View source for Acute accent

{{Short description|Diacritic, rising from left to right}}
{{more citations needed|date=August 2024}}
{{use mdy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2019}}
{{Contains special characters}}
{{Infobox diacritic|char=◌́
|name=Acute accent|unicode={{unichar|0301|combining acute accent|cwith=}} (diacritic) |see_also={{plainlist|
* {{unichar|00B4|acute accent}} (symbol) 
* {{unichar|02CA|modifier letter acute accent|nlink=modifier letter}} (symbol) 
}}}}
{{IPA notice}}

The '''acute accent''' ({{serif|{{char|´}}, {{char|◌́}}}}<!-- This sample uses {{serif}} because of rendering limitation in Android (as of v13 and v16), that its default sans font fails to render "dotted circle + diacritic", so visitors just get a meaningless (to most) [X] mark. Please retain at least until the issue is resolved because this is a very large proportion of visitors. -->) is a [[diacritic]] used in many modern written languages with [[alphabet]]s based on the [[Latin alphabet|Latin]], [[Cyrillic script|Cyrillic]], and [[Greek alphabet|Greek]] scripts. For the most commonly encountered uses of the accent in the Latin and Greek alphabets, [[precomposed character]]s are available.

==Uses==

===History===
An early precursor of the acute accent was the [[Apex (diacritic)|apex]], used in [[Latin language|Latin]] inscriptions to mark [[vowel length|long vowels]].

The acute accent was first used in French in 1530 by [[Geoffroy Tory]], the royal printer.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Nadeau |first1=Jean-Benoît |last2=Barlow |first2=Julie |title=The Story of French |date=2006 |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf Canada |isbn=978-0-676-97734-9 |pages=54–55 |quote=Tory promoted the 'accent aigu', as in é (first used in 1530)}}</ref>

===Pitch===

====Ancient Greek====
{{See also|Ancient Greek accent}}
The acute accent was first used in the [[Greek diacritics|polytonic orthography]] of [[Ancient Greek]], where it indicated a syllable with a high [[pitch accent|pitch]]. In Modern Greek, a [[stress (linguistics)|stress accent]] has replaced the pitch accent, and the acute marks the stressed syllable of a word. The Greek name of the accented syllable was and is {{wikt-lang|grc|ὀξεῖα}} (''oxeîa'', Modern Greek ''oxía'') "sharp" or "high", which was [[calque]]d (loan-translated) into [[Latin]] as {{wikt-lang|la|acutus|acūta}} "sharpened".

=== Stress ===
The acute accent marks the [[Stress (linguistics)|stressed vowel]] of a word in several languages:
*[[Asturian language|Asturian]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Asturian language, alphabet and pronunciation |url=https://www.omniglot.com/writing/asturian.htm |access-date=2025-01-02 |website=www.omniglot.com}}</ref>
*[[Belarusian language|Belarusian]] As follows: {{char|а́}}, {{char|е́}}, {{char|і́}}, {{char|о́}}, {{char|у́}}, {{char|ы́}}, {{char|э́}}, {{char|ю́}}, {{char|я́}}.
*[[Blackfoot language|Blackfoot]] uses acute accents to show the place of stress in a word, for example, ''soyópokistsi'' ({{Translation|"leaves"}}).
*[[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]]: stress, which is variable in Bulgarian, is not usually indicated in Bulgarian except in dictionaries and sometimes in homonyms that are distinguished only by stress. However, Bulgarian usually uses the [[grave accent#Stress|grave accent]] to mark the vowel in a stressed syllable, unlike Russian and Ukrainian, which use the acute accent.
*[[Catalan language|Catalan]] uses it in stressed vowels: ''é'', ''í'', ''ó'', ''ú''.
*[[Dutch language|Dutch]] uses it to mark stress (''vóórkomen'' – ''voorkómen'', meaning ''occur'' and ''prevent'' respectively) or a more [[Vowel#Height|closed]] vowel (''hé'' – ''hè'', equivalent to English ''hey'' and ''heh'') if it is not clear from context. Sometimes, it is simply used for disambiguation, as in ''één'' – ''een'', meaning "one" and "a(n)".
*[[Galician language|Galician]]
*[[Hopi language|Hopi]] has acute to mark a higher tone.
*[[Italian language|Italian]] The accent is used to indicate the stress in a word, or whether the vowel is "open" or "wide", or "closed", or "narrow". For example, ''pèsca'' {{IPA|it|ˈpɛska|}} "peach" ("open" or "wide" vowel, as in "pen") and ''pésca'' {{IPA|it|ˈpeska|}} "fishing" ("closed" or "narrow" vowel, as in "pain"). However, in some regional accents, these words can be pronouned the same way, or even with opposite values.
*[[Lakota language|Lakota]]. For example, ''kákhi'' "in that direction" but ''kakhí'' "take something to someone back there".
*[[Leonese language|Leonese]] uses it for marking stress or disambiguation.
*[[Modern Greek]] marks the stressed vowel of every polysyllabic word: {{char|ά}} (''á''), {{char|έ}} (''é''), {{char|ή}} (''í''), {{char|ί}} (''í''), {{char|ό}} (''ó''), {{char|ύ}} (''ý''), {{char|ώ}} (''ó'').
*[[Navajo language|Navajo]] where the acute marks a higher tone.
*[[Norwegian language|Norwegian]], [[Swedish language|Swedish]] and [[Danish language|Danish]] use the acute accent to indicate that a terminal syllable with the ''e'' is stressed and is often omitted if it does not change the meaning: ''armen'' (first syllable stressed) means "the arm" while ''armé(e)n'' means "the army"; ''ide'' (first syllable stressed) means "bear's den" in Swedish,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://svenska.se/tre/?sok=ide&pz=1 | title=Ide &#124; svenska.se }}</ref> while ''idé'' means "idea". Also stress-related are the different spellings of the words en/én and et/ét (the indefinite article and the word "one" in Danish and Norwegian). In Norwegian, however, the neuter word "one" is spelled ett. Then, the acute points out that there is one and only one of the object, which derives from the obsolete spelling(s) een and eet. Some loanwords, mainly from French, are also written with the acute accent, such as Norwegian and Swedish ''kafé'' and Danish ''café'' (also ''cafe'').
*[[Occitan language|Occitan]]
*[[Portuguese language|Portuguese]]: ''á'', ''é'', ''í'', ''ó'', ''ú''. It may also indicate height (see below).
*[[Russian language|Russian]]. Syllabic stress is irregular in Russian, and in reference and teaching materials (dictionaries and books for children or foreigners), stress is indicated by an acute accent above the stressed vowel, e.g. ''соба́ка'' ({{IPA|ru|sɐˈbakə}}, dog), as follows: {{char|а́}}, {{char|е́}}, {{char|и́}}, {{char|о́}}, {{char|у́}}, {{char|ы́}}, {{char|э́}}, {{char|ю́}}, {{char|я́}}. The acute accent can be used both in the Cyrillic and sometimes in the romanised text.
*[[Spanish language|Spanish]] marks stressed syllables in polysyllabic words that deviate from the [[Spanish orthography#Stress and accentuation|standardized stress patterns]]. In monosyllabic words, it is used to distinguish homophones, e.g.: ''el'' (the) and ''él'' (he).
*[[Tagalog language|Tagalog]] dictionaries including other [[Philippine languages]] use the acute accent to mark a vowel in a syllable with lexical stress ''(Diín)'' and avoid ambiguity. Combinations include á, í, ó, and ú while é is the rarest one. Since they are not part of the official alphabet, these vowels do not affect the order of each letter. Vowels with a stress at the first syllable are left unwritten and serves as the default word. For example, ''baka'' (cow) and ''baká'' (maybe).
*[[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]]: sometimes added to mark syllabic stress, when it can help to distinguish between [[homograph]]s: {{lang|uk|за́мок}} {{Gloss|castle}} vs. {{lang|uk|замо́к}} {{Gloss|lock}}, as follows: {{char|а́}}, {{char|е́}}, {{char|є́}}, {{char|и́}}, {{char|і́}}, {{char|о́}}, {{char|у́}}, {{char|ю́}}, {{char|я́}}. Commonly used in dictionaries, readers, and some children's books. 
*[[Welsh language|Welsh]]: word stress usually falls on the penultimate syllable, but one way of indicating stress on a final (short) vowel is by the use of the acute accent. In the [[Welsh orthography]], it can be on any vowel: ''á'', ''é'', ''í'', ''ó'', ''ú'', ''ẃ'', or ''ý''. Examples: {{lang|cy|casáu}} {{IPA|cy|kaˈsaɨ, kaˈsai|}} "to hate", {{lang|cy|sigarét}} {{IPA|cy|sɪɡaˈrɛt|}} "cigarette", {{lang|cy|ymbarél}} {{IPA|cy|əmbaˈrɛl|}} "umbrella".

