Accents
What are the accents for anyway?
Accents have three main purposes:
1) Change the Sound
2) Change the Meaning
3) Denote an Etymological Change from Latin
 Referring
to accented characters
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Acute Accent - L'accent aigou
The acute accent (l'accent aigu) only appears above the letter
e- é. Without the acute accent, the the letter e is normally
pronounced [ε] or [ә].
With the acute accent it is pronounced [e] (see Vowel
Sounds I).
Dieresis - Le tréma
The dieresis marks a vowel as being in a separate syllable from any neighboring
vowel. For example the letter combination ai is normally pronounced [e]
or [ε] . However with the dieresis over
the i, it becomes [ai].
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maïs
astéroïde
haïr |
corn
asteroid
to hate |
égoïste
Noël
coïncidence |
selfish
Christmas
coincidence |
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Grave Accent - L'accent grave
In most cases the grave accent (l'accent grave) has no effect on
the pronunciation of a vowel. It is placed over the letter e when the
next syllable is mute.
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mère
très
secrète |
mother
very
secret |
je mènerais
ils conquièrent |
I would lead
they conquered |
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It is also placed over a and u in a small number
of words:
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à
au delà
|
to
beyond |
voilà
où |
where |
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In a few cases, the grave accent serves to distinguish two words
which otherwise would have the same spelling.
There are a few cases when the grave accent does affect pronunciation
- at least in some regions. In certain word endings, when it appears over the
letter e, it causes the final syllable to be pronounced as [ε]
as opposed to [e] (ie. dès vs des). (see Vowel Sounds I).
This is true mostly for the northern region of France.
Circumflex - Le circonflexe
The circumflex, or the hat (î, â, ê) has no direct effect on pronunciation, but may indicate a slight change in sound between two words with similar pronunciation: mal [a] (bad) vs, le mâle [α] (male), les pattes [a] (paws) vs. les pâtes [α] (pasta); notre [o] (our) vs. le nôtre [ɔ] (ours). All those advocating reform of the writing system are unanimously in favor of
getting rid of it. There really aren't that many words that have the circumflex.
Sometimes the circumflex marks the site of a lost s which existed
in the original Latin version of the word, but over the centuries, as the language
evolved and changed, was eventually dropped. English words that share the same
Latin ancestor normally still have this s.
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maître
pâte
bête |
master
paste
beast |
île
hôte |
island
host |
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Cedille - La cédille
The cedille, is the only accent used on consonants in French. It only apprears on the letter c and forces the c to be a soft [s] sound instead of a hard [k] sound when followed by the back vowels: a, o, and u. Otherwise, the cedilla is not needed because the c is always sofr when followed by the front vowels: e and i.
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garçon
leçon
ça |
boy
lesson
that |
commande
campus
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order
campus |
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