The verbs "give it away" and "break it" are over-spanish words.
A word is oversdrújula when its prosodic accent falls on a syllable preceding the penultimate syllable . The term can also be described as sobresdrújulo (with a single E) or as superproparoxytono .
Spelling accent or accent
Before continuing, it is important to keep in mind that prosodic accent is a relief or intensification of pronunciation . According to the rules of spelling, the accent in some contexts also becomes an orthographic sign (an accent ) that indicates this phonetic particularity.
In the Spanish language, over-esdrújulas words always have an accent. The accent , in all these cases, is found on a syllable that precedes the penultimate one: this means that, after the accent, there are at least three other syllables .
Some examples
“Give it away” is an example of an over-esdrújula word. This word is divided into five syllables ( re/gá/la/se/lo ) and the accent appears on the second ( gá ), which is followed by three more syllables ( la/se/lo ): “If you didn't like it the dress, give it to your sister” , “Have you read this book yet? Give it to Juan!” , “Please take this cake and give it to your child.”
Take the case of “spontaneously” . It is a heptasyllabic word because it has seven syllables: es/pon/tá/ne/a/men/te . The accent is placed on the third syllable ( tá ). It should be noted that in this notion there is a hiatus ( e/a ): “When observing the young man fallen in the middle of the avenue, dozens of passers-by began to spontaneously shout,” “I don't know how the machine worked again, it seems that it was fixed.” spontaneously since no one touched it” , “The witness decided to spontaneously appear before the judge” .
Another slang word that we use very frequently in everyday life is “comfortably.” Just like the previous example, we are dealing with an adverb and behind its type of word hides the reason why both have an orthographic accent. If we refer to the adjectives from which they arise, "spontaneous" and "comfortable", we will notice that both are written with an accent and that they are esdrújulas. Well, when converting them into adverbs, the rules of the language require us to maintain the orthographic accent.
Let's look at one more verb, to relate it to the first example: "breaking it." Although their ending is the same, they are different conjugations: "regálaselo" belongs to the imperative, since it gives an order or suggestion to the interlocutor, while this is the gerund of the verb "romper" plus the personal pronouns "se" (which corresponds to "le") and "lo" , to refer to the indirect and direct object, respectively. In context, we could say "When I went to look for Ana's little train, her brother was breaking it."
Confusions
We must recognize that accentuation in our language is not especially difficult to learn, since we have rules and exceptions that help us. However, outside the student environment we begin to lose the habit of paying attention to technical issues and we depend more and more on computer programs to correct our writing, so confusion arises.
Adjectives that have an accent retain it when they become adverbs.
The over-esdrújulas words are rare if we compare them with the other three types (acute, grave and esdrújulas), since they do not appear as frequently and nor do they have a solid structure in terms of the placement of the accent. However, there are also rules that can help us write them correctly. Returning to the case of adverbs ending in mind, for example, we know that they should only have an accent if they also have an accent in their adjective form.
Then there are certain words that, for certain reasons, many of us write with the accent on the wrong syllable. Such is the case of "regimes", the plural of "regime". Given its location in the singular, there is a tendency to write "regimes", a word that does not exist in our language, which in principle has the accentuation typical of an oversdrújula.