===Height===
{{Technical|section|date=September 2025}}
The acute accent marks the [[vowel height|height]] of some stressed vowels in various [[Romance languages]].
*To mark high vowels:
**[[Bislama]]. One of the two orthographies distinguishes ''é'' {{IPA|[e]}} from ''e'' {{IPA|[ɛ]}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://eki.ee/letter/chardata.cgi?lang=bi+Bislama&script=latin|title=Letter Database|website=eki.ee}}</ref> The orthography after 1995 does not distinguish these sounds, and has no diacritics.
**[[Catalan language|Catalan]]. The acute marks the quality of the vowels ''é'' {{IPA|[e]}} (as opposed to ''è'' {{IPA|[ɛ]}}), and ''ó'' {{IPA|[o]}} (as opposed to ''ò'' {{IPA|[ɔ]}}).
**[[French language|French]]. The acute is used on ''é''. It is known as ''accent aigu'', in contrast to the ''[[grave accent|accent grave]]'' which is the accent sloped the other way. It distinguishes ''é'' {{IPA|fr|[e]}} from ''è'' {{IPA|fr|[ɛ]}}, ''ê'' {{IPA|fr|[ɛ]}}, and ''e'' {{IPA|fr|[ə]}}. Unlike in other Romance languages, the accent marks do not imply stress in French.
**[[Italian language|Italian]]. The acute accent (sometimes called ''accento chiuso'', "closed accent" in Italian) is compulsory only in words of more than one syllable stressed on their final vowel (and a few other words). Words ending in stressed -o are never marked with an acute accent (''ó''), but with a [[grave accent]] (''ò''). Therefore, only ''é'' and ''è'' are normally contrasted, typically in words ending in ''-ché'', such as ''perché'' ("why/because"); in the conjugated [[copula (linguistics)|copula]] ''è'' ("is"); in ambiguous monosyllables such as ''né'' ('neither') ''vs.'' ''ne'' ('of it') and ''sé'' ('itself') ''vs.'' ''se'' ('if'); and some verb forms, ''e.g.'' ''poté'' ("he/she/it could" (past tense)). The symbol ''ó'' can be used in the body of a word for disambiguation, for instance between ''bótte'' ("barrel") and ''bòtte'' ("beating"), though this is not mandatory: in fact standard Italian keyboards lack a dedicated ''ó'' key.
**[[Occitan language|Occitan]]. The acute marks the quality of the vowels ''é'' {{IPA|[e]}} (as opposed to ''è'' {{IPA|[ɛ]}}), ''ó'' {{IPA|[u]}} (as opposed to ''ò'' {{IPA|[ɔ]}}) and ''á'' {{IPA|[ɔ/e]}} (as opposed to ''à'' {{IPA|[a]}}).
**[[Scottish Gaelic]] (a [[Celtic languages|Celtic]] rather than Romance language) uses/used a system in which ''é'' {{IPA|[eː]}} is contrasted with ''è'' {{IPA|[ɛː]}} and ''ó'' {{IPA|[oː]}} with ''ò'' {{IPA|[ɔː]}}. Both the grave and acute indicate length; ''é''/''è'' and ''ó''/''ò'' are thus contrasted with ''e'' {{IPA|[ɛ/e]}} and ''o'' {{IPA|[ɔ/o/ɤ]}} respectively. Besides, ''á'' appears in the words ''á'' {{IPA|[a]}}, ''ám'' {{IPA|[ãũm]}} and ''ás'' {{IPA|[as]}} in order to distinguish them from  ''a'' {{IPA|[ə]}}, ''am'' {{IPA|[əm]}} and ''as'' {{IPA|[əs]}} respectively.<ref>http://www.his.com/~rory/orthocrit.html {{unreliable source?|date=August 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.faclair.com/?ID=724900DC2C5A96B0389A873FB4A908B4|title=Am Faclair Beag - Scottish Gaelic Dictionary|website=www.faclair.com}}</ref> The other vowels (''i'' and ''u'') only appear either without an accent or with a grave. Since the 1980s the [[Scottish Qualifications Authority|SQA]] (which sets school standards and thus the ''de facto'' standard language) and most publishers have abandoned the acute accent, using [[grave accent]]s in all situations (analogous to [[#Length|the use of the acute in Irish]]). However, universities, some publishers and many speakers continue to use acute accents.
*To mark low vowels:
**[[Portuguese language|Portuguese]]. The vowels ''á'' {{IPAslink|a}}, ''é'' {{IPAslink|ɛ}} and ''ó'' {{IPAslink|ɔ}} are stressed low vowels, in opposition to ''â'' {{IPAslink|ɐ}}, ''ê'' {{IPAslink|e}} and ''ô'' {{IPAslink|o}} which are stressed high vowels.  However, the accent is only used in words whose stressed syllable is in an unpredictable location within the word:  where the location of the stressed syllable is predictable, no accent is used, and the height of the stressed vowel cannot then usually be determined solely from the word's spelling.

