Module 4 of 8
Accents are spelling
é è ê ë à ù ç, and why leaving them off is an error rather than a shortcut.
An accent in French is part of how the word is spelled, in exactly the way a letter is. Cafe is not a casual spelling of café; it is a misspelling, and in some pairs the mark is the only thing separating two different words. Learners drop accents because they are awkward to type, and then carry the habit into an application form that somebody is reading for evidence of care.
Seven marks are worth knowing now, and they do different jobs. é and è change the vowel. ê usually marks a letter that used to be in the word and is gone — fête was once feste. ë says two neighbouring vowels are read separately, as in Noël. ç is a c kept soft in front of a, o or u, which is the entire reason français has one. Set the accents up on your own keyboard at the start, before you have written fifty words without them and taught yourself that it is fine.
Played by your device’s own French voice. It is a synthetic voice, not a recording of a teacher — close enough to learn the shape of a word, not close enough to copy exactly.
- cafécoffee, café — é
- pèrefather — è
- fêtecelebration — ê
- NoëlChristmas — ë, the two vowels read separately
- françaisFrench — ç keeps the c soft
- très bienvery good
- à bientôtsee you soon
- ça vait is going / how is it going
An accent is a letter, not decoration. Set your keyboard up on day one, before the habit of leaving them off hardens.