Accents (é è ê ç)

Summary

French diacritics change how a letter sounds or distinguish words in writing; they are part of correct spelling, not optional decoration.

Explanation

On the letter e, the accents mainly fix the vowel quality. The accent aigu é is a closed /e/, the sound in été ("summer") or café, made with the tongue high and the lips fairly spread. The accent grave è and the accent circonflexe ê are an open /ɛ/, the sound in père ("father") and fête ("party"), made with the mouth slightly more open. Hearing and producing the /e/ vs /ɛ/ contrast is one of the first vowel distinctions a learner needs.

The cédille appears only under c, and only before a, o or u, to keep the c "soft", that is /s/ instead of the hard /k/ it would otherwise have there: français /fʁɑ̃sɛ/, garçon /gaʁsɔ̃/, reçu /ʁəsy/. Before e and i the c is already soft, so no cédille is ever written (ceci, citron). The tréma (ï, ë, ü) does the opposite of joining: it signals that a vowel is pronounced separately from the one before it, so Noël is /nɔ.ɛl/ in two syllables and naïf is /na.if/, not a single blended vowel.

Not every accent changes the sound. On a, u and o the grave and circumflex are often purely graphic: they distinguish homographs (a "has" vs à "to/at", ou "or" vs où "where", sur "on" vs sûr "sure", la "the" vs là "there") or mark a vowel that historically lost a following s (hôpital, île, forêt). In these cases the accent carries spelling and meaning information, but the vowel is pronounced the same as without it.

Accents are obligatory in French writing, including on capital letters in careful style (États-Unis, À bientôt). Omitting them is a spelling error and can change a word entirely — a sale ("dirty") vs salé ("salty"), or the verb form a ("has") vs the preposition à. For a learner the practical priorities are: pronounce é as closed /e/ and è/ê as open /ɛ/, write the cédille whenever c must stay /s/ before a/o/u, and never drop an accent that distinguishes two words.

Examples

un étudiant très fâché — a very angry student (é closed /e/ in étudiant, è open /ɛ/ in très; the â in fâché is just a spelling mark.)

Le garçon parle français. — The boy speaks French. (Cédille keeps ç soft /s/ before o and a: /gaʁsɔ̃/, /fʁɑ̃sɛ/.)

Joyeux Noël ! — Merry Christmas! (Tréma splits the vowels: /nɔ.ɛl/, two syllables, not /nœl/.)

Il a vu là où il habite. — He saw where he lives. (Grave on à/là/où only distinguishes homographs; no change in sound: /a/, /la/, /u/.)

une forêt près de l'hôpital — a forest near the hospital (Circumflex marks a lost s (forest, hospital); ê here is open /ɛ/: /fɔʁɛ/.)

Common mistakes

Related rules

• Silent letters
• Nasal vowels
• a vs à
• ou vs où