# Jose, can you spell?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jose-can-you-spell/751340
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 6, 2016, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jose-can-you-spell/751340 "2016-04-06T13:56:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2016, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jose-can-you-spell/751340/21 "2016-04-06T20:31:58Z")
> [@Nava](#):
>
> There is no “normal rule” that _Panamá_ is breaking, the rule is that words stressed in the last syllable (_agudas_, which is not an _aguda_) and ending in vowel, n or s get the diacritic.
Rather a nitpick. Of course its a “normal rule.” Otherwise why not use a diacritic on _every_ stressed syllable? Words that don’t follow the general rule require an extra notation that other words don’t get.
---
### Author:  [@Carryon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carryon)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2016, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jose-can-you-spell/751340/22 "2016-04-06T20:33:27Z")
One could also argue English doesn’t have diacritical marks, so you can’t properly translate it with them. It would be akin to using a Cyrillic letter or an Greek letter in an otherwise English word. That isn’t done.
I realize that some people will argue English does in fact have diacritical marks, but that is debateable.
---
### Author:  [@CBEscapee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBEscapee)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2016, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jose-can-you-spell/751340/23 "2016-04-06T20:43:46Z")
And then I can’t count the times I have seen Americans spell _mole_ as _molé_ and pronounce it as mo-LAY. Or habanero chiles as _habañero_.
---
### Author:  [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2016, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jose-can-you-spell/751340/24 "2016-04-06T21:01:09Z")
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> [Álex Rodríguez](Álex Rodríguez) (Baseball Reference)
> [Alex Rodriguez](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Rodriguez) (Wikipedia)
>
> [Sean Rodriguez](http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/rodrise01.shtml) (Baseball Reference)
> [Sean Rodriguez](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Rodriguez) (Wikipedia)
>
> Since both of them were born in the US, I suspect neither A-Rod nor Sean habitually use the diacritic. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen A-Rod’s name with accents anywhere.
Looking at A-Rod’s FB page, he doesn’t use the accent mark. That might indicate his personal preference.
No I’m not his Friend.
> **[Log in or sign up to view](https://m.facebook.com/AROD)**
>
> See posts, photos and more on Facebook.
---
### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2016, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jose-can-you-spell/751340/25 "2016-04-06T21:20:45Z")
> [@Bullitt](#):
>
> Or on résumé?
>
> I smirk when an applicant, in their email cover letter, asks me to find their attached resume.
Depends on the style guide. I prefer “resume,” myself. Or accents over both. Just not one.
---
### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2016, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jose-can-you-spell/751340/26 "2016-04-06T21:27:57Z")
I should add, in my profession, it was the Associated Press style guide which guided my spelling choices, and the accent would be omitted in both “résumé” and “café.” So there’s nothing dumb or ignorant about omitting the accent–it can very well be a stylistic choice (and, for that matter, I consider the word fully adopted into English, which does not have accent marks in its standard orthography.)
---
### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2016, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jose-can-you-spell/751340/27 "2016-04-06T21:59:10Z")
> [@Bullitt](#):
>
> Or on résumé?
>
> I smirk when an applicant, in their email cover letter, asks me to find their attached resume.
The AP Style Guide recommends not using any diacritical marks, so that would probably be correct in a newspaper. (ETA: I see **pulykamell** has addressed this.)
The Chicago Manual of Style is surprising unhelpful on the use of diacritics in English. It would probably recommend using them in any word spelled as such in Merriam-Webster or other standard reference. However, it is silent on whether to use them in foreign names.
I get the _Miami Herald_ here in Panama, which is transmitted electronically and printed locally. The _Herald_ evidently uses diacritics in its English text, but these apparently don’t get transmitted, leaving a name like Núñez to appear as “Nez” and leaving me scratching my head.
---
### Author:  [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2016, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jose-can-you-spell/751340/28 "2016-04-06T22:07:12Z")
> [@Bullitt](#):
>
> Or on résumé?
>
> I smirk when an applicant, in their email cover letter, asks me to find their attached resume.
I’m as nit-picky as they come, and I generally _don’t_ use the accent marks, especially in emails or website forms. That’s because I would fear that the accented letters won’t get encoded properly, possibly turning the word into gibberish.
In a PDF or printed document, I might consider using an accent mark over the second “e” only. In English, the first accent mark is unnecessary, IMHO. Besides, I think using both accent marks looks like an affectation.
This [cite](http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2007/06/resume.html) indicates that all three spellings are acceptable (resume, resumé, or résumé), though in a later [post](http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2015/01/resume-2.html) they recommend omitting the accent marks entirely.
---
### Author:  [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2016, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jose-can-you-spell/751340/29 "2016-04-06T23:55:04Z")
As **robby** points out, online or in other-languages media I don’t get too hung up on the accenting since you can end up with something like Jos&^ag% So in general, blame ASCII and people who have not properly figured out Unicode.
> [@CBEscapee](#):
>
> Or habanero chiles as _habañero_.
Dan Rather referring to the city of “Cartage_ **ñ** _a” back when he was reporting on the cartels. :rolleyes: It’s a whole other letter and phoneme, Dan, they are not interchangeable.
