Acentúan

Acentúan is the third-person plural present indicative form of the Spanish verb acentuar. The verb carries two core meanings depending on context: in orthography and prosody, it refers to placing accent marks or indicating the stressed syllable in a word; in rhetoric or general use, it means to emphasize, highlight, or give prominence to ideas or elements within a text or speech.

Etymology and general use: acentuar comes from Latin accentuare, itself related to accentus, meaning tone or cadence. In everyday language, acentuar can describe both the literal marking of syllables with tilde diacritics and the figurative act of stressing or underscoring information. The form acentuán, acentuáis, etc., follows regular Spanish conjugation patterns for -ar verbs.

Usage notes: When used in linguistic or typographic discussions, acentúan often appears in statements about how words should be stressed or how accents alter meaning (for example distinguishing palabras con tilde). In a rhetorical or editorial context, it describes the practice of drawing reader attention to particular phrases or arguments.

Examples:

- Ellos acentúan las palabras clave para facilitar la comprensión del texto.

- En español, ciertas palabras acentúan su sílaba tónica conforme a las reglas de acentuación.

- El autor acentúa la idea de responsabilidad social en el último párrafo.

See also: acento, acentuación, tilde, acentuación prosódica, acentuar.