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French Orthography

The Accent Marks (é, è, ê, ç)

How orthographic accents modify vowel sounds and distinguish meaning; an essential spelling component.

Level A1 Category Orthography

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Lesson Summary

How orthographic accents modify vowel sounds and distinguish meaning; an essential spelling component.

Orthography

Why Accents are Not Optional

Accent marks are integral to French spelling. They indicate the correct vowel sound and can differentiate otherwise identical words. Omitting an accent is a spelling error. This lesson focuses on the four primary diacritical marks. For the names and sounds of the letters on which they appear, see the alphabet.

The Four Accents

Accent	Name	Effect on Pronunciation	Example
é	accent aigu	makes the e sound like 'ay' (as in café)	étudiant, café, épeler
è	accent grave	makes the e sound open (as in 'bet')	père, très, première
ê	accent circonflexe	often slightly longer, open e; may indicate a lost historical letter	être, fête, tête
ç	cédille	makes the c sound like 's' before a, o, u	garçon, français, ça

Accents in Familiar Words

Many words already encountered carry accents: élève (student), français, très, êtes, première, médecine, cafétéria. The preposition à (to, at) is distinguished from the verb form a (has) solely by its accent.

The Cédille – A Special Case

The letter ‘c’ is normally hard (/k/) before ‹a›, ‹o›, ‹u›. To preserve the soft /s/ sound before these vowels, a cédille is placed beneath it. Without it, garçon would be mispronounced as garkon.

Examples

Je suis très content.
The accent grave in très gives an open ‘e’ sound. Compare with the accent aigu in content.
Comment ça va ?
The cédille in ça retains the soft ‘s’ sound before the vowel ‘a’.

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These are the main phrases this lesson covers:

The Accent Marks (é, è, ê, ç)How orthographic accents modify vowel sounds and distinguish meaning; an essential spelling component.Recognise the four main French diacritics and apply them correctly in writing and pronunciation.OrthographyA1orthographeLearn French OrthographyFrench OrthographyWhy Accents are Not OptionalAccent marks are integral to French spelling. They indicate the correct vowel sound and can differentiate otherwise identical words. Omitting an accent is a spelling error. This lesson focuses on the four primary diacritical marks. For the names and sounds of the letters on which they appear, see the alphabet.