===Length===

====Long vowels====
*[[Arabic language|Arabic]] and [[Persian language|Persian]]: {{angle bracket|á, í, ú}} were used in western [[transliteration]] of Islamic language texts from the 18th to early 20th centuries. Representing the long vowels, they are typically transcribed with a [[Macron (diacritic)|macron]] today except in [[Bahá'í orthography]].
*[[Classical Latin]]: sometimes used to represent the [[Apex (diacritic)|apex]] in modern orthography.
*[[Czech language|Czech]]: {{angle bracket|á, é, í, ó, ú, ý}} are the long versions of {{angle bracket|a, e, i, o, u, y}}. The accent is known as {{lang|cs|čárka}}. To indicate a long {{angle bracket|u}} in the middle or at the end of a word, a {{lang|cs|[[ring (diacritic)|kroužek]]}} ("ring") is used instead, to form {{angle bracket|ů}}.
*[[Hungarian language|Hungarian]]: {{angle bracket|í, ó, ú}} are the long equivalents of the vowels {{angle bracket|i, o, u}}. {{angle bracket|ő, ű}} (see [[double acute accent]]) are the long equivalents of {{angle bracket|ö, ü}}. Both types of accents are known as {{lang|hu|hosszú ékezet}} ({{lang|hu|hosszú}} means long). The letters {{angle bracket|á}} and {{angle bracket|é}} are the long equivalents of {{angle bracket|a}} and {{angle bracket|e}} respectively, but they are also distinct in quality: [aː] and [eː] rather than *[ɒː] and *[ɛ:] (see below in [[#Letter extension|Letter extension]]).
*[[Irish language|Irish]]: {{angle bracket|á, é, í, ó, ú}} are the long equivalents of the vowels {{angle bracket|a, e, i, o, u}}, the accent affects pronunciation and meaning, e.g. {{lang|ga|[[Seán]]}} ("John") but {{lang|ga|sean}} ("old").<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/21/irish-state-agency-refuses-to-spell-names-correctly-on-public-transport-pass|title=Anger over spelling of Irish names on transport passes: Irish transport authority blames 'technical limitation' for lack of fadas on Leap cards|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=21 January 2019|access-date=21 January 2019|first=Rory|last=Carroll}}</ref> The accent is known as a {{lang|ga|(síneadh) fada}} {{IPA|ga|ˌʃiːnʲə ˈfˠad̪ˠə|}} ("long (sign)"), which is also used in [[Hiberno-English]].
*[[Old Norse]]: {{anglebracket|á, é, í, ó, ú, ý}} are the long versions of {{anglebracket|a, e, i, o, u, y}}. Sometimes, {{angle bracket|ǿ}} is used as the long version of {{angle bracket|ø}}, but {{angle bracket|œ}} is used more often. Sometimes, the short-lived [[Old Norse#Old Icelandic|Old Icelandic long {{angle bracket|ǫ}}]] (also written {{angle bracket|ö}}) is written using an acute-accented form, {{angle bracket|ǫ́}}, or a version with a macron, {{angle bracket|ǭ}}, but usually it is not distinguished from {{angle bracket|á}} from which it is derived by [[Old Norse#Umlaut|u-mutation]].
*[[Slovak language|Slovak]]: the acute accent is called {{lang|sl|dĺžeň}} in Slovak. In addition to the long vowels {{angle bracket|á, é, í, ó, ú, ý}}, dĺžeň is used to mark [[syllabic consonant]]s {{angle bracket|ŕ, ĺ}}, which are the long counterparts of syllabic {{angle bracket|r, l}}.

