Grave Accent: à, è, ù

Accent grave

Only three French vowels can take the grave accent: à, è, and ù, and the purpose of the accent depends on the letter in question.

E accent grave

On the letter e, the grave accent is a pronunciation marker, indicating that the pronunciation is [ɛ]. In French, this sound is most commonly found in closed syllables. When spelling out loud, è is called e accent grave.

Par exemple…

è sound
une espèce		type, species
une lèvre		lip
une pièce		room, coin, play
très		very

 Note that there are other spellings which create the same e sound – see lesson on E.

Accent on grammar

1) È features in two types of stem-changing verbs:

• é_er to è_er verbs: é (e accent aigu) changes to è in the affected conjugations.

gérer		je gère
répéter		je répète

• e_er to è_er verbs: the first e changes to è in the affected conjugations.

acheter		j’achète
lever		je lève

2) È is the first letter of the third person plural passé simple ending of all –er verbs:

donner		ils donnèrent
aller		ils allèrent

3) È is added to the end of regular -er verbs in inversion with je:

parler		parlè-je
marcher		marchè-je

4) Masculine adjectives and nouns that end in –er change to –ère in the feminine:

léger		légère
un caissier		une caissière

A accent grave and U accent grave

On the letters a and u, the grave accent has nothing to do with pronunciation; instead, it usually serves to distinguish between words that would otherwise be spelled identically.

Ù is found in just one word:

ou

or (conjunction)

où

where (interrogative adverb) where, when (relative pronoun)

À is found at the end of about a dozen short words:

Par exemple…

a	third person singular of avoir		à	to, at in (preposition)
la	the (definite article) her, it (direct object)		là	there (adverb)

A few of these words don’t have an unaccented counterpart:

déjà	already
holà	hey, hello, hang on

 Related lessons

• Letters: A | E | U
• Vowels
• Open vs closed syllables
• Introduction to accents
• Accentonyms
• How to type French accents
• Stem-changing verbs

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