French Accent Marks

1. LES ACCENTS
en français

2. ACCENT AIGU (/)
• Occurs over the letter “e” - é
• Goes up, from left to right
• Makes the sound /e/ - like we pronounce the letter “A” in English
• Example - enchanté

3. ACCENT GRAVE ()
• Occurs over the letters “a,” “e,” & “u” - à è ù
• Goes down, from left to right
• Over “e” it makes the sound /ε/ - which sound somewhat like “eh”
• Over “a” and “u” it does not have sound, but is used to distinguish
two words that are otherwise spelled the same
• à ╪ a
• où ╪ ou
• Examples – là, très, où

4. ACCENT CEDILLA (,)
• Occurs under the letters “c,” - ç
• Looks like small “s” or curve
• Softens a “c” from a hard sound, /k/, to a soft sound, /s/
• Example – ça va

5. ACCENT CIRCUMFLEX (^)
• Occurs over the letters “e,” “i,” “u” and “o” - ê î û ô
• Looks like an arrow pointing up
• Does not have a sound, but indicates that at some point a word was
spelled with an “s,” that as since been dropped from the spelling
• Example – bientôt, août

6. ACCENT TREMA (..)
• Occurs over the letters “e,” and “i” - ë ï
• Looks like a colon on top of a letter
• Indicates that two vowels are pronounced separately
• Example – Noël

7. LES ACCENTS FRANÇAIS
Names Letters Purpose Keyboard Shortcuts
Accent aigu é
Makes the sound /e/ - like we pronounce the
letter “A” in English
Alt + 130
OR
Ctrl + apostrophe
release, then e
Accent grave à è ù
* Over “e” it makes the sound /ε/ - which sound
somewhat like “eh”
* Over “a” and “u” it does not have sound, but is
used to distinguish two works that are otherwise
spelled the same
Alt + 133 – à
Alt + 138 – è
Alt + 151 – ù
OR
Ctrl + tilde
release, then letter
Accent cedilla ç
Softens a “c” from a hard sound, /k/, to a soft
sound, /s/
Alt + 135 – ç
OR
Ctrl + comma
release, then c
Accent circumflex
ô ê î
Does not have a sound, but indicates that at
some point a word was spelled with an “s,” that
as since been dropped from the spelling
Alt + 147 – ô
Alt + 136 – ê
Alt + 140 – î
OR
Ctrl + shift + ^
release, then letter
Accent trema
ë ï Indicates that two vowels are pronounced
separately
Alt + 137 – ë
Alt + 139 – ï
OR
Ctrl + shift + :
release, then letter
• Accent marks
are an important
part of spelling
and
pronunciation
• Omitting an
accent can
change the
meaning of a
word.