====Short vowels====
*[[Ligurian (Romance language)|Ligurian]]: in the official orthography, ''é'' is used for short {{IPA|[e]}}, and ''ó'' is used for short {{IPA|[u]}}.

=== Palatalization <span class="anchor" id="Kreska"></span> ===
A graphically similar, but not identical, mark is indicative of a [[Palatalization (phonetics)|palatalized]] sound in several languages.

In [[Polish language|Polish]], such a mark is known as a '''{{lang|pl|kreska}}''' ("stroke") and is an integral part of several letters: four consonants and one vowel. When appearing in consonants, it indicates [[Palatalization (phonetics)|palatalization]], similar to the use of the {{lang|cs|[[háček]]}} in [[Czech language|Czech]] and other Slavic languages (e.g. {{lang|cs|sześć}} {{IPA|pl|ˈʂɛɕt͡ɕ|}} "six"). However, in contrast to the {{lang|cs|háček}} which is usually used for [[postalveolar consonant]]s, the {{lang|pl|kreska}} denotes [[alveolo-palatal consonant]]s. In traditional Polish [[typography]], the {{lang|pl|kreska}} is more nearly vertical than the acute accent, and placed slightly right of center.<ref name="kreska">{{cite web|url=http://www.twardoch.com/download/polishhowto/kreska.html|title=Polish Diacritics: how to?|website=www.twardoch.com}}</ref> A similar rule applies to the Belarusian Latin alphabet {{lang|uk|[[Łacinka]]}}. However, for computer use, [[Unicode]] conflates the [[codepoint]]s for these letters with those of the accented Latin letters of similar appearance.

In [[Serbo-Croatian]], as in Polish, the letter {{angbr|ć}} is used to represent a [[voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate]] {{IPA|/t͡ɕ/}}.

In the [[romanization]] of [[Macedonian language|Macedonian]], {{angbr|ǵ}} and {{angbr|ḱ}} represent the [[Cyrillic script|Cyrillic]] letters {{angbr|ѓ}} ([[Gje]]) and {{angbr|ќ}} ([[Kje]]), which stand for [[palatal consonant|palatal]] or [[alveolo-palatal consonant|alveolo-palatal]] consonants, though {{angbr|gj}} and {{angbr|kj}} (or {{angbr|đ}} and {{angbr|ć}}) are more commonly used for this purpose{{Citation needed|date=August 2012}}. The same two letters are used to transcribe the postulated [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] [[phoneme]]s {{IPA|/ɡʲ/}} and {{IPA|/kʲ/}}.

{{notatypo|[[Sorbian alphabet|Sorbian]]}} uses the acute for palatalization as in Polish: {{angbr|ć dź ń}}. Lower {{notatypo|Sorbian}} also uses {{angbr|ŕ ś ź}}, and Lower {{notatypo|Sorbian}} previously used {{angbr|ḿ ṕ ẃ}} and {{angbr|b́ f́}}, also written as {{angbr|b' f'}}; these are now spelt as {{angbr|mj pj wj}} and {{angbr|bj fj}}.  <!-- Yes, Sorbian, not Serbian -->

===Tone===
In the [[Vietnamese alphabet|Quốc Ngữ]] system for [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]], the Yale romanization for [[Cantonese]], the [[Pinyin]] [[romanization]] for [[Standard Chinese|Mandarin Chinese]], and the [[Bopomofo]] [[semi-syllabary]], the acute accent indicates a rising [[tone (linguistics)|tone]]. In Mandarin, the alternative to the acute accent is the number 2 after the syllable: lái = lai2. In [[Cantonese Yale]], the acute accent is either tone 2, or tone 5 if the vowel(s) are followed by 'h' (if the number form is used, 'h' is omitted): má = ma2, máh = ma5.

In [[African languages]] and [[Athabaskan languages]], it frequently marks a high tone, e.g., [[Yoruba language|Yoruba]] ''apá'' 'arm', [[Nobiin language|Nobiin]] ''féntí'' 'sweet date', [[Ekoti language|Ekoti]] ''kaláwa'' 'boat', [[Navajo language|Navajo]] ''tʼáá'' 'just'.

The acute accent is used in Serbo-Croatian dictionaries and linguistic publications to indicate a high-rising accent. It is not used in everyday writing.

=== Disambiguation ===
The acute accent is used to disambiguate certain words which would otherwise be [[homograph]]s in the following languages:

