Fernando, Freire & Martin all have excellent answers explaining accent marks, but I was confused about the terminology, I understood that the tilde comes from Latin and was first used around 1864. A Tilde is this, ~, which does not appear on my Spanish language keyboard and is on my English language keyboard. I see it as similar to the squiggle used over the letter n at times in Portuguese and Spanish. I also see it used in mathematics. However in these Spanish writings the accent marks are referred to as tilde. In English we differentiate between the accent marks and Tilde. In Spanish we don't. I learned the following from an article by Gerald Erichsen published at, http://spanish.about.com/cs/historyofspanish/f/tilde_origins.htm and a letter from Robert L. Davis on the same page. "...the ñ came originally from the letter n. The ñ does not exist in Latin and is the only Spanish letter of Spanish origins. Beginning in about the 12th century, Spanish scribes (whose job it was to copy documents by hand) used the tilde placed over letters to indicate that a letter was doubled..." That in contrast to the http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tilde, "a mark ⁓ used in some languages (such as Spanish and Portuguese) to show that the letter n is pronounced /nj/ or that a vowel is pronounced in a different way" And I'll finish with this, "tilde. (De tildar). amb. Virgulilla o rasgo que se pone sobre algunas abreviaturas, el que lleva la ñ, y cualquier otro signo que sirva para distinguir una letra de otra o denotar su acentuación. U. m. en f. amb. p. us. Tacha, nota denigrativa. f. Cosa mínima." Real Academia Española So, no the tilde did not exist in Latin, in English we say tilde and accent marks. And in Spanish we don't differentiate between them. Thanks for your question which prompted me to "look it up."

A smile, the best gift you can give and receive

Hola, tengo un dicho en español que leí por ahí y quisiera que me ayudaran a escribirlo en inglés por favor.
Hello, I have a saying in spanish that I read and I want (delete "to") to you help me to write it in english please.

"Nadie es tan rico (millonario) para no poder recibir una sonrisa ni tan pobre para no poder darla".

"No one is so rich to be unable to receive a smile or so poor to be unable to give it".

Thank you! :)

A smile, the best gift you can give and receive (This is just fine. - Nothing to correct)

 

Hola, tengo un dicho en español que leí por ahí y quisiera que me ayudaran a escribirlo en inglés por favor.

(Rewriting this, it becomes, "Hi, I have a saying in Spanish that I read somewhere and would like you to help me write it in English please.")

 

Hello, I have a saying in (Capitalize, "Spanish") spanish that I read and I want to you (insert, "to") help me (delete, "to") to write it in (Capitalize, "English") english please.

"Nadie es tan rico (millonario) para no poder recibir una sonrisa ni tan pobre para no poder darla." 

 

No one is so rich to be unable to receive a smile or so poor to be unable to give it.

Thank you! :) A smile, the best gift you can give and receive.]

 

Thank you! :)

Angie's notebook entry: Apr 12, 2010

Hello friends,

My work schedule has changed and I can only be on Skype during the weekends, no more Fridays. Again, my Skype username is afdragon76. I will be leaving for Italy one month from today so as soon as I return, I will be able to concentrate on studying Spanish and Portuguese. In the meantime, I am still learning conversational Italian.

Thanks,
Angie

Aere Ergo's notebook entry: Apr 17, 2010

"As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do." Andrew Carnegie

 

(If you are still interested, I offer to help you learn English; I want to improve my Spanish.)

How to learn a languaje in a non-native country?.

Well... I have been learning (I have the custom of capitalizing the names of languages. So here change to, "English") english since 3 years ago. I have tried many ways to learn it: books, movies, Songs, Classes... but I feel that I haven´t learned so much. When I want to talk with somebody I feel ashamed myself because I think that my pronuntiation is really horrible (many Americans do not use comas before, "and"), and that I (use an apostrophy in contractions like, "don't") dont have (the standard spelling is, "enough") enought words to express myself (you could also substitute the word, "vocabulary" for "words"). Somebody told me that nobody can learn a languaje in a non- native country and that the only way for doing this is going to a native country (sic). (The standard spelling is, "Perhaps." Although it could have just been a typo.) Pherphas I (use an apostrophy in contractions like, "won't") wont travel to (use "an" inplace of "a" before "English") a (I have the custom of capitalizing the names of languages. So here change to, "English") english native country (??) along many years (Lets rewrite this. "Perhaps I won't travel to a country with many native English speakers for a long time (or for many years))... so I would like to know ...(delete the "¿") What do you think about (insert, "the rumor that") its imposibble to learn a (use the standard spelling, "language") languaje in a (change, "non-native country", to "country with few native English speakers")? (and delete the period).  (I like your writing style. Keep up the spirit. Many more people who speak English are on the site and will gladly help you also. -aH)  
Please be honest.