how do you use accent marks?

Question

someone please help ive been searching for the answer and they all say different things just started spanish some being simple will be the best gracias

Please use proper capitalization and punctuation. - rac1, Aug 14, 2013

Answer 1

OK. Now that we understand your question better, the accent is part of the spelling and like most spelling there is some memorization involved. However, there are rules that generally tell us what to do. Spanish words that end n, s or a vowel are usually stressed on the next to last syllable, for example peLOta, ball. If words that end in n, s or a vowel are stressed on the last syllable, an accent on that syllable required as in la televisión. Words that do not end in n, s or a vowel are usually stressed on the last syllable as in español. If a word that does not end in n, s or a vowel is stressed on the next to last syllable, an accent is required as in béisbol, baseball. If you are a beginner in Spanish, that is plenty for now. Later you will learn about attaching pronouns to infinitives which often requires accents to preserve the original pronunciation of the verb.

Your explanation is very detailed and useful, thank you. - Spanishfuture, Aug 14, 2013

Answer 2

Same as kirk but some more added. Some have a different ALT code: I do believe this a complete one. I try to have it handy.

129 ü

130 é

144 É

154 Ü

155 ¢

156 £

160 á

161 í

162 ó

163 ú

164 ñ

165 Ñ

166 ª

167 º

168 ¿

171 ½

172 ¼

173 ¡

174 «

175 »

0193 Á

0205 Í

0211 Ó

0218 Ú

I mean how to use them writing not on computer sorry i did not word it correctly. - noremac, Aug 14, 2013

Answer 3

You question is not completely clear. This answer is based on the assumption that you are asking how to type accent marks. If you are asking why are these marks are used, it is to indicate which syllable is stressed particularly when the normal rule for stress is not followed. They are also are used to distinguish between words that are spelled alike such as cómo - how and como - I eat.

The simple way to type accents is to use the ascii codes as follows:

Hold down the alt key and type the following numbers on the numeric keypad not the row of numbers at the top of your keyboard above qwertuiop. Numlock must be on when you do this.

á alt-160

é alt-130

í alt-161

ñ alt-164

ó alt-162

ú alt-163

Á alt-0193

É alt-0201

Í alt-0205

Ñ alt-0209

Ó alt-0211

Ú alt-0218

¿ alt-168

¡ alt-173

You profile does not include information on your location or native language but, assuming you are in a western country such as the US and are using a pc keyboard like that used in the US, the more efficient way to do this is to use the English International keyboard. With this keyboard, you simply hit the apostrophe key and then the letter that you want accented. When you actually want an apostrophe, you hit that key and then space. This soon becomes very fast and natural.

Here is a Microsoft link that explains this keyboard and includes a wizard to set that up for you.

Accents on a PC

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306560

If you are using a Mac, here is an explanation about typing these accents:

Accents on a Mac

http://spanish.about.com/od/writtenspanish/a/diacritical_mac.htm