*[[Catalan language|Catalan]]. Examples: ''són'' "they are" vs. ''son'' "tiredness", ''més'' "more" vs. ''mes'' "month".
*[[Danish language|Danish]]. Examples: ''én'' "one" vs. ''en'' "a/an"; ''fór'' "went" vs. ''for'' "for"; ''véd'' "know(s)" vs. ''ved'' "by"; ''gǿr'' "bark(s)" vs. ''gør'' "do(es)"; ''dǿr'' "die(s)" vs. ''dør'' "door"; ''allé'' "alley" vs. ''alle'' "everybody". Furthermore, it is also used for the imperative form of verbs ending in ''-ere'', which lose their final ''e'' and might be mistaken for plurals of a noun (which most often end in ''-er''): ''analysér'' is the imperative form of ''at analysere'' "to analyse", ''analyser'' is "analyses", plural of the noun ''analyse'' "analysis". Using an acute accent is always optional, never required.
*[[Dutch language|Dutch]]. Examples: ''één'' "one" vs. ''een'' "a/an"; ''vóór'' "before" vs. ''voor'' "for"; ''vóórkomen'' "to exist/to happen" vs. ''voorkómen'' "to prevent/to avoid". Using an acute accent is mostly optional.
*[[Modern Greek]]. Although all polysyllabic words have an acute accent on the stressed syllable, in monosyllabic words the presence or absence of an accent may disambiguate. The most common case is {{char|η}}, the feminine definite article ("the"), versus {{char|ή}}, meaning "or". Other cases include {{lang|el|που}} ("who"/"which") versus {{lang|el|πού}} ("where") and {{lang|el|πως}} ("that", as in "he told me ''that''...") versus {{lang|el|πώς}} ("how").
*[[Norwegian language|Norwegian]]. It is used to indicate stress on a vowel otherwise not expected to have stress. Most words are stressed on the first syllable and diacritical marks are rarely used. Although incorrect, it is frequently used to mark the imperative form of verbs ending in ''-ere'' as it is in Danish: ''kontrollér'' is the imperative form of "to control", ''kontroller'' is the noun "controls". The simple past of the verb ''å fare'', "to travel", can optionally be written ''fór'', to distinguish it from ''for'' (preposition "for" as in English), ''fôr'' "feed" ''n.''/"lining", or ''fòr'' (only in [[Nynorsk]]) "narrow ditch, trail by plow" (all the diacritics in these examples are optional.<ref>[http://sprakradet.no/Raad/Skriveregler_og_grammatikk/Aksentteikn/ Norwegian language council, Diacritics (in Norwegian)] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070923030648/http://sprakradet.no/Raad/Skriveregler_og_grammatikk/Aksentteikn/ |date=September 23, 2007 }}</ref>)
*[[Russian language|Russian]]. Acute accents (technically, [[#Stress|stress marks]]) are used in dictionaries to indicate the stressed syllable. They may also be optionally used to disambiguate both between [[minimal pair]]s, such as  за́мок (read as zámak, means "castle") and замо́к (read as zamók, means "lock"), and between [[interrogative word|question words]] and [[relative pronoun]]s such as что ("what", stressed, or "that", unstressed), similarly to Spanish. This is rare, however, as usually meaning is determined by context and no stress mark is written. The same rules apply to [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]], [[Rusyn language|Rusyn]], [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]] and [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]].
*[[Spanish language|Spanish]]. Covers various question word / relative pronoun pairs where the first is stressed and the second is a [[clitic]], such as ''cómo'' (interrogative "how") and ''como'' (non-interrogative "how", comparative "like", "I eat"<ref>This makes "''¿Cómo como? Como como como.''" correct sentences (How I eat? I eat like I eat.)</ref>), differentiates ''qué'' (what) from ''que'' (that), and some other words such as ''tú'' "you" and ''tu'' "your," ''té'' "tea" and ''te'' "you" (direct/indirect object), ''él'' "he/him" and ''el'' ("the", masculine). This usage of the acute accent is called ''tilde diacrítica''.

=== Emphasis ===
*In [[Danish language|Danish]], the acute accent can also be used for [[Stress (linguistics)|emphasis]], especially on the word ''der'' (there), as in ''Der kan ikke være mange mennesker dér'', meaning "There can't be many people ''there''" or ''Dér skal vi hen'' meaning "''That's'' where we're going".
* In [[Dutch language|Dutch]], the acute accent can also be used to emphasize an individual word within a sentence. For example, ''Dit is ónze auto, niet die van jullie'', "This is ''our'' car, not yours." In this example, ''ónze'' is merely an emphasized form of ''onze''. Also in family names like Piét,  Piél, Plusjé, Hofsté.  The [[IJ digraph]] can be stressed with íj́ but is usually stressed as íj for technical reasons.
* In the [[Armenian script]] emphasis on a word is marked by an acute accent above the word's stressed vowel; it is traditionally grouped with the Armenian question and exclamation marks which are also diacritics applied to the stressed vowel.

=== Letter extension ===
*In [[Faroese alphabet|Faroese]], the acute accent is used on five of the vowels (a, i, o, u and y), but these letters, á, í, ó, ú and ý are considered separate letters with separate pronunciations.
*: á: long {{IPA|[ɔa]}}, short {{IPA|[ɔ]}} and before {{IPA|[a]}}: {{IPA|[õ]}}
*: í/ý: long {{IPA|[ʊiː]}}, short {{IPA|[ʊi]}}
*: ó: long {{IPA|[ɔu]}}, {{IPA|[ɛu]}} or {{IPA|[œu]}}, short: {{IPA|[œ]}}, except Suðuroy: {{IPA|[ɔ]}}
*:: When ó is followed by the [[skerping]] -gv, it is pronounced {{IPA|[ɛ]}}, except in Suðuroy where it is {{IPA|[ɔ]}}
*: ú: long {{IPA|[ʉu]}}, short {{IPA|[ʏ]}}
*:: When ú is followed by the skerping -gv, it is pronounced {{IPA|[ɪ]}}
*In [[Hungarian alphabet|Hungarian]], the acute accent marks a difference in quality on two vowels, apart from vowel length:
*:The (short) vowel ''a'' is [[Open back rounded vowel|open back rounded (ɒ)]], but ''á'' is [[Open front unrounded vowel|open front unrounded (a)]] (and long).
*:Similarly, the (short) vowel ''e'' is [[Open-mid front unrounded vowel|open-mid front unrounded (ɛ)]], while (long) ''é'' is [[Close-mid front unrounded vowel|close-mid front unrounded (e)]].
*:Despite this difference, in most of the cases, these two pairs are arranged as equal in [[collation]], just like the other pairs (see above) that only differ in length.
*In [[Icelandic orthography|Icelandic]] the acute accent is used on all 6 of the vowels (a, e, i, o, u and y), and, like in Faroese, these are considered separate letters.<!-- line breaks break bulleted lists
 -->[[File:Icelandic Text Extract.jpg|right|thumb|210px|A sample extract of [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]].]]
*: á: {{IPA|[au(ː)]}}
*: é: long {{IPA|[jeɛː]}}, short {{IPA|[jɛ]}}
*: í/ý: {{IPA|[i(ː)]}}
*: ó: {{IPA|[ou(ː)]}}
*: ú: {{IPA|[u(ː)]}}
*:All can be either short or long, but the pronunciation of ''é'' is not the same short and long.
*: Etymologically, vowels with an acute accent in these languages correspond to their [[Old Norse]] counterparts, which were long vowels but in many cases have become [[diphthong]]s. The only exception is é, which in Faroese has become [[æ]].
*In [[Kashubian alphabet|Kashubian]], [[Polish alphabet|Polish]], and [[Sorbian alphabet|Sorbian]], the acute on "ó", historically used to indicate a lengthening of "o" {{IPA|[ɔ]}}, now indicates [[Close vowel|higher]] pronunciation, {{IPA|[o]}} and {{IPA|[u]}}, respectively.
*In [[Turkmen alphabet|Turkmen]], the letter ''ý'' is a consonant: {{IPA|[j]}}, whereas the letter ''y'' is a vowel: [ɯ].

