Diacritical Accents in Spanish

In Spanish, diacritical accents (el acento diacrítico or tilde diacrítica) are written accent marks placed on specific monosyllabic words to distinguish them from other words that are spelled the same but have different grammatical functions or meanings. Generally, Spanish monosyllables do not carry accent marks, but diacritical accents serve as exceptions to this rule to prevent confusion in written text. For example, 'él' (he, subject pronoun) carries an accent, whereas 'el' (the, definite article) does not.

Other common pairs include 'tú' (you, subject pronoun) vs 'tu' (your, possessive adjective), 'mí' (me, prepositional pronoun) vs 'mi' (my, possessive adjective), and 'sí' (yes/itself) vs 'si' (if). Diacritical accents are also used on question words like 'qué', 'quién', 'dónde', and 'cómo' when they are used in questions or exclamations, to distinguish them from relative pronouns. Knowing these spelling rules is essential for writing Spanish correctly and avoiding grammatical mistakes.