French i accent marks

French Accent Marks

1. Les accents en français

2. Accent aigu (/) Occurs over the letter “e” - é Goes up, from left to right Makes the sound /e/ - like we pronounce the letter “A” in English Example - enchanté

3. Accent Grave (\) Occurs over the letters “a,” “e,” & “u” - à è ù Goes down, from left to right Over “e” it makes the sound /ε/ - which sound somewhat like “eh” Over “a” and “u” it does not have sound, but is used to distinguish two words that are otherwise spelled the same à ╪ a où ╪ ou Examples – là , très , où

4. Accent cedilla (,) Occurs under the letters “c,” - ç Looks like small “s” or curve Softens a “c” from a hard sound, /k/, to a soft sound, /s/ Example – ça va

5. Accent Circumflex (^) Occurs over the letters “e,” “ i ,” “u” and “o” - ê î û ô Looks like an arrow pointing up Does not have a sound, but indicates that at some point a word was spelled with an “s,” that as since been dropped from the spelling Example – bientôt , août

6. Accent trema (..) Occurs over the letters “e,” and “ i ” - ë ï Looks like a colon on top of a letter Indicates that two vowels are pronounced separately Example – Noël

7. Les accents français Names Letters Purpose Keyboard Shortcuts Accent aigu é Makes the sound /e/ - like we pronounce the letter “A” in English Alt + 130 OR Ctrl + apostrophe release, then e Accent grave à è ù * Over “e” it makes the sound /ε/ - which sound somewhat like “eh” * Over “a” and “u” it does not have sound, but is used to distinguish two works that are otherwise spelled the same Alt + 133 – à Alt + 138 – è Alt + 151 – ù OR Ctrl + tilde release, then letter Accent cedilla ç Softens a “c” from a hard sound, /k/, to a soft sound, /s/ Alt + 135 – ç OR Ctrl + comma release, then c Accent circumflex ô ê î Does not have a sound, but indicates that at some point a word was spelled with an “s,” that as since been dropped from the spelling Alt + 147 – ô Alt + 136 – ê Alt + 140 – î OR Ctrl + shift + ^ release, then letter Accent trema ë ï Indicates that two vowels are pronounced separately Alt + 137 – ë Alt + 139 – ï OR Ctrl + shift + : release, then letter Accent marks are an important part of spelling and pronunciation Omitting an accent can change the meaning of a word.