Understanding Spanish Accentuation and Grammar Rules

Spanish Accentuation and Grammar

Accentuation Diacritics:

• Personal Pronouns: it, me, you
• Possessives: my, your
• Other: tea (drink), of (verb give), of (preposition), yes, if, know, plus, but, still, even, just, solo (adjective)
• Interrogatives/Exclamatories: what, who, when, where, how, why
• Relatives/Comparatives: that, who, what, which, when, where, how, like
• Other: why (noun), because, this, that

Special Cases of Accentuation:

• Compound words are accentuated as if they were a single word.
• Two adjectives joined by a hyphen retain their accent.
• Adverbs ending in -mente retain the accent of the original adjective.
• Verbal forms with enclitic pronouns follow the standard accentuation rules.
• Capital letters are accentuated if needed.
• Latin words follow standard accentuation rules.
• Foreign words follow general accentuation rules.

Complements

C. Atributivo

Only with verbs be and appear to be. Can be replaced by it.

C. Directo

The one who performs the action. Can be replaced by it or him.

C. Indirecto

The one who receives the damage or benefit. Uses prepositions to or for. Can be replaced by him or them.

C. Regimen Verbal

Requires a preposition. The sentence is incomplete if removed.

Predicative Complement

Usually an adjective. It complements the verb and the subject, agreeing in gender and number. It can also complement the verb, in which case the direct object will be a noun phrase.

Supplement Agent

Introduced by the preposition by. Only appears in passive sentences.

Circumstantial Supplement

Can be an adverb, noun phrase, or prepositional phrase. Can be replaced by an adverb without making the sentence incomplete.