=== Other uses ===
*In some [[Basque language|Basque]] texts predating [[Standard Basque]], the letters {{angbr|r}} and {{angbr|l}} carry acute accents (an invention by [[Sabino Arana]]<ref name=Trask>[[Larry Trask|Trask, L.]] ''The History of Basque'' Routledge: 1997 {{ISBN|0-415-13116-2}}</ref>), which are otherwise indicated by double letters.  In such cases, {{angbr|ŕ}} is used to represent {{angbr|rr}} (a trilled {{angbr|r}}, this spelling is used even at the end of a syllable,<ref name="Arana">''Lecciones de ortografía del euskera bizkaino'', [http://bvpb.mcu.es/es/catalogo_imagenes/grupo.cmd?path=11350&forma=&presentacion=pagina&posicion=40 page 40], Arana eta Goiri'tar Sabin, Bilbao, Bizkaya'ren Edestija ta Izkerea Pizkundia, 1896 (Sebastián de Amorrortu).</ref> to differentiate from -{{angbr|r}}-, an alveolar tap{{snd}} in Basque {{IPA|/r/}} in word-final positions is always trilled) and {{angbr|ĺ}} for {{angbr|ll}} (a palatalized {{IPA|/l/}}).
*In transliterating texts written in [[Cuneiform script|Cuneiform]], an acute accent over the vowel indicates that the original sign is the second representing that value in the canonical lists.  Thus ''su'' is used to transliterate the first sign with the phonetic value {{IPA|/su/}}, while ''sú'' transliterates the second sign with the value {{IPA|/su/}}.{{clarify|reason=This looks like an error, the IPA values should not be the same, surely?|date=June 2020}} 
*In [[Emilian dialects|Emilian]], ''é ó'' denote both length and height, representing [e, o].
*In [[Indonesian language|Indonesian]] dictionaries, {{angbr|é}} is used to represent {{IPA|/e/}}, while {{angbr|e}} is used to represent {{IPA|/ə/}}.
*In [[Northern Sámi]], an acute accent was placed over the corresponding [[Latin alphabet|Latin]] letter to represent the letters peculiar to this language (''Áá, Čč, Đđ, Ŋŋ, Šš, Ŧŧ, Žž'') when typing when there was no way of entering these letters correctly otherwise.<ref name="Svonni">{{cite book
  | last = Svonni
  | first = E Mikael
  | title = Sámegiel-ruoŧagiel skuvlasátnelistu
  | publisher = Sámiskuvlastivra
  | year = 1984
  | pages = III
  | isbn = 91-7716-008-8
  | no-pp = true}}</ref>
*Many [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]] words of French origin retain an acute accent, such as ''allé'', ''kafé'', ''idé'', ''komité''. Popular usage can be sketchy and often neglects the accent, or results in the grave accent erroneously being used in its place. Likewise, in [[Swedish language|Swedish]], the acute accent is used only for the letter {{angbr|e}}, mostly in words of French origin and in some names. It is used both to indicate a change in vowel quantity as well as quality and that the stress should be on this, normally unstressed, syllable. Examples include ''café'' ("café") and ''resumé'' ("résumé", noun). There are two pairs of [[homograph]]s that are differentiated only by the accent: ''armé'' ("army") versus ''arme'' ("poor; pitiful", masculine gender) and ''idé'' ("idea") versus ''ide'' ("winter quarters").
*{{angbr|Ǵǵ}} and {{angbr|Źź}} are used in [[Pashto language|Pashto]] in the Latin alphabet, equivalent to {{char|ږ}} and {{char|ځ}}, respectively.
*In [[Romagnol]], ''é ó'' denote both length and height, representing [eː, oː].

=== English ===
As with other diacritical marks, a number of (usually [[French language|French]]) [[loanwords]] are sometimes spelled in English with an acute accent as used in the original language: these include ''attaché'', ''blasé'', ''canapé'', ''cliché'', ''communiqué'', ''café'', ''décor'', ''déjà vu'', ''détente'', ''élite'', ''entrée'', ''exposé'', ''mêlée'', ''fiancé'', ''fiancée'', ''papier-mâché'', ''passé'', ''pâté'', ''piqué'', ''plié'', ''repoussé'', ''résumé'', ''risqué'', ''sauté'', ''roué'', ''séance'', ''naïveté''<!--, ''toupée''---See Talk--> and ''touché''. Retention of the accent is common only in the French ending ''é'' or ''ée'', as in these examples, where its absence would tend to suggest a different pronunciation. Thus the French word ''résumé'' is commonly seen in English as ''{{sic|hide=y|resumé}}'', with only one accent (but also with both or none).

