Mark My Word

Did you get your job by submitting a resume or résumé? While in Spain, did you climb the 11,414-foot Mulhacén or Mulhacen? It depends, I suppose, on who you are, where you're at, and who you're writing for. It doesn't, however, depend on grammar, since while lots of people have an opinion, no one can claim a must-follow rule. Bill Walsh, a renowned copy desk chief at the Washington Post, says you might as well skip accent marks because to use them consistently would be near impossible (especially for anyone writing on deadline). "English is a language without accent marks," he writes, "even when it's borrowing from languages that do have them." The New York Times style guide begs to differ - it suggests we use accent marks for French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and German words and names only (a Jan. 13, 2007, Times story about Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts referred to his "career résumé"). Some words, it says, retain their accents even after they enter the English language (résumé, protégé) while others do not (facade, cafe), but it doesn't how we're supposed to know which words are in which group. So here's my advice: For proper nouns, especially any place or anything you could find on a map (São Paulo), the names of plays, books, pieces of music, operas (Götterdämmerung), etc., and people's names (Antônio), use the accent if you're sure it's proper to do so (São Paulo is always São Paulo, but Antônio is sometimes just Antonio). If in doubt, don't include the accent mark. As for other words of foreign origin (foreign to English speakers at least), I'd follow Bill Walsh's advice and axe the accent marks.

Note: To complicate matters, in Word certain words appear with accents as you type, such as  "façade," which automatically receives the cedilla whether you want it to or not. Ditto the words café and naïve, which get topped by the acute accent and umlaut (or dieresis), respectively. I'm sure there's a way to stop the madness, but I have no idea what it is.

Also, and this is annoying, while the Times style guide says one thing, the Times itself is inconsistent, using Sao Paolo and São Paulo, resume and résumé, etc. Still, I'd follow its rule even if it doesn't!

Penn State has a great reference for creating accent marks for both Windows and Mac.

Comments

[Kristin Johnson]

Working with global teams, I often face the question of accent vs. no accent. Thanks for providing some direction!

[Carlo Odello]

I do not agree on these directions as they sound to me a bit too english-oriented. Infact it is not the same to write "caffe" or "caffè", it is definitely a mistake in my language, I mean in Italian. We do not change English words although they are difficult to us. An so we accepted "computer" trying to pronuonce in an English way. Accents are part of a language and ignoring them is just a way of make life easier but poorer.

[Dan Santow]

Carlo, I appreciate your thoughtful comment, and I agree that my advice is clearly English-oriented, but that’s also the language in which, and about which, I write. To be honest, I can’t comment on the rules and traditions that surround writing in English by those in non-English-speaking countries. But as for English written by those of us in the U.S., the UK, and Canada, I stand by my own advice.

[Lee Antonio]

Dan, can future Word Wise entries address when, why and how to best use (or not) these three often misused terms/words:
- compliment vs complement
- matching pronouns correctly with nouns/verbs
- how infrequently we should use "myself"?? THANKS

[Holy Prepuce]

For résumé in particular I think it makes sense to retain the accent marks; in this way the eye can quickly diffentiate between the noun résumé and the verb [to] resume.