(Linguists call such double vowels “diphthongs”.) Notice that as you say “aaaaaay”, your tongue moves.This is because “ay” is secretly not one but two vowels said in quick succession. Try saying “say” or “way” very slowly, drawing out the vowel at the end. To understand how “é” is pronounced, let's examine the English “ay” sound a little closer. If you pronounce “é” like an “ay”, it will be a dead giveaway that your native language is English. Sure, the “ay” sound is close to the French “é” sound, but it's not quite the same. There's just one problem with this piece of advice: it's wrong. So what way is that? Many books and websites will tell you that “é” is pronounced like the English “ay”, as in “say” or “way”. An é (e with an acute accent) is always pronounced the same way. Its role is to change the pronunciation of the vowel.Īn unaccented “e” can be pronounced several different ways, but when you see “é”, there's no ambiguity. The acute accent is only ever found above an “e”, as in “é”. The Acute Accent (L'Accent Aigu) in French You can also occasionally see it in English in loanwords like façade. Two common words that contain cedillas are garçon (“boy”, or “waiter” in a restaurant) and français (French!). (Remember that “c” before an “e” or “i” is pronounced like an “s” anyway, so adding a cedilla wouldn't change anything.) You'll only ever see a “ç” before an “a”, “o”, or “u”. It's a simple symbol to understand: a ç (c with a cedilla) is pronounced like an “s”. This accent mark only goes with the letter “c” - it's not found under any other letter. The cedilla in French looks like a little squiggle beneath the letter “c”: “ç”. I’ll also explain the purpose of each of the accents.
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Let’s take a look at how to pronounce each of the five French accent marks. So how do you read, write, or pronounce these letters? What do the accent marks mean? French Accent Pronunciation Guide
à/è/ì/ò/ù – the grave accent (l'accent grave).â/ê/î/ô/û – the circumflex (l'accent circonflexe).We'll also look at plenty of examples of French words with accents which should help make things clear.įrench Accents List: The 5 French Accent Marksįrench uses five different types of diacritic. We'll cover all the different types of accent, how they're pronounced (if they're pronounced at all), and the effect they have on a word's grammar and/or meaning. So let's look at the different types of French accent and how they're used.
Which one would you rather have on your résumé? Getting your accents right is the difference between being a pêcheur (fisherman) and a pécheur (sinner). Sometimes they can completely change the meaning of a word. Sometimes they affect pronunciation, sometimes they don't. They serve several different purposes in the language. In French, however, the accent marks are not optional.įrench has several different accent marks, also known as “diacritics”. The words café and résumé are originally French, and in English we often write those words without the accents.
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