French Accents
There are 5 French accents:
- the cédille Ç,
- the accent aigu é,
- the accent circonflexe â, ê, î, ô, û,
- the accent grave à, è, ù
- and the accent tréma ë, ï, ü.
An important thing to know about pronouncing French words is that the French accent marks can completely change the pronunciation of a word. Luckily, most accent marks don't actually do very much!
The 5 French accents;
- 1 for a consonant
- 4 for vowels
1. The cédille (cedilla) Ç
The cédille is only used on the letter C. It changes a hard "c" sound (like "k") into a soft "c" sound (like "s"). Ç is never used before the vowels e or i, as these 2 vowels always produce a soft "s" sound (glace, ici).2. The accent aigu (acute accent) é
The accent aigu is only used on the letter e.3. The accent circonflexe (circumflex) â, ê, î, ô, û
The accent circonflex indicates that (historically) an "s" used to follow that vowel e.g. écouter and escouter4. The accent grave (grave accent) à, è, ù
With a and u, the accent grave is used to differentiate some words;- à "to" versus a "has"
- où "where" versus ou "or"
5. The accent tréma (dieresis/umlaut) ë, ï, ü
The accent tréma indicates that the vowel is to be pronounced separately from the one immediately before it.Notes!
- Sometimes the French accents are left off capital letters!
- If the correct French accent isn't used then it would be regarded as a spelling mistake!
More on é and è
Some French accents do change the pronunciation and need to be learned and practiced. The é and the è are the two most common. Look at the pronunciation guide below and listen and practice.é
pronunciation = ay
été
summer
è
pronunciation = eh
mère
mother
The French Riviera, Nice
That's probably enough pronunciation practice for now! Remember the more you listen, the more you'll be able to recognize words as they're spoken.
I would strongly recommend that you check out this lesson on the French alphabet next!
À bientôt !
Marie-Claire Rivière and the Rocket French Team
