There can be some variability with how accents/tildes are written in Spanish, but for our project, we need to be consistent in how we are transcribing. This is because we use a multi-layered system of coding that takes each transcribed word and categorizes it according to a number of linguistic parameters. For specific words, such as question words (e.g., qué-que, cómo-como, quién-quien, cuándo-cuando, dónde-donde, cuál-cual) and certain conjunctions, pronouns, and verbs (e.g., sí-si, él-el, tú-tu, sé-se, dé-de), these accents can have a significant impact on how the code interprets the word.
Word with accent | Part of speech | Word without accent | Part of speech |
|---|---|---|---|
qué | interrogative | que | conjunction/pronoun |
cómo | interrogative | como | conjunction/adverb |
quién | interrogative | quien | conjunction/pronoun |
cuándo | interrogative | cuando | conjunction/adverb |
dónde | interrogative | donde | conjunction/adverb |
cuál | interrogative | cual | adverb/pronoun |
sí | particle/adverb | si | conjunction |
él | pronoun | el | determiner/article |
sé | verb | se | pronoun |
In particular, we need to focus on the question/interrogative words (see the table above). The way we will be consistent with coding for this project is to only write them with an accent if they are part of a direct question or declarative statement. If they are part of an indirect question or an utterance that is embedded in another utterance, we will not write the words with an accent. See below for examples of these word pairs.
Direct question word: cómo
Example utterance: “¿Cómo se llama esto?”
Note: In this case, the underlined word is being used in a direct question and must have the accent.
Embedded question word: como
Example utterance: “no recuerdo como se llama esto”
Note: In this example, the underlined word is embedded in a subordinate clause following “no acuerdo”. As such, it does not have an accent.
Direct question word: qué
Example utterance: “¿Qué es esto?”
Note: In this case, the underlined word is being used in a direct question and must have the accent.
Embedded question word: que
Example utterance: “él dice que hay una barca allí”
Note: In this example, the underlined word is embedded in a subordinate clause following “él dice”. As such, it does not have an accent.
Direct question word: sí
Example utterance: “Sí, veo un coche”
Note: In this case, the underlined word is being used in an affirmative declaration and must have the accent.
Embedded question word: si
Example utterance: “Yo no sé si es una casa”
Note: In this example, the underlined word is embedded in a subordinate clause following “yo no sé”. As such, it does not have an accent.
Direct questions that should have the accent can also appear when participants are asking themselves questions, too. For example “¿Cómo se llama ….?”
Remember, other words with accents do not follow these rules!
Non-question words that require accents, such as él or yo sé, should always be written correctly according to Spanish spelling rules. That is, if él appears and is used as a pronoun, it should always have the accent. If sé is used as 1st person present tense of the verb saber, it should always have an accent, etc.