French accents: the five marks and the words they change

French accents are five small marks added to letters: the accent aigu, the accent grave, the accent circonflexe, the tréma and the cédille [1]. Some change how a letter sounds. Others tell apart words that sound the same. This page names each mark, shows which letters take it and what it does, then answers whether capitals keep their accents. For the letter names, see the French alphabet. For the sounds in whole words, see French pronunciation practice. Typing them on every device is covered in French keyboard, and sounding French when you speak in how to speak with a French accent.

What are the French accent marks?

The French accent marks are the acute, grave and circumflex accents, the tréma and the cédille [1]. The OQLF, Québec’s French language office, calls them diacritical signs [1]. Here is each one, with the letters it can sit on.

Which accents can go on e?

Four marks can go on e: the acute (é), the grave (è), the circumflex (ê) and, in a few words, the tréma (ë) [2][3][5][7]. They give three different sounds or lengths, so the accent is part of how the word is spelled.

• é is said [e], as in the noun dé. The OQLF says the acute accent is used only on e [2].
• è is said [ɛ], as in près [3].
• ê is the same sound as è, but generally longer, as in fête and rêve [5].
• ë is not a separate sound. It shows that the e is said on its own after another vowel, as in Noël [7].

Hear the difference in café, which ends in é, and in être, which has a circumflex on its first e.

What does the accent aigu do in French?

The accent aigu marks a closed e, the sound [e], and it sits on no other letter [2]. The OQLF says it separates [e] from the open [ɛ] of dès and from the weak [ə] of de [2].

It appears at the start, inside or at the end of a word, as long as it ends a syllable [2]. That is why it never comes before a double consonant or an x, as in examen [2]. The OQLF adds that in many French-speaking regions that e sounds close to é anyway [2].

Since 1990, spelling reforms let you write è instead of é in some verb forms: je céderai or je cèderai are both correct [2].

What does the accent grave do in French?

The accent grave has two jobs: it sounds out an open e, and it tells apart words that sound alike [3][4]. On e it says [ɛ], as in près [3]. Words from one family often swap between é and è: fidèle and fidélité, mystère and mystérieux [3].

On a and u the grave accent changes nothing you can hear. It only separates words [4]:

• à (preposition) from a (the verb avoir)
• là (there) from la (the)
• où (where) from ou (or). The OQLF says où is the only word with a grave on u [4].
• dès from des, the rare case on e [4]

What do the circumflex, tréma and cédille do?

The circumflex lengthens or deepens a vowel, the tréma splits two vowels, and the cédille softens a c [5][7][8].

Accent circonflexe. On a, e and o it marks a sound, usually a long one: a deeper [ɑ] in châle, [ɛ] in fête, a closed [o] in rôle [5]. On i and u it changes no sound [5]. The OQLF says there is no fixed rule for where to write it, except in verb forms, and that it often replaces a letter that disappeared. Âge was once aage and âne was once asne [5].

Tréma. Two dots show that a vowel is said apart from the one before it [7]. Maïs is said ma-is, not like mais [7]. It is most often on i, as in naïf, and rare on u (capharnaüm) and e (Noël) [7].

Cédille. The cédille goes under c before a, o or u so that c is said [s], not [k], as in ça and reçus [8]. Before e, i and y, a c is already [s], so there is no cédille there [8]. Hear it in français.

Which accents change the meaning of a word?

Some accents change nothing you hear but change the word you write [4][6]. These pairs are the ones to learn first.

The OQLF notes that a circumflex used this way often also affects the sound, so some pairs are near-homophones rather than exact ones [6].

Do French capital letters keep their accents?

Yes. The OQLF says capitals take the accents, tréma or cédille that the lowercase letter has, whether the capital starts a word, sits in an abbreviation or is inside an all-capitals word [1]. Its examples are Édith and Ça, and the capital À must keep its grave accent [1].

The exception is acronyms and initialisms, which take no accents: REER and ENAP [1]. Abbreviations do keep them, as in É.-U. for États-Unis [1].

The Académie française agrees on the principle. It says that in French the accent has full spelling value and that leaving it off slows reading, makes you hesitate on the sound and can mislead. It says the same for the tréma and the cédille [9]. The OQLF gives the example of a headline, “UN MINISTRE HONORE”, which loses its sense until the É is added [1].

How can you copy and paste French accents?

Copy a letter from this table and paste it where you need it. French keyboard covers typing them on each device step by step.

To hear when Lingwell, a French-learning app, opens, join the waitlist.

Common mistakes

• Leaving the accent off a capital. The OQLF and the Académie française both keep accents on capitals [1][9]. Only the OQLF names the exception, acronyms and initialisms [1].
• Writing ou for où. They are different words; the accent is what tells them apart [4].
• Putting é before a double consonant. The OQLF says é never comes before a double consonant or an x, as in examen [2].
• Adding a cédille before e or i. The c is already [s] there [8].
• Reading ï as a plain i. The tréma means the vowel is said apart: maïs is not mais [7].
• Trusting an accent chart from a blog, including this one. The official pages change. Compare each page’s own date with the date at the top of this one.

Sources