🌟 French Accent Marks – Explained with Examples
1. L’accent aigu ( ´ ) – Used on é
Used only on: É / é
Sound: Sounds like [ay] in “say”
Function: It sharpens the 'e' sound
- 🔹 école – school
- 🔹 élève – student
- 🔹 été – summer
- 🔹 café – coffee
- 🔹 marché – market
2. L’accent grave ( ` ) – Used on à, è, ù
Used on: À / à, È / è, Ù / ù
Sound: È sounds like [eh] in “bed”
Function: Distinguishes meaning and changes sound
- 🔹 père – father
- 🔹 très – very
- 🔹 voilà – there it is
- 🔹 où – where
- 🔹 à – to / at
3. L’accent circonflexe ( ˆ ) – Used on â, ê, î, ô, û
Used on: Â, Ê, Î, Ô, Û
Sound: Often elongates vowel or marks a missing ‘s’
Function: Historical marker of omitted ‘s’ (forêt = forest)
- 🔹 forêt – forest
- 🔹 hôpital – hospital
- 🔹 gâteau – cake
- 🔹 mûr – ripe
- 🔹 sûr – sure
4. La cédille ( ¸ ) – Used on ç
Used on: ç (only under c)
Sound: Turns a hard [k] into soft [s]
Function: Used before a, o, u to soften ‘c’
- 🔹 garçon – boy
- 🔹 français – French
- 🔹 leçon – lesson
- 🔹 ça va – how’s it going?
- 🔹 reçu – received
5. Le tréma ( ¨ ) – Used on ë, ï, ü, ÿ
Used on: ë, ï, ü, ÿ
Sound: Makes sure vowels are pronounced separately
Function: Indicates a break between two vowels
- 🔹 Noël – Christmas (no-el)
- 🔹 naïve – naive (nah-eev)
- 🔹 Haïti – Haiti (ha-ee-tee)
- 🔹 maïs – corn (mah-ees)
- 🔹 aïe – ouch! (a-ee)