6.3: Vowels with accents

Objectifs

In this section, you will learn how accent marks affect the pronunciation of vowels.

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In French, there are 4 accents that can be placed on vowels.

The acute accent, accent aigu, é.

The grave or diacritical accent, accent grave, è.

The circumflex, accent circonflexe or chapeau, ê.

The dieresis, umlaut, two dots, tréma, ë.

Of course, most of these accents appear on other vowels than the letter e. We will go over each accent below.

Acute Accent

L'accent aigu goes from the bottom left to the top right. It only appears on the letter e in French. When the acute accent is placed on the letter e, it changes its sound from e, like in the word je to é like in the word bébé. With the accent, the e sounds like "ay" in English, but as though it is cut short in its pronunciation.

Here are a few examples:

 

beauté, éléphant, étudier, lycée

Grave or Diacritical Accent

L'accent grave goes from the top left to the bottom right. It can be seen on the letters é, à, and ù in French. It is never placed on the letters o or i. When placed on the letter é, it changes its pronunciation from the e in je to the [ɛ] sound. It's similar to the pronunciation of e in the word met in English. It is considered a closed vowel sound.

Here are a few examples:

 

mère, fière, complètement

When l'accent grave is placed on the letters à and ù, it does not change the letters' pronunciation. It can, however, change the meaning of the word.

Here are a few examples:

 

Words That Change Meaning with the Accent Grave

Without Accent	English Translation	With Accent	English Translation
ou	or	où	where
a	(he, she) has	à	in, at, to
la	feminine definite article (the)	là	there, here

Accent Circonflexe or Chapeau

The circumflex accent, also called chapeau (hat), in French, can be found on all of the five vowels, ê, â, ô, û, î. It was placed on French letters around the 16th century, when the French Academy "normalized" French spelling. It replaced a letter s, often silent in old French.

This accent does not change the pronunciation of the vowels û or î. It does, however, change the pronunciation of the letters ê, â, and ô.

The e with the chapeau, the ê, is pronounced [ɛ], similar to e with accent grave.

Here are a few examples:

 

rêve, crêpe, fête, pêcher

The letter a with the circumflex accent, the â, is pronounced [ɑ] sound. This letter a is more elongated, like in the word papa in English.

Here are a few examples:

 

pâtes, blancheâtre, grâce

Sometimes, the accent circonflexe is placed on the letter a to distinguish a word from its homophone. Here are a few examples.

 

Homophones that Differ Because of the Accent Circonflexe

Without Accent	English Translation	With Accent	English Translation
tache	stain	tâche	task
mater	subdue	mâter	mast
matin	morning	mâtin	mastiff dog
pale	paddle, blade	pâle	pale

The letter o with an accent circonflexe, the ô, is pronounce [o]. It's a closed vowel sound, like in the word no in English.

Here are a few examples:

 

tôt, hôpital, côté

Like in the case of the â, at times, the accent on the letter o changes the word's meaning. Here are a few examples.

 

Homophones that Differ Because of the Accent Circonflexe

Without Accent	English Translation	With Accent	English Translation
cote	popularity, rating	côte	coast
mole	mole	môle	breakwater, pier, jetty

The letters u and i when spelled with the circumflex accent, do not change pronunciation. These accents are used to distinguish between a word and its homophone, like in the tables above.

 

Homophones that Differ Because of the Accent Circonflexe

Without Accent	English Translation	With Accent	English Translation
boite	(he, she) limps	boîte	box, night club
cru	from the verb croire (to believe)	crû	from the verb croître (to grow)
du	partitive article or preposition meaning of the	dû	from the verb devoir (to have to)
notre, votre	our, your	le nôtre, le vôtre	ours, yours
sur	preposition meaning on	sûr	certain, sure

The tréma or Dieresis accent

The tréma or dieresis, umlaut, or 2-dot accent, is used on the letters e, i, and u in French.

This accent is used when the vowel that precedes the vowel with the tréma needs to be pronounced separately. So, for example, if the letter ï is preceded by the letter a, the two letters ï and a must be pronounced separately.

Here are a few examples:

 

naïf, ovoïde, haïr, polaroïd, égoïste

Noël, canoë, Israël, aiguë, contiguë

The tréma mostly appears on words with the vowels i or e and the dieresis. There exist very few words with ü.

Here is one example: capharnaüm (shambles, mess, pigsty).

Additional Resources

• The circumflex
• List of words with or without the circumflex