accent marks

In lesson 4.4 Amy says cual prefiere?   Mauricio says cual es la sopa del dia?   Amy is which, Mauricio is what.  The flag says if there is no accent mark it is translated which.  Why is the accent mark not deleted in amy sentence. they are both accented the same way.

Not sure about the flag. "cual" when used in the context of a question should always have an accent. It can also be translated as either "which" or "what", depending on the context. A very common expression, for example, is "¿Cuál es el problema?".  "¿Qué prefiere?" changes the meaning from "which" to "what", "¿Qué es el problema?" sounds weird to me - I'm not sure you can even say that.

As I have gained some experience and confidence with Spanish, I have noticed some small grammatical and punctuation errors in the translations. Before I could recognize them as errors they frustrated me a lot because I thought I was wrong.

But as Steven wrote, cuál, and for that matter other question words such as qué, cuándo, dónde, cómo, reveal their interrogatory nature by use of the accent marks (or tilde, as my Peruana tutor corrects me every time I use the word acento. She calls this ~ an enya...which I thought that was a Scottish New Age singer...)

When to use qué or cuál is still a bit challenging to me as well. They seem to be interchangeable depending on context.

Just a side note.  Anytime there is a question about proper grammar, punctuation, or spelling, please report it.  In some cases, such as during testing, you will see this phrase with a link:  Send us suggestions or errors on this word/phrase by clicking here.  It's easy to use.  I've used it on occasion and the errors are typically fixed very quickly.  If that link isn't available, just send an email with the details of the problem and what lesson it is in.  They are always very courteous to me even if I'm wrong.  They appreciate the chance to improve the precision and accuracy of the course and it helps future students.

Yes, it can be confusing... Which is normally translated when you have multiple options... "which (one) do you prefer?" - ¿cuál prefieres? refering to soup or salad... what is used when you talk about one specific thing or category, like "¿cuál es la sopa del día?" - "what is the soup of the day?" refering specifically to the soup.

Steven and the rest are correct, everytime you want to formulate a question, you must add a diacritical accent to the word: ¿Dónde?, ¿Cómo?, ¿Cuál?, ¿Por qué?, ¿Qué?, ¿Cuándo?, ¿Cuánto?, etc...

*Depending on the region or the country, you may encounter people who use "¿Qué es?" without saying "el problema" as way of saying "What's going on?". But it is basically broken Spanish...

Thanks for your comments Marie. I hope to see more of it. Maybe it will encourage other participants to bring their questions here in the forum.

Ok, here's a question.  The quiz in lesson 4.5 has the following question.  Choose the word that best fits to ask "What is that?": ¿Qué es ___?  All for answers have accent marks making the correct answer "éso" and not "eso."  In the lesson dialogue, the question is written without the accent in "eso."

Are both correct or is one of these wrong?

It should be: ¿Qué es eso?

La palabra éso no está registrada en el Diccionario. La que se muestra a continuación tiene formas con una escritura cercana.

That's what I thought.  Just sent Rocket Spanish an email.

Notified customer support and this is their response.

Hi Jeff!

Thank you very much for contacting us and for your feedback.

"eso" and "esto" do not have an orthographic accent. We have gone ahead and corrected this in lesson 4.5 This and That.

Thanks again for noticing this and if you have further comments or questions, please let us know.

 

Awesome. This forum is really rockin'.

Thank you Jeff, that is perfect timing for me as I'm just about to get into that lesson! Gracias.