I have a quick link on my toolbar to the character map, that enables me to add the tilde quickly where it's needed.

Just about. Yeh, agree with that, the wiggle above the "n" gives it a very different sound to an "n" without, whereas an "o" or an "ó" sound exactly the same sound, the accent only indicates where the stress goes.

Actually, I hadn't spotted the fact that the sound doesn't differ with emphasis, but that's a good point.

It may well be that Lynnxa is dead right, and technically they are all tildes, and my friend may have been taught slightly differently to the hard and fast rules because his teacher saw the ñ as being in a seperate subset.

as I said, I prefer to think of it that way, and to teach it that way (while mentioning that technically it's a tilde)

when teaching the rules of the strong syllable, you teach to look for a tilde as the first rule, which over-rules the other 2 rules

if you don't take the squiggle on the ñ out of the equation it becomes very confusing for many



and my plans for this evening have been affected by the heat...............have decided it's way too hot to eat outside our local Wok - & their aircon leaves a lot to be desired - so it's a takeaway in our very efficient aircon

Every time I see 'technically' I always thing of that Arthur Daly song where someone says "OK so technically it's a criminal offence.."

I just love it.

"So 'e sells the odd dodgy motor. That's not a crime, is it?"
"Um, well, actually it is."
"OK, so technically it's a crime..."

Not the best song in the world, but one of the better bits of repartee.

The habitual perturbations of this time (scrambled skies, rain, etc...) have already arrived. Are beginning the second half or final of August to first half of September, announcing the change of cycle, and the imminent arrival of autumn

Because of the time lapse, this might be a futile exercise, but I have suffered for the past two months and so has my family. My grandson got serious sunburn, the dogs got an infection from the pool. I'm brown as a berry, but worry about some lumps that shouldn't be there.

It's over now, the Madrilenos have gone home and a cool winter beckons.

If I was a rich man, I wouldn't be in Spain for July and August.

Just hope bil hasn't read that.

I'm not rich but much prefer to rough it in comfortable UK temperatures than suffer the hell of Spanish mid-summer.
Probably suffer that soon enough anyway.
Just beginning to think about coming back down, but likely give it another week or two to be on the safe side.

Neither would I, but to be honest I can't be bothered with all the hassle of airline travel these days unless I really have to, now if I had a private jet that would be a different matter!

I do dislike the extreme heat of summer here and stay indoors with the air-con running as much as is possible.
But now it's September.....we have just had our first air-con free day for a couple of months.
Autumn is on the way and I'm sat here feeling a slight chill in the night air....I think I'm going to have to close the door and sleep without the ceiling fan running tonight!

We've never really got up to extreme temperatures here (Aracena area) this year. I think we might have got up to 33 on a day or two! Last year and every year I can remember it was regularly 35-37 degrees throughout july and August, so I think this summer has been a gentle one. And it does indeed feel as if it's on it's way out:-(. I hope the winter is gentle in the other direction. We've got very little in the way of heating and are possibly facing a period without Electricity if our house doesn't get it's 'licencia' and/or Endesa get tricky.

Staying indoors with the shutters down and A/C on in Spain isn't any different to a grey day in the UK is it...oh it is, you don't have to pay for A/C and I can do some gardening

Oranges and apples. If you like clouds and casual drizzle almost non stop, then go live in the UK and be happy.

We had the first rain yesterday, and after the non stop heat of the last two months, I thought I'd revel in it, but it just reminded me of how much I hate rain.

We balance the cost of A/C against the fact that our heating bill is about 250 euros for the entire winter.

Glad you can do gardening in the grey. In the UK, everyday I had to go pick all the flower petals off the geranium leaves before they rotted in situ and infected the whole plant.

We didnt move here for the oppressive heat of august...but were just about through it now and have the beautiful spring like days of autumn to look forward to.And the crisp sunny days of deepest winter.You just cant beat it.