Can accent marks cost you marks in the DELE B2 and C1? Yes, but they won’t make you fail on their own. Accents (tildes) are part of spelling, which is assessed under accuracy in the writing test: forgetting one now and then won’t stop you reaching the level, but leaving them out altogether, or getting wrong the ones that change a word’s meaning, will pull your mark down. The good news is that almost all the mistakes fall into ten cases, and here they are with wrong and right examples and the current RAE rules.
I’ve ordered them by how often I see them in my students, from the most common to the trickiest.
How much do accents count in the DELE?
In the DELE B2, the writing test (Expresión e interacción escritas) is marked on two scales: a holistic one, the overall impression of your text, worth 40 % of the mark, and an analytic one, worth 60 %, with four categories: task and genre appropriateness, coherence, accuracy and range. Each category gets a band from 0 to 3, and band 2 is the one that matches the B2 level.
Accents are part of spelling, and spelling is part of accuracy. There is no fixed deduction per accent. This is what I explain in my course, based on the official scales:
- Forgetting the odd accent doesn’t stop you getting band 2 for accuracy.
- Not writing any accents at all does: you won’t reach band 2 that way.
- For band 3 only an isolated, minor slip is tolerated, and never one that changes the meaning (tu/tú, el/él, si/sí).
And remember how you pass the B2: you need 30 out of 50 points in each group. Group 1 adds up reading and writing; group 2 adds up listening and speaking. One group can’t make up for the other. In the C1 you also need 30 out of 50 in each of its two groups, and the accuracy expected is even higher.
Mistake 1: when do tú, él, mí, sí, sé, dé, té and más take an accent?
This is the accent people miss most. The diacritic accent tells apart words that are spelt the same but do different jobs. Learn them in pairs:
- tú (pronoun: tú vas) / tu (possessive: tu casa).
- él (pronoun: él dice) / el (article: el libro).
- mí (pronoun: para mí) / mi (possessive: mi madre).
- sí (yes, or a pronoun: sí quiero, volvió en sí) / si (if: si vienes).
- sé (from saber or ser: yo sé, sé paciente) / se (pronoun: se cae).
- dé (from dar: que me dé) / de (preposition: de Madrid).
- té (tea) / te (pronoun: te quiero).
- más (more: quiero más) / mas (means “but” and is very literary).
Wrong: “Para mi, el problema es que tu hermano no sabe si el vendrá.”
Right: “Para mí, el problema es que tu hermano no sabe si él vendrá.”
Look closely: “mí” comes after a preposition, so it’s a pronoun and takes an accent; “tu hermano” is a possessive; “si” introduces the doubt and has no accent; “él” is the subject pronoun.
Wrong: “Cuando el me dijo que si, supe que tu tenías razón.”
Right: “Cuando él me dijo que sí, supe que tú tenías razón.”
Mistake 2: do “solo” and “este” take an accent? The 2023 RAE rule
There’s a lot of outdated advice around. The current rule comes from the 2010 Ortografía, which the RAE clarified in a note in March 2023:
- The adverb solo and the demonstratives este, ese, aquel (with their feminine and plural forms) are written without an accent.
- If there’s no ambiguity, the accent is wrong. “Sólo quiero un café” is incorrect; the correct form is “Solo quiero un café”.
- Only when the writer sees a real risk of the sentence being read two ways is the accent optional.
Wrong: “Ésta es la razón por la que sólo tenemos dos opciones.”
Right: “Esta es la razón por la que solo tenemos dos opciones.”
An ambiguous case would be “Hago deporte solo los domingos”: alone, or only on Sundays? My advice for the exam: rather than relying on the optional accent, rephrase. “Hago deporte únicamente los domingos” or “Los domingos hago deporte sin compañía”. No room for doubt.
And remember that “esto, eso, aquello” have never had an accent.
Mistake 3: when do qué, cómo, cuándo, dónde and cuál take an accent?