Acute accents are sometimes added to loanwords where a final ''e'' is not [[silent e|silent]], for example, ''[[Yerba mate|maté]]'' from Spanish ''mate,'' the Maldivian capital ''[[Malé]],'' ''saké'' from Japanese ''[[sake]]'', and ''[[Pokémon]]'' from the Japanese compound for ''pocket monster,'' the last three from languages which do not use the Roman alphabet, and where transcriptions do not normally use acute accents.

For foreign terms used in English that have not been assimilated into English or are not in general English usage, [[Italic type|italic]]s are generally used with the appropriate accents: for example, ''[[coup d'état]]'', ''[[pièce de résistance]]'', ''[[crème brûlée]]'' and ''[[ancien régime]]''.

The acute accent is sometimes (though rarely) used for poetic purposes:

* It can mark stress on an unusual syllable: for example, ''caléndar'' to indicate {{IPA|[kəˈlɛn.dɚ]}} (rather than the standard {{IPA|[ˈkæl.ən.dɚ]}}).
* It can disambiguate stress where the distinction is metrically important: for example, ''rébel'' (as opposed to ''rebél''), or ''áll trádes'', to show that the phrase is pronounced as a [[spondee]], rather than the more natural [[Iamb (poetry)|iamb]].
* It can indicate the sounding of an ordinarily silent letter: for example, ''pickéd'' to indicate the pronunciation {{IPA|[ˈpɪkɪd]}}, rather than standard {{IPA|[pɪkt]}} (the [[grave accent]] is more common for this last purpose).

The layout of some European PC keyboards, combined with problematic keyboard-driver semantics, causes some users to use an acute accent or a grave accent instead of an apostrophe when typing in English (e.g. typing {{As written|John´s}} or {{As written|John`s}} instead of John's).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/ucs/apostrophe.html|title=Apostrophe and acute accent confusion|last=Kuhn|first=Markus|publisher=Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge|date=7 May 2001|access-date=4 June 2012}}</ref>

== Typographic form ==
[[File:Demonstration of acute accent in multiple font.svg|alt=Acute accent in multiple fonts.|thumb|Acute accent in multiple [[computer font]]s. Gray letters indicate ''o kreska'' in the provided font. Notice that ''kreska'' in gray letters are steeper than acute accent in black letters. Also in Adobe HeiTi Std and SimSun, the stroke goes from bottom-left (thicker) to top-right (thinner), showing the rising nature of the tone; however, the acute accent in SimHei is made without variation in thickness.]]
Western typographic and calligraphic traditions generally design the acute accent as going from top to bottom. French even has the definition of acute is the accent {{lang|fr|«qui va de droite à gauche» }} ({{langx|en|"which goes from right to left"}}),<ref>{{Citation|title=aigu|url=https://fr.thefreedictionary.com/aigu|work=The Free Dictionary|access-date=2020-06-14}}</ref> meaning that it descends from top right to lower left.

In Polish, the  {{lang|pl|kreska}} diacritic is used instead, which usually has a different shape and style compared to other European languages. It features a more vertical steep form and is moved more to the right side of center line than acute. As Unicode does not differentiate the {{lang|pl|kreska}} from the acute, letters from Western (computer) fonts and Polish fonts have had to share the same set of [[code point]]s, which make designing the conflicting character (i.e. ''[[o acute]]'', {{angbr|ó}}) more troublesome. [[OpenType]] tried to solve this problem by giving language-sensitive glyph substitution to designers, such that the font would automatically switch between Western {{angbr|ó}} and Polish {{angbr|ó}} based on language settings.<ref name="kreska" /> New computer fonts are sensitive to this issue and their design for the diacritics tends toward a more "universal design" so that there will be less need for localization, for example [[Roboto]] and [[Noto fonts|Noto]] typefaces.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Add Polish letterforms · Issue #981 · googlefonts/noto-fonts|url=https://github.com/googlefonts/noto-fonts/issues/981|access-date=2020-06-16|website=GitHub|language=en}}</ref>

[[Pinyin]] uses the acute accent to mark the second tone (rising or high-rising tone), which indicates a tone rising from low to high, causing the writing stroke of acute accent to go from lower left to top right. This contradicts the Western typographic tradition which makes designing the acute accent in Chinese typefaces a problem. Designers approach this problem in 3 ways: either keep the original Western form of going top right (thicker) to bottom left (thinner) (e.g. [[Arial]]/[[Times New Roman]]), flip the stroke to go from bottom left (thicker) to top right (thinner) (e.g. Adobe HeiTi Std/[[SimSun]]), or just make the accents without stroke variation (e.g. [[SimHei]]).<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Type — Wǒ ài pīnyīn!|url=https://www.thetype.com/2017/08/11606/|access-date=2020-06-14|website=The Type}}</ref>

