Emphatic Accent

Content

• Examples of emphatic accents

The emphatic accent is a subtype within the set of diacritical marks. A diacritical mark is known as one that is used to distinguish different meanings between words that are written the same and that are pronounced the same or almost the same, with just a differential nuance in tone.

For example: how, how much, who.

This often happens with monosyllabic words with a single vowel, where logically the emphasis will be on that single vowel.

There are not many cases of diacritical tilde and, within these, there is a subgroup that distinguishes:

• Adverbs or relative pronouns. They do not have an accent. For example: I told him to come quickly.
• Interrogative or exclamatory adverbs or pronouns. The latter group uses the emphatic accent to distinguish themselves from the former. For example: I asked him what was going on.

The emphatic accent does not change the meaning of the words, but its enunciative intention and, therefore, its function in the sentence.

The emphatic accent is always an exception to the general accent regulations, since they are in serious words or flat ending in vowel.

The emphatic accent category is rather out of use. Before it was used to differentiate between normative accent, diacritical accent and emphatic accent.

• The normative accent. It was the one that responded to fixed rules established by convention. For example: song. 
• The diacritical accent. It was the one that allowed to differentiate meanings of identical words. For example: you and you.
• The emphatic accent. It was the one that tried to mark the expressive force of certain words used with a sense of questioning or exclamation. For example: how and how.

The last two are now considered one: diacritical accent.

Examples of emphatic accents

Below are sentences with examples of accents or accents:

1. ¡Who what believe you are!
2. I dont know who is the owner of that company.
3. ¿How much I owe you, Don Jorge?
4. Don't tell me why how much time you go.
5. ¿What would you like me to give you
6. let me know what you want to eat.
7. ¿Which pants suit me better, blue or gray?
8. They are all pretty, I don't know with which stay.
9. ¡How little boy he saw me then!
10. Does not matter how difficult is the exam, I will pass it.
11. But where will I have put it?
12. I never remember where I keep important documents.
13. ¡How that you have lost it!
14. Did not want to know how I got it.
15. ¿Who Are they the ones in the back row?
16. I want them to write me on a list Who they were the culprits.
17. ¿How many pages does the book have?
18. I got the information from how many people died in the accident.
19. Until when you will stay?
20. Please let me know when it's the next team meeting.
21. ¿Which are your intentions true? Who knows!
22. I want you to tell me which are your intentions with my daughter.

Follow with:

• Orthographic accent
• Prosodic accent
• Bass, sharp and esdrújulas words