The acute accent (´), l'accent aigu, and the grave accent (`), l'accent grave, are used to indicate the quality of the vowel sound represented by the letter e.
A. Listen to each example and repeat.
é /e/
année
Répétez!
André
è /ɛ/
très
après
Michèle
When used with letters other than e, the accent grave does not indicate a sound difference but serves to distinguish different words which have the same spelling but different meanings.
ou (or)
où (where)
la date (the date)
là (there)
il y a (there is/are)
à l'heure (on time)
The circumflex (ˆ), l'accent circonflexe, arose historically as a marker for vowels which were followed by another letter (usually s) in an earlier state of the language:
être (<estre)
hôtel (<hostel)
forêt (<forest)
plaît (<plaist)
The cedilla (ç), la cédille, is used only with the letter c to indicate the sound /s/ when it is followed by the letters a, o, or u:
Ça va? /sa/
cahier /ka/
The cedilla is not used with the letters e and i:
Ce
merci
c'est
ici
The dieresis (¨), le tréma, is used with vowels to indicate that they are pronounced separately from a preceding vowel:
Noël
naïf
Loïc
B. Placez les accents. What accents are missing in these words from the vocabulary list of Chapter 1? Answers ...