> [@Nava](#):
>
> Both Florida and Panama would get a diacritic if transliterated back to Spanish…
To clarify: if you pronounce “Florida” American-style (_FLO_-ri-da) it would become Flórida. If you pronounce in Spanish (flo-_REE_-dah) it doesn’t.
---
### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2016, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jose-can-you-spell/751340/30 "2016-04-07T00:19:42Z")
> [@CBEscapee](#):
>
> Or habanero chiles as _habañero_.
Ooo…that one annoys the crap out of me, too–you can ask my wife as I annoyingly point it out every time I see it. I have a bottle of hot sauce here from Poblano (company name) in Arizona (delicious hot sauce), and, while their regular bottles spell it correctly without the enye, their anniversary bottle, for whatever reason, has it listed as “habañero” in the ingredients list. And you hear it a lot when spoken, too, with people conflating the pronunciation of jalapeño with habanero.
---
### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2016, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jose-can-you-spell/751340/31 "2016-04-07T00:32:33Z")
With “mole,” though, I most often hear it as “MOE-lay,” with diphtongs on both vowels ([oʊ] and [eɪ], respectively,) but stress on first, though the stresses are almost equal. American English doesn’t really have the [e] sound by its lonesome, and it sounds to American ears more like [eɪ] as opposed to the pure vowel [ɛ], which we do have. I have heard Spanish speakers say that [ɛ] is a more acceptable substitute. Same with the diphtong [oʊ]. American English doesn’t really have a standalong [o] sound, so it gets approximated to what we call the “long o,” which is the diphthong [oʊ].
---
### Author:  [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2016, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jose-can-you-spell/751340/32 "2016-04-07T01:23:00Z")
There is one instance where some style guides require a diacritic in a native English word: a dieresis on a vowel of words like “cooperate.” There are a few websites that publish in that style, although I don’t know who they are off-hand.
---
### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2016, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jose-can-you-spell/751340/33 "2016-04-07T01:41:16Z")
> [@glowacks](#):
>
> There is one instance where some style guides require a diacritic in a native English word: a dieresis on a vowel of words like “cooperate.” There are a few websites that publish in that style, although I don’t know who they are off-hand.
Don’t know about websites specifically, but that’s a hallmark of _The New Yorker_.
---
### Author:  [@Loopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopus)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2016, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jose-can-you-spell/751340/34 "2016-04-07T01:41:27Z")
As a fencer, I’ve had more occasions than most to type the name of the fencing weapon based on the 19th century French dueling sword, or _épée_. I used to go back and forth about whether or not to spell it in English with or without the accent marks, but I eventually decided that spelling it with the marks looks kinda pedantic, it doesn’t add any useful information, the plain “epee” spelling is generally accepted anyway, and leaving them off makes things a lot easier.
---
### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2016, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jose-can-you-spell/751340/35 "2016-04-07T01:50:29Z")
> [@glowacks](#):
>
> a dieresis on a vowel of words like “cooperate.”
Surely you mean a diëresis. 😉
---
### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2016, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jose-can-you-spell/751340/36 "2016-04-07T01:53:06Z")
> [@pulykamell](#):
>
> Don’t know about websites specifically, but that’s a hallmark of _The New Yorker_.
[Indeed,](http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-curse-of-the-diaeresis) but ironically enough they spell it diaeresis.
---
### Author:  [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2016, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jose-can-you-spell/751340/37 "2016-04-07T04:22:46Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#):
>
> To clarify: if you pronounce “Florida” American-style (_FLO_-ri-da) it would become Flórida. If you pronounce in Spanish (flo-_REE_-dah) it doesn’t.
Yeah, that’s what I meant by transliterate back. English pronunciations would have a diacritic if spelled according to Spanish rules.
**Carryon** , not translate: transliterate. “To spell something the way it sounds to you”.
---
### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2016, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jose-can-you-spell/751340/38 "2016-04-07T04:46:36Z")
Sometimes it’s a matter of style. I can tell you both English-language dailies in Thailand, The _Bangkok Post_ and _The Nation_, have a policy of omitting all accents. In the event of an umlaut in German, they just put an E after the vowel in question, which is actually what the umlaut replaced to begin with.
---
### Author:  [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2016, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jose-can-you-spell/751340/39 "2016-04-07T10:08:07Z")
> [@pulykamell](#):
>
> I should add, in my profession, it was the Associated Press style guide which guided my spelling choices, and the accent would be omitted in both “résumé” and “café.”
I believe that Fowler suggests the English word should be spelled “cafe” and pronounced something like “caff” instead of some French-ified pronunciation.
---
### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2016, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jose-can-you-spell/751340/40 "2016-04-07T10:41:35Z")
> [@hogarth](#):
>
> I believe that Fowler suggests the English word should be spelled “cafe” and pronounced something like “caff” instead of some French-ified pronunciation.
The (British) paper I work for stipulates no accent on “cafe” in the general sense, but an accent on a specific name (eg “Café de Paris”) if the establishment uses it. Similarly with “chateau” (generic) versus “Château de Cuisses-Grenouille”.
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jose-can-you-spell/751340.md?page=1)
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jose-can-you-spell/751340.md?page=3)