When I use question words in a declaratory sentence, do I accent them?

Question

Please help, this is really confusing me!

When I use question words (who, what, when, etc) in a declaratory, non-question sentence, do I still accent the word?

For example, if I said, "Cuándo vas a la escuela?" I accent it.

But do I accent "Cuándo" when I say, "Cuándo yo como una hamburguesa, yo veo una película." (Meant to say- When I eat a hamburger, I watch a movie.)

This is a good question. Will you tell us more about yourself (language levels, for example) in your profile? - Jubilado, Sep 4, 2014

Answer 1

If it is being used in a question sense, it gets an accent, whether in a question or not.

If is not, it doesn’t. It takes some practice to get it.

No sé dónde vive Juan. I don’t know where Juan lives. Still a question sense, even though there is no question.

Donde Juan vive, hay muchos árboles. Where Juan lives, there are many trees. No question sense at all.

In your example, there is no question sense, so no accent on "cuando".

Okay edit to add a link I found:

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

The proper grammar term is indirect question.

I forgot to mention that accents are also used in exclamations:

¡Qué asco!- How disgusting. Not a question- but it takes an accent.

Excellent answer and link. It is interesting to think that without writing this means nothing. Some people claim grammar is not needed, and they are right if the usage remains illiterate. - Jubilado, Sep 4, 2014

:) - ian-hill, Sep 5, 2014