Punctuation and Accents

Punctuation

The principal difference between punctuation in Spanish and English is the use of question marks and exclamation marks at the beginning of sentences as well as at the end:

• ¿Cómo está? -- How are you?
  ¡Qué pena! -- What a shame!

In English, we use a form of do or change the word order to form a question:

• You like chocolate.  Do you like chocolate?
  
  You have got a pen.  Have you got a pen?

Since Spanish word order is flexible, and there is no equivalent of do in questions, the question marks and exclamation marks at the beginning of sentences serve as a "warning" that what follows is either a question or an exclamation:

• Hablas español. -- You speak Spanish.
  ¿Hablas español? -- Do you speak Spanish?

Accents

Accents have two purposes in Spanish:

1. To mark the stressed syllable of a word when the word does not follow the usual stress pattern:

• bombón (without the accent, the stress would fall on bom)

2. To distinguish between two otherwise identical words:

• tú -- you
  tu -- yours
  
  él -- he
  el -- the

Accents are very important when conjugating verbs:

• hablo -- I speak
  habló -- he spoke
  
  respiro -- I breathe
  respiró -- he breathed

Because an accent can change the meaning and/or pronunciation of a word, paying special attention to whether or not a word is written with one is essential to understanding its meaning:

• esta -- this (feminine singular) -- Esta es mi casa -- This is my house
  está -- he/she is -- Está bien -- He/she is well