Answer 2

Actually, the tilde should be there.

Let me take Rodney's phrase and yours to explain it

Voy a mudarme a México como mi hermano, here como might be roughly translated as "as", redudndance and all, or in the way that, so no tilde required

"Este granjero español le muestra a su nieto cómo manejar un tractor." here cómo means some like in what way or manner, which requires the accent to be written, even if not in a question.

Answer 3

¿Cómo? when you are asking a 'how' question.

How do you drive this? -> use the accent kind of 'how'.

Como when it just means "how' in a sentence.

I don't know how to do it. -> use the non-accented como.

Answer 4

Rosetta Stone did make a mistake. Cómo in this case is an interrogative adverb, which should have an accent mark to differentiate it from como used as a conjunction or preposition. It does not matter where in the sentence it is placed.

¿Cómo no fuiste ayer a paseo? No sé cómo no lo mato. (Both cómos are interrogative adverbs)

The same goes for qué. No sé qué es lo que quieres. (The first qué is an interrogative adverb. The second que is a relative pronoun, which does not require an accent mark).

More details on how (pardon the pun) use como can be found here:

I'm glad that a few people noticed that this is actually a mistake on the part of Rosetta Stone! - pescador1, May 3, 2013

Answer 5

This was not a question,that is why she used "como" without the accent.

Answer 6

Este granjero español le muestra a su nieto como manejar un tractor.

In this case it's correct.

If you're asking a question, cómo must be written with an accent.

¿Cómo lo hago? - How do I do it?

If it's not a question, then no, you don't need an accent.

Voy a mudarme a México como mi hermano - I'm going to more to Mexico like my brother.

That's the general rule, there might be an exception, but nothing that I can think of at the moment.