How to Use the French Accent Marks

How to use French accent marks, on which letters, how they affect pronunciation… This is certainly one the mysteries  of the French Language that usually puzzles many students who speak a language in which accents do not exist!  And yet, they are very important as they definitely change the pronunciation of the words, and  can  even  change  their meaning.
We also give a few details on the spelling reform in France, that affects the use of a few accent marks.  

The various French accents marks

The acute accent

é: The acute accent (accent aigu) is only used on the vowel e and gives it the same sound that you find in the  English word “hay”. Here is when you have to use it:

1) It can be found in many words, verbs, and some adjectives and adverbs.
Ex.: école = school; congé = vacation; découverte = discovery; écrire = to write; réparer = to repair; téléphoner = to give a phone call; agréable = pleasant; délicieux = delicious; léger = light; déjà = already; malgré = in spite of;  immédiat = immediately.

2) It appears on the last letter of the part participle (participe passé) of verbs ending in “er”, especially when they are used in the conjugation of one of the main past tenses: passé composé.
Ex.: Aller = to go: Je suis allé. = I went.  Marcher = to  walk: Vous  avez marché. = You walked. Manger = to eat: Les enfants ont mangé. = The children ate. Chanter = to sing: Ils ont chanté toute la nuit. = They sang the whole night.

3) It can also be used to replace the è in some words, adjectives or verbs that derivate from other words.
Ex.:  —grève = strike; gréviste = striker.
—repère = landmark; repérer = to notice, to detect.
—fidèle = faithful; fidélité = loyalty.
—hygiène = hygiene; hygiénique = hygienic.

The grave accent

è: The grave accent (accent grave) can be also used with the e and changes the pronunciation to something similar to the “e” in the English word “bed”. Here is when you have to use it:

1) It can be also found in many words.
Ex.: père = father; collège = college; progrès = progress; scène = scene; après = after; très = very.

2) It can appear at the end of an adjective to mark the feminine, and also on an adverb that derives from an adjective.
Ex.:   — complet (masc.) complète (fem.) = complete; complètement = completely.
Note that the infinitive of the verb carries a é: compléter.
—discret (masc.), discrète (fem.) = discrete;  discrètement = discreetly

3) It can replace a é in some conjugations of verbs ending in “er”, or can be added to a simple e.
Ex.:   —céder = to give up. Je cède = I give up.  —protéger = to protect. Elle protège son bébé = She protects her baby.  —se lever = to get up. Ils se lèvent = they get up.   —amener = to bring. Il nous amène. = He brings us.

à, ù: The grave accent is also used on the vowels a and u. In this case, it doesn’t change the pronunciation, but it may distinguish between two different words with the same spelling or that are pronounced the same.
Ex.:
—la = the; là = there
—ou = or; où = where

The  circumflex  accent

ê,  î,  ô,  û: The circumflex accent (accent circonflexe) when used with the e gives it the same pronunciation as the grave accent.
Ex.: tête = head;  être = to be; fête = party; fenêtre = window; maîtriser = to master; paraître = to appear; île = island; sûr = certain.

With the a and o, it may give a slightly different pronunciation
Ex.:  —Anne (common first name); âne =   donkey;
—cote = popularity; côte = coast.

It is also used to distinguish du (the contraction of de + le) from dû, the past participle of the verb devoir = to be  obliged to, to owe.

The dieresis

ë, ï: The dieresis (tréma) is mainly used to indicate that two vowels that are together are pronounced separately.
Ex.: maïs = maize; Noël = Christmas, héroïque = heroic.

NOTE that we also use the dieresis on the e that follows the vowel u following the consonant g in feminine adjectives in which the u should be pronounced as it is in the masculine.
Ex.:   Un prétexte ambigu (masc.) = an ambiguous excuse.  Une histoire ambiguë (fem.) = an ambiguous story.   Without the dieresis we would pronounce:  Une histoire ambigue.

The cedilla

ç: The cedilla (cédille) is the only accent mark used on a consonant and is found only on the letter c to indicate  that it has a soft s sound. It is used when the letter c is placed before the vowels a, o and u.

Ex. showing the difference with, or without, the cedilla: cas = case; ça = that;  cocon = cocoon; maçon = builder;  vécu = lived; déçu = disappointed.

NOTE: It is also often used in verb conjugations, when it is before the vowels a or o, to keep the same soft s  sound as in the infinitive.

Ex.: —commencer = to start; nous commençons = we start. Without the cedilla, we would pronounce commencons.
—prononcer = to pronounce; nous prononçons = we pronounce. Without the cedilla, we would say prononcons.

La réforme de l’autographe  (The spelling reform)

In February of 2016, it came as a total surprise for everyone when the French education minister suddenly announced that a reform adopted by the Académie française in 1990, and never applied, would appear in school books  as of the fall of 2016. According to this reform, aimed at simplifying some  aspects  of  the  French  language  that  seem the most difficult to learn and remember by school  students, the spelling of some 2,400 words will be changing.
Most  of  the  changes  are  the  simplification  of  some words where the spelling is not very logical. For example,  ognon is supposed to replace oignon (onion) or nénufar  should be used in place of nénuphar (water lily). Some  other changes relate to the suppression of the dash: portemonnaie in place of porte‐monnaie (wallet), weekend  instead of week‐end (which mimics the English spelling),  while it is added in some figures. For example, vingt‐et‐un  instead  of  the  former  vingt  et  un  (21).  Among  other  changes, several should affect the accents.
This  announcement  created such an uproar all over  France, not only from the teachers but from so many French people, that, in April 2016, the secrétaire perpétuelle of the  Académie  française,  Hélène  Carrère  d’Encausse, declared: “I know that many publishers [of  text  books] will give up, and my prognostic is that it [the  reform] will sink into oblivion.”
Therefore,  it  is  quite  possible that nothing may really change, especially for the foreign students of French, and we can guess that most of their teachers will  just ignore the proposed reform. In any case, it will never be compulsory to make the proposed changes, anyone  can continue writing as they used to… Anyway, below are a few changes concerning the French accents.

Acute accent vs grave accent

The main proposed change is a shift in a few words to reflect the reality of how they are pronounced.
Ex.:  —événement (event) will now be spelled évènement, as it  is pronounced;
—réglementaire  (regulatory) will be spelled règlementaire, like the word from which it is derived: règlement  (rule);
—the  word revolver of English origin, which was pronounced as though there was an acute accent on the first e, will now carry it: révolver.

Suppression of the circumflex accent on the i and the u

This is supposed to be a generalized rule for these two vowels. For example, coût (cost) should be written cout, paraître (to appear) should become paraitre or entraîner  (to  exercise,  or  to  carry  away)  should  be  written  entrainer.
However, as always with regard to French grammar, there will be exceptions.

Such exceptions apply mainly to  the u when adding the accent changes the meaning.
Ex.: —dû (owed) should keep its accent so as not to be confused with du (of the). The same for:
—sûr (certain, sure) and sur (above, on).
—mûr (ripe) and mur (wall).
—jeûne (fasting) and jeune (young). Note the difference of pronunciation in these two words.

Such changes unleashed so much buzz in social media where many people made fun of the reform. For example, dropping the circumflex accent from jeune might indeed result in some unfortunate consequences, such as in this dialogue that went viral on Facebook:
—Je me suis fait un jeûne = I have been fasting.
—Je me suis fait un jeune = I had sex with a young person…!

We hope that its article has helped you to have a better understanding on how to use the French accent marks.
You will find many more grammar explanations on our blog.
A bientôt !

Learn how to use the French Negative forms here