They take an accent when they are question or exclamation words. When they are relatives or conjunctions, they don’t. The trap is indirect questions, which have no question marks but do need the accent.
Wrong: “No sé cuando llega el tren.”
Right: “No sé cuándo llega el tren.”
Wrong: “Me pregunto que pensará tu madre.”
Right: “Me pregunto qué pensará tu madre.”
Wrong: “Cuéntame como te fue.”
Right: “Cuéntame cómo te fue.”
Tip: if the word introduces a question (direct or indirect) or an exclamation, it takes an accent. If it just links two parts of the sentence (“la casa donde vivo”, “como dije antes”, “cuando llegues”), it doesn’t.
Mistake 4: which words stressed on the last syllable take an accent?
Words stressed on the last syllable (agudas) take an accent when they end in n, s or a vowel.
Wrong: “Despues de la reunion, tambien hablamos del menu.”
Right: “Después de la reunión, también hablamos del menú.”
The ones people miss most: después, también, según, además, jamás, quizás, razón, opinión, información. And one detail that saves a lot of doubt: infinitives (hablar, comer, vivir) are stressed on the last syllable but end in r, so they never take an accent.
Mistake 5: which words stressed on the second-to-last syllable take an accent?
Words stressed on the second-to-last syllable (llanas) take an accent when they do not end in n, s or a vowel.
Wrong: “Tengo un caracter dificil.”
Right: “Tengo un carácter difícil.”
Other common ones: fácil, útil, árbol, lápiz, césped, azúcar, móvil. And a rare case: if the word ends in s after another consonant (bíceps, fórceps), it also takes an accent.
Mistake 6: do words stressed on the third-to-last syllable always take an accent?
Yes, always. Words stressed on the third-to-last syllable (esdrújulas) and those stressed even earlier (sobresdrújulas) take an accent with no exceptions.
Wrong: “Tengo que llamar al medico antes del miercoles porque me duele el estomago.”
Right: “Tengo que llamar al médico antes del miércoles porque me duele el estómago.”
The ones that slip through most in a written task: público, típico, económico, rápido, práctico, específico, último, teléfono. And the long ones you build with pronouns: dígamelo, cuéntaselo, explíquemelo.
Mistake 7: why do día, país and tenía take an accent?
When a stressed weak vowel (i, u) sits next to a strong one (a, e, o), they don’t form a diphthong: they split into two syllables (a hiatus) and the i or u always takes an accent, even if the general rules say otherwise.
Wrong: “Maria pasa el dia en el pais de su familia.”
Right: “María pasa el día en el país de su familia.”
Other classics: oír, baúl, raíz, increíble, todavía, policía, energía. And two groups of verbs to watch:
- The imperfect of -er and -ir verbs: tenía, sabía, comía, vivía, decía.
- The conditional of every verb: hablaría, comería, viviría, sería.
Tip: if you split the vowels into different syllables when you say the word and the stress falls on the i or u, that vowel takes an accent: te-ní-a, po-li-cí-a, ha-bla-rí-a.
Mistake 8: do past tenses like salió, comí or hizo take an accent?
It depends on the verb, and that’s where the confusion comes from. In the preterite, the first and third person singular of regular verbs are stressed on the last syllable and end in a vowel, so they take an accent: hablé, habló, comí, comió, viví, vivió.
But two groups do not:
- One-syllable forms: fui, fue, di, dio, vi, vio.
- Irregular preterites stressed on the second-to-last syllable: tuve, tuvo, hice, hizo, dije, dijo, pude, puso, quise, quiso, vine, vino, estuve, estuvo.
Wrong: “Ayer fué al centro, hizó la compra y salio tarde.”
Right: “Ayer fue al centro, hizo la compra y salió tarde.”
Watch out for the change of tense too: “hablo” (present) and “habló” (past) are different forms. Forget the accent and you change what you’re saying.
Wrong: “Cuando perdi el avion no sabia que hacer.”
Right: “Cuando perdí el avión no sabía qué hacer.”
