How to write alone or only

When we write, it is very common for us to have some grammatical doubts, above all, because the Spanish language is constantly evolving. The RAE (Royal Spanish Academy) is the entity that is responsible for creating the orthographic rules and grammars rules on which this language should be based that is spoken both in Spain and in most of Latin America. One of the most frequent doubts at the time of writing is the accentuation of the "solo" since, until now, it should be written with or without a tilde depending on the function that it did within the sentence but the rules have changed, for that reason, In this article we are going to discover how to write it alone or only discovering the current situation of this linguistic rule.

The diacritical accent

Traditionally, the word "alone" could carry or not carry accents. The type of accentuation that this term used is known as " diacritic accent ", that is, a type of sign that is placed in certain words that are written the same but have a different meaning. This is what happened with "only" when we refer to the adverb "only" or "only" when we refer to someone being alone.

In Spanish there are many words that, even today, are accentuated with this type of accent to differentiate them from each other as, for example:

You / Your

  • You have to go to grandma's house now
  • Your mother is very nice

He / He

  • The other day I fell playing football
  • He told me that he had been the sneak

In this article we tell you when to accentuate "you".

"Solo" without accent

To know how to write alone or we should only know that the one that does NOT have an accent is a qualifying adjective that refers to someone being "without company", alone, alone. In this case, it should NOT be accentuated because it would be a lack of spelling.

Therefore, in these examples we should never use the accent:

  • He was alone on the street when he was attacked
  • This year I'm going to go alone on vacation
  • He does not like to stay alone at home

"Only" with accent

So, when is accentuated "alone"? The tilde in this word is placed when it functions as an adverb of mode. A good way to know how to write alone or just see if you can replace it with "only", if so, then YES you can go with tilde.

For example

  • I just want you to pick up the room - I just want you to pick up the room
  • Juan has gone home alone - * Juan has only gone home

As you can see, in the first case the adverb "only" can be accentuated but in the second, not because the word has another meaning.

The new regulations of the RAE

However, at present, the emphasis on "only" has changed regulations and the RAE, now, allows that "only" is not accentuated in any of the cases. Why? The entity has based its formulation on the orthographic rules of accentuation do not allow this word level finished in vowel to be accentuated.

Thus, the diacritic accent rule that we have explained in the first section disappears in the use of this word. The reason is that the academic regulations indicated that the diachronic tilde should only be used in unstressed words and this is not the case of "only" that it is a tonic adverb.

Therefore, is it accentuated alone or not? The answer is YES and NO. That is, if you want you can continue accentuating the word (when it means "only") but the recommendation of the RAE is that the tilde is not put because, basically, is not correctly applying the rules of the diacritic accent.