French accent marks are a big challenge for beginner French students, especially when it comes to reading them. The names of the French accents are: the l’accent aigu (é), l’accent grave (è), le circonflexe (ê), l’accent tréma (ë) and la cédille (ç). The purpose of this post is to demystify the French accents and explain the pronunciation so you can start to incorporate them into your reading and speaking.
In a nutshell, here are the French accent marks:
L’accent aigu is an upward slanting accent and appears only over the letter -e and looks like this: é. Of all the French accents this one is by far the most important as it’s used very widely throughout the language and has a big impact on how the é is pronounced.
Many French teachers and writers of French textbooks will suggest that the accent aigu sounds like the -e in the English word 'bed'. However, we at LinguaBud.com, believe that the é in French is more similar to the -ay, as in the English word 'play'.
É accent aigu has a ton of usages. The first one we’ll look at is the last letter of many French adjectives:
L’accent aigu can also appear in or at the end of countless French nouns. Par example:
For regular -er verbs, the -er is removed and replaced with -é to form the past participle. Par example:
This is the downward sloping accent that appears over the following letters: -à, -è and -ù.
The accent grave has two primary usages: 1. to alter the pronunciation of the letter -e and 2. to differentiate homonyms (two words that are spelled the exact same way and are pronounced the exact same way but, have different meanings).
First we’ll take a look at how the accent grave is used over the letter -e and its effects on pronunciation.
To pronounce this accent mark, read the -è as the “eh” or the -e sound in American English 'get' or 'bed'. Let’s look at some examples of -è in common words:
Some words have both an accent aigu (é) and an accent grave (è). This poses a question: What do I do here? The answer is simple: pronounce -é as the "ay" in 'play' and -è as "eh" or the -e sound in 'get' and 'bed'. Try saying these:
Now we’ll look at words where the accent grave distinguishes between two homonyms. It’s crucial when writing to include these accents where necessary. If not you only have a 50% chance of writing the word correctly! Par Example:
The circumflex accent is the little hat (le petit chapeau) accent that appears over the following letters: -â, -ê, -î, -ô, -û. The accent has two main purposes 1. Replacing an -s, and 2. Distinguishing homophones. In some words such dîner (to eat, have dinner) the accent seems totally useless. Indeed, there’s been lots of talk over the years about doing away with the beloved circonflexe.
Where some English words have an -s, their French equivalents omit the -s and use an accent circonflexe over the vowel preceding where the -s would have been in old French. Par example:
This is a heavily disputed topic. While some might argue that l’accent circonflexe has an impact on the pronunciation when it appears over the -a, -e, and -o, many believe it is purely academic. Discuss amongst yourselves!
The circumflex is also used to distinguish between homophones (words spelled the same which have different meanings). Par example:
Of all the French accents the tréma is probably the least common. The accent only appears over the letters -ï and -ë. When two vowels appear next to each other and one of them has a diaeresis, both vowels get pronounced. Hence, when you read Noël (Christmas), both the -o and -e get pronounced: “noh-el”. Some examples of French words with the tréma accent:
The cedilla (la cédille) is the little squiggly mark that appears under the letter -c. It looks like this: -Ç -ç. The function of the cedilla is to make the letter -c have a soft 's' sound like -s in 'Sam'. The ç is found before the letters -a, -o and -u.
With the cedilla, ça va sounds like sa va. Without the cedilla it would sound like ka va. Separately, without the cedilla français would sound like frankay. Est-ce que tu parles frakay?
Note that before the letters -e and -i the -c automatically has a soft sound. Hence, la cédille is not needed. Examples: cerise (cherry) or ciseaux (scissors). French words with cedilla:
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