That sentence has a past tense stressed on the last syllable (perdí), a word ending in n (avión), a hiatus (sabía) and an indirect question word (qué). Four accents in one line.
Mistake 9: what about compound words and adverbs ending in -mente?
When you build a new word, the rules apply to the resulting word. That’s why superlatives in -ísimo are always stressed on the third-to-last syllable and take an accent: interesantísimo, rapidísimo, facilísimo, muchísimo.
Wrong: “Es un libro interesantisimo y facilisimo de leer.”
Right: “Es un libro interesantísimo y facilísimo de leer.”
The same goes for compounds written as one word: decimoséptimo, veintidós, veintitrés, veintiséis. If the compound has a hyphen, each part keeps its own accent: teórico-práctico.
Adverbs ending in -mente are the exception: they keep the accent of the adjective they come from.
Wrong: “Habla rapidamente y dificilmente le entiendo.”
Right: “Habla rápidamente y difícilmente le entiendo.”
If the adjective has no accent, neither does the adverb: tranquilamente, lentamente, claramente.
Mistake 10: do capital letters take accents?
Yes. The idea that capitals don’t need accents is a myth: they follow exactly the same rules as lower-case letters.
Wrong: “Esta es una historia que comenzo en Africa, segun Angel.”
Right: “Esta es una historia que comenzó en África, según Ángel.”
Take special care in the title of a review or an article and when a sentence starts with a word that needs an accent (Además, Según, Último).
How do you check your accents before handing in?
In my course I recommend keeping the last few minutes of the writing test to review both tasks, starting with the first one. Within that review, do one pass just for accents with these questions:
- Have I accented regular past tenses (salió, llegó, comí) and not fue, dio, hizo or dijo?
- Do indirect question words (cómo, cuándo, qué, dónde) have their accent?
- Have I checked hiatuses (día, sabía, tenía) and conditionals (sería, podría)?
- Do words like público, típico, fácil and difícil have their accent?
- Have I written “solo” and “este” without an accent?
- Have I put accents on capital letters?
Frequently asked questions about accents in the DELE
Can I fail the DELE B2 just because of accents?
Not on their own. Accents count under accuracy, one of the four categories of the analytic scale. But if you leave them all out or get many wrong, that category drops, and if you’re borderline in group 1 (reading plus writing), every band matters.
Is an extra accent also a mistake?
Yes. “Examén”, “fué”, “dió” or “tí” are mistakes just like a missing accent.
Is it wrong to write “sólo” with an accent?
If there’s no ambiguity, yes: according to the RAE’s 2023 note, the correct form is “solo”, without an accent. It’s only optional when the writer sees a real risk of a double reading, and in the exam it’s safer to rephrase the sentence.
Aún or aun?
“Aún” takes an accent when it means “still” or “yet” (“aún no ha llegado”). “Aun” has no accent when it means “even” (“aun así, lo intentaré”).
Do accents count the same in the C1?
The rules are the same and they also count under accuracy. The difference is that more control is expected in the C1, so repeated slips stand out more.
In short
- Accents won’t make you fail on their own, but they count towards accuracy in the writing test.
- An occasional slip is tolerated; no accents at all, or wrong ones that change the meaning, are not.
- “Solo” and the demonstratives have no accent; if there’s ambiguity the accent is optional, but rephrasing is safer.
- Regular past tenses (comí, salió) take an accent; fue, dio, hizo or dijo don’t.
- Words stressed on the third-to-last syllable and capital letters always take their accent.
- Save a few minutes at the end to check the accents in both tasks.
If you’re preparing for the DELE B2, my course gives you strategies for each part of the exam, commented examples, a community, a chat for your questions and group calls: https://b2.aporeldele.com/. If you’re taking the C1, here’s the course for that level: https://c1.aporeldele.com/. And if you’re not sure which level to sit, take the level test: https://www.aporeldele.com/en/prueba-de-nivel.
¡A por el DELE! 🇪🇸
