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Les accents
While French has the same alphabet as English, some French letters have little decorations that can make them look and sound very different. English loves to borrows words from French and other languages, but the accents are optional: you can write "naïve" or "naive," it makes no difference. In French, however, accents are essential: they’re there for a reason, so you must include them when writing.*
| Accent | Found on | Where it’s used and what it means | Par exemple… | ||
| ´ | aigu acute |
e | Often at the beginning of words that started with "s" in Latin | une école un état |
school state |
| ^ | circonflexe circumflex |
a, e, i, o, u | Often means "s" followed that letter in Latin May distinguish between two words or change pronunciation |
un hôpital sur vs sûr |
hospital on / sure |
| ` | grave grave |
a, e, u | Often distinguishes between two words May indicate pronunciation |
la vs là très |
the / there very |
| ¨ | tréma dieresis |
e, i | Consecutive vowels must be pronounced separately | le canoë le maïs |
canoe corn |
| ¸ | cédille cedilla |
c | Only in front of a, o, and u; changes hard c (k sound) into soft c (s sound) | la leçon ça |
lesson that |
When spelling out loud, there are two different ways to indicate accents: by naming them as you go or by mentioning them at the end.
Par exemple : très
- t – r – e accent grave – s
- t – r – e – s, avec accent grave sur le e
É is known as e accent aigu, but may also be called simply é – learn more.
There’s also a special character created by two vowels that join together: œ ligature.
* The only exception is on capital letters, where accents are optional, but even that is debatable – and we’ll debate it in a future lesson.
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