=== Unicode<span class="anchor" id="Letters with acute"></span> ===
Unicode encodes a number of cases of "letter with acute accent" as [[precomposed character]]s and these are displayed below.  In addition, many more symbols may be composed using the [[combining character]] facility ({{unichar|0301|Combining acute accent|cwith=◌|nlink=combining character}} and {{unichar|0317|Combining acute accent below|cwith=◌|nlink=combining character}}) that may be used with any letter or other diacritic to create a customised symbol but this does not mean that the result has any standard real-world application and are thus not shown in the table. <!-- AND PLEASE DO NOT TRY TO ADD THEM -->
{{Letters with diacritic/header}}<!--
-->{{hlist|{{Letters with diacritic/diacritic|format=char|d=acute}}<!--
-->{{Letters with diacritic/scriptname|1=Latin}}[[Á|Á{{NNBSP}}á]]
| [[Ắ|Ắ{{NNBSP}}ắ]]
| [[Ấ|Ấ{{NNBSP}}ấ]]
| [[Ǻ|Ǻ{{NNBSP}}ǻ]]
| [[Ą́|Ą́{{NNBSP}}ą́]]
| [[Ǽ|Ǽ{{NNBSP}}ǽ]]
| [[Ć|Ć{{NNBSP}}ć]]
| [[Ḉ|Ḉ{{NNBSP}}ḉ]]
| [[Ḗ|Ḗ{{NNBSP}}ḗ]]
| [[É|É{{NNBSP}}é]]
| [[Ế|Ế{{NNBSP}}ế]]
| [[Ǵ|Ǵ{{NNBSP}}ǵ]]
| [[Í|Í{{NNBSP}}í]]
| [[Ḯ|Ḯ{{NNBSP}}ḯ]]
| [[Ḱ|Ḱ{{NNBSP}}ḱ]]
| [[Ĺ|Ĺ{{NNBSP}}ĺ]]
| [[Ḿ|Ḿ{{NNBSP}}ḿ]]
| [[Ń|Ń{{NNBSP}}ń]]
| [[Ṓ|Ṓ{{NNBSP}}ṓ]]
| [[Ó|Ó{{NNBSP}}ó]]
| [[Ố|Ố{{NNBSP}}ố]]
| [[Ṍ|Ṍ{{NNBSP}}ṍ]]
| [[Ớ|Ớ{{NNBSP}}ớ]]
| [[Ǿ|Ǿ{{NNBSP}}ǿ]]
| [[Ṕ|Ṕ{{NNBSP}}ṕ]]
| [[Ŕ|Ŕ{{NNBSP}}ŕ]]
| [[Ś|Ś{{NNBSP}}ś]]
| [[Ṥ|Ṥ{{NNBSP}}ṥ]]
| [[Ú|Ú{{NNBSP}}ú]]
| [[Ṹ|Ṹ{{NNBSP}}ṹ]]
| [[Ǘ|Ǘ{{NNBSP}}ǘ]]
| [[Ứ|Ứ{{NNBSP}}ứ]]
| [[Ẃ|Ẃ{{NNBSP}}ẃ]]
| [[Ý|Ý{{NNBSP}}ý]]
| [[Ź|Ź{{NNBSP}}ź]]<!--
-->{{Letters with diacritic/scriptname|1=Greek}}[[Ά|Ά{{NNBSP}}ά]]
| [[Έ|Έ{{NNBSP}}έ]]
| [[Ή|Ή{{NNBSP}}ή]]
| [[Ί|Ί{{NNBSP}}ί]]
| [[Greek diacritics|ΐ]]
| [[Ό|Ό{{NNBSP}}ό]]
| [[Ύ|Ύ{{NNBSP}}ύ]]
| [[ϓ]]
| [[Greek diacritics|ΰ]]
| [[Ώ|Ώ{{NNBSP}}ώ]]
<!-- 
-->{{Letters with diacritic/scriptname|1=Cyrillic}}[[Ѓ|Ѓ{{NNBSP}}ѓ]]
| [[Ќ|Ќ{{NNBSP}}ќ]]
}}{{Letters with diacritic/footer}}<!--

-->

== Keyboard input ==
{{further|Unicode input}}
{{main|List of QWERTY keyboard language variants}}
[[Keyboard (computing)|Computer keyboard]]s  sold in many countries have an [[AltGr]] ('alternate graphic') key (or [[Option key]]) which adds a third and (with the [[Shift key]]) fourth effect to most keys. Thus {{keypress|AltGr|a}} produces {{char|á}} and {{keypress|AltGr|A}} produces {{char|Á}}.  (Most languages require [[diacritic]]s ('accents') and thus an 'extended' or national [[keyboard mapping]] is required. Where US standard keyboards are supplied, typically it is controlled by a localised keyboard mapping so that the right-Alt key behaves as an AltGr key.)

Because keyboards have only a limited number of keys, US standard keyboards do not have keys for accented characters. An alternative method is the '[[dead key]]', a key that modifies the meaning of the next key press. This method was used with [[typewriter]]s where, when the typist typed an accent, the [[typewriter carriage|carriage]] did not move as usual with the effect that the next letter would be written on the same place on the paper. An appropriate keyboard mapping (such as [[US-International]]) provides this function via the right-hand [[Alt key]]. Thus {{keypress|RightAlt|'}} (apostrophe) is a dead key so appears to have no effect until the next key is pressed, when it adds the desired acute accent.

==See also==

* {{Annotated link |Acute (phonetics)}}
* {{Annotated link |Apex (diacritic)}}
* {{Annotated link |Circumflex|Circumflex accent}}
* {{Annotated link |Double acute accent}}
* {{Annotated link |Grave accent}}

==  References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Wiktionary inline|acute accent}}
* {{Wiktionary inline|´}}
* {{Wiktionary inline|á}}
* {{Wiktionary inline|ć}}
* {{Wiktionary inline|é}}
* {{Wiktionary inline|í}}
* {{Wiktionary inline|ĺ}}
* {{Wiktionary inline|ḿ}}
* {{Wiktionary inline|ó}}

{{Navbox diacritical marks}}
{{Latin script||acute}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Acute Accent}}
[[Category:Cyrillic-script diacritics]]
[[Category:Greek-script diacritics]]
[[Category:Latin-script diacritics]]
[[Category:Polish letters with diacritics|Diakrytyka]]