What do special characters like á, à, â, ã, ä, å, ă, and ą mean?

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  1. Efukikata EfetMay 7, 2025 at 9:53 AM

    These are diacritical marks (accent symbols) used in various languages to modify letters. Here’s what they mean:

    á, à, â, ã, ä, å (on *A/a*):

    á: Acute accent (e.g., Spanish "mamá") → stressed syllable or pitch.

    à: Grave accent (French "où") → pronunciation or grammatical distinction.

    â: Circumflex (Portuguese "lâmpada") → vowel height or historical spelling.

    ã: Tilde (Portuguese "maçã") → nasalized vowel.

    ä: Umlaut (German "Mädchen") → vowel fronting (changes sound, like ‘a’ to ‘eh’).

    å: Swedish/Norwegian "år" (year) → a unique ‘aw’ sound.

    ă, ą (on *A/a*):

    ă: Breve (Romanian "copilă") → short vowel.

    ą: Ogonek (Polish "jądro") → nasal vowel (like French ‘on’).

    Why they matter:

    They change pronunciation (e.g., German "schon" vs. "schön").

    They distinguish meaning (Spanish "si" = ‘if’, "sí" = ‘yes’).

    They preserve etymology (French "hôtel" from Latin "hospitale").

    Fun fact: English mostly dropped these (except in loanwords like "naïve"), but they’re essential in 100+ languages!

    Ever struggled typing these? On Windows: Hold Alt + numeric codes (e.g., Alt+0225 = á). On Mac: Hold Option + letter. Or just copy-paste!

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