Les Accents - French Accents

Put an accent aigu on the letter e.

é

What does an accent aigu tell you?

Tells you to pronounce an e similar to the a in the English word date. (exemple: répétez!)

Put an accent grave on the letter e, a, u.

è, à, ù

What does an accent grave tell you on the letter e?

Tells you to pronounce an e like the e in the English word jet. (exemple: très)

What does an accent grave tell you on the letter a or u?

Tells you an a or a u is pronounced the same, but it changes the meaning of the word. (à, où)

Put an accent circonflexe on all 5 vowels.

â, ê, î, ô, û

What does an accent circonflexe tell you?

Tells you not to change the pronunciation - often means there used to be an S in the word in old French. (hôtel)

Put a cédille on a c.

ç

What does a cédille tell you?

Tells you to pronounce the c like an s (français)

Put a tréma on e, i, o, u.

ë, ï, ö, ü

What does a tréma tell you?

Tells you to pronounce two vowels that are next to each other separately. (Noël, naïve)

What accent mark is in this word: français?

cédille

What accent mark is in this word: très?

accent grave

What accent mark is in this word: naïve?

tréma

What 2 accent markS are in this word: tétû (=stuborn)?

accent aigu, accent circonflexe

What 2 accent marks are in this word: élève?

accent aigu, accent grave

Les accents français et les signes orthographiques:

POURQUOI (=why) ils sont importants?

Because they are part of spelling=l'orthographe.

They can change the meaning=La signification/le sens.

They can change the pronunciation=la prononciation.

accent aigu

Goes up. The most used accent and is only placed on the letter e. Sounds like "date".

accent grave

Goes down. Can be placed on the letters a, e and u.

une cédille

It looks like a squiggle or number 5 under the letter 'c' and is ONLY used on the letter c (ç.).