SPELLING: MORE ABOUT ACCENTUATION AND DIERESIS

1.  Diacritic accentuation refers to word pairs that are distinguished just for the nature of their stressed vowels, i.e., whether it is either open or closed. Some of these pairs

bé, béns	well; richness	be, bens	lamb, letter ‘b’
déu	god	deu, deus	ten; (s)he must/owes
dóna, dónes	he gives, you give	dona, dones	woman
és	you are	es	himself, herself, itself
fóra	he were	fora	out, outside
mà	hand	ma	my (poss sg. fem.)
més	more	mes	month; my (plural)
món	world	mon	my (poss. sg. masc.)
nét, néta	grandson/daughter	net, neta	clean
ós, óssos	bear	os, ossos	bone
pèl, pèls	hair	pel, pels	for the, by the
què	what? which (relative)	que	that (conjunction, relative)
sé	I know	se	himself, herself, itself
sí	yes	si	if, whether
sóc	I am	soc	stump; log; souk
són	they are	son	sleeping; possessive
té	he has	te	tea; letter ‘t’, you (clitic)
ús	use, usage	us	you (clitic)
véns, vénen	you come	vens, venen	you sell
vós	you (formal)	vos	you (clitic)

2. Furthermore, dieresis (¨) is combined with accentuation. Dieresis is placed on <ï> and <ü> and mainly marks two vowels not forming a diphthong:

ensaïmada	typical sweet from Mallorca
llaüt	lute
agraït	thankful; thanked
continuï	that it continues (subjunctive)
obeïes	you obeyed (imperfect tense)

  

3. When a cluster of two vowels cannot be accented, dieresis is used. Observe the following example applied to veí (= neighbour):

– with accent: veí

– with dieresis: veïna, veïns, veïnes.

SPELLING: ACCENTUATION RULES

1. Catalan accentuation rules follow a logical pattern based on two types of accents, which are used in this way:

à	è		ò
	é	i	ó	ú

 The open accent (`) reflects open vowels, while the closed accent (´) reflects closed vowels. Since /a/ is always open by its nature, it is just accented as <à>; instead, /i/ and /u/ are always close, therefore they are just accented as <í> and <ú>. As for /E/ and /O/, their accentuation may vary, though; it will depend on their either open or closed pronunciation (see Vowels).

2. The three basic rules of accentuation are:

• If the stress falls on the penultimate syllable in all words ending in –a, –e, –i, –o, –u, –as, –es, –is, –os, –us, –en, –in, except where <i> or <u> are part of a diphthong.

viatge	trip, journey
casa	house
cases	houses
operari	worker
mossos	children, youngsters
tribu	tribe
tribus	tribes
canti	(that) (s)he sings (subjunctive)
cantis	(that) you sings (subjunctive)
cantin	(that) they sings (subjunctive)
maco	nice (masculine)
sabeu	you (pl.) know
partiu	you (pl.) leave
dinou	nineteen
Rigau	<family name>

  

• If he stress falls on the last syllable in all words with a different ending than those mentioned in the first rule.

cansat	tired
treballar	to work
canal	channel
esport	sport
malalt	ill
esforç	effort
feliç	happy
sabem	we know
important	important
tremend	amazing

   

• If the words with stress not complying to the above rules, bear a written accent.

parlà	(s)he spoke
cantés	(that) I sang
cafè(s)	coffee(s); café(s)
camí	path, way
camió	truck
debò (de ~)	really, actually
comú	common
exàmens	exams
comprèn	(s)he understands
còpia	copy
congrés	congress, conference
ràpid	fast (masc.)
ràpida	fast (fem.)
conèixer	to know
cràter	crater
plàtan	banana

3. As a matter of fact, all words having the stress on the antepenultimate syllable are accented.

comèdia	comedy
democràcia	democracy
política	politics