that guy [TCTI v 8]

Okay good. I got it from google translator *shame on me* ;_;

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Went said:

Well, the accent in "sólo" had always been entirely optional, and it was only allowed when "solo" had the meaning of "only"; when it meant "alone", it always had to be written without the accent. So they ended up realizing that the word is always right without any accents (solo), and keeping that optional one was completely pointless. And so, the Royal Academy ruled that the word should never have any accents anymore from then on. That was last September or so.

So "sólo quiero soñar" is wrong, it should be "solo quiero soñar".

What annoys me the most is that some professional writers still use the wrong word just because they are too lazy to follow the new rules. Pfft.

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LOL, really? News to me. >.> I think I recall only writing "solo" with the accent, but I can't say for sure as I haven't had to use that word in Spanish writing for a while. XD Hmm...so if "solo" is supposed to mean "only" and "alone", how are you supposed to distinguish the meaning? I'm guessing one would probably have to use sentence context (and the placement of the word "solo"?) to deduce the meaning...but if you're going to abolish the "sólo" form and have "solo" mean "only" and "alone", shouldn't you do the same consolidation thing with sí (yes) and si (if), which are essentially pronounced the same?

Bah, accents! Troublesome pests on Spanish exams, they are. :cer_laugh: My textbook even has a page detailing some rules concerning them, but they seem like an inconvenience...IIRC, they all have something to do with vowel/consonant/syllable placement (i.e., last, next-to-last, etc.) and the letters "n" and "s".

EDIT: How I loathe you, Internet Explorer. You can't even show all of the available fonts in the drop-down box for me to select? :cer_no:

Went said:

Well, the accent in "sólo" had always been entirely optional, and it was only allowed when "solo" had the meaning of "only"; when it meant "alone", it always had to be written without the accent. So they ended up realizing that the word is always right without any accents (solo), and keeping that optional one was completely pointless. And so, the Royal Academy ruled that the word should never have any accents anymore from then on. That was last September or so.

So "sólo quiero soñar" is wrong, it should be "solo quiero soñar".

What annoys me the most is that some professional writers still use the wrong word just because they are too lazy to follow the new rules. Pfft.

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BinaryPeaches said:

210484.

There are plenty of words with double meanings in well.. most if not all languages, so 'solo' is simply one of them in Spanish. It all depends on what comes after it. I never really had a problem distinguishing between the two, and when it comes to understand Spanish, I understand it most when it's people talking in Spanish.

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Yeah, you're right about the double-meaning thing pervading more languages than just Spanish. Regarding sentence context, I'm somewhat OK with analyzing it in Spanish, but other times it seems a bit confusing for me. With spoken Spanish, it's even worse for me. XD

Went said:

Sí and si not only have different meanings but different pronounciations! Monosyllabic words never have accents by default so it's only given to words with that particularity. In "creo que sí", you put all the mphasis on the sí, but in "creo que si vienes", you put the emphasis on vienes, and the si is read as a part of that word, as if it was "sivienes". That's why there is a difference.
Not to mention that the accentuated form of solo had been entirely optional all the time, you still could have used the regular form before, so it's not such a tremendous change as the other one would be.

And distingushing "solo/alone" from "solo/only" is as hard as telling "court/tribunal" apart from "court/place where you play sports" XD

And accents are written as it follows:

- Words whose emphasis falls in the last syllabe (agudas) which end in vowel, n or s: ca-mión, des-pués, con-té, but cal-za-dor.
- Words whose emphasis falls in the one-to-lasy syllabe (llanas) which are the exact opposite to the previous category (not ending in vowel, n nor s): fút-bol, but ca-ra.
- Words whose emphasis falls in the two-to-last syllabe or previous, always: á-ci-do, sim-pá-ti-ca-men-te.

Of course, those are the main rules, there are a bunch of exceptions XD

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I never noticed it before, but I can kind of see where you're coming from about the "word emphasis" in certain sentences. I don't really pay attention to it when I'm speaking Spanish; I always think I'm saying "si" the same way regardless of the words making up the sentence. Seems like there is a slight difference, kind of how English sentences can sound different depending on if they are interrogative (questions) or declarative (plain statements).

LOL, I guess so. I'll see if I have to read a Spanish sentence containing "solo" sometime to see if I can easily discern solo's meaning.

Ah-ha; yeah, those are the rules that a page in my textbook covers - thanks for posting. I think I confuse the first two the most. I'm going to make an attempt to commit them to memory sometime in the near future so my profesora doesn't dock any points from my assignment scores because of accent screw-ups (although, in my experience, lost points resulting specifically from accents aren't too severe most of the time). :cer_laugh:

VERY true about the innumerable exceptions present in the Spanish language; LOL. I keep on thinking that English would be easier to learn by a foreign speaker, but the more I work with English, the more I see that it has a lot of equally worthy WTF-worthy exceptions as well. XD (i.e., "i before e except after c" is negated by the word sufficient.)

Yikes...upon briefly researching, I never knew that there were so many exceptions to that 'rule of thumb' - even the word science, which I commonly encounter, is an exception. @_@

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I'm your only friend
I'm not your only friend
But I'm a little glowing friend
But really I'm not actually your friend
But I am

WHAT DO THESE LYRICS MEAN?

It means..... It means you have a friend/enemy fairy on your hands!

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Navi from Ocarina of Time?

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Oh. I've never played that game. :/ Sorry XD

Yes, yes, I know.... What platform is it for? If I can play it, I'll seriously go buy it right now. Well, not now but maybe later XD

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STOP GETTING THE NUMBER WRONG GUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUYS.