Chapter 2: Les Accents

LES ACCENTS

LES NOMBRES

TYPES and Identity of ACCENTS

There are some special marks over certain French letters which you must have seen are called “accents”. They are very important, as they not only from part of the spelling, but also help in the pronunciation and in some cases, even change the meaning of certain French words.

When spelling out loud, there are two different ways to indicate accents: by naming them as you go or by mentioning them at the end.

Par exemple : très

1. t – r – e accent grave – s
2. t – r – e – s, avec accent grave sur le e

É is known as e accent aigu, but may also be called simply é 

IDENTITY OF ACCENTS

USAGE OF ACCENTS

 

The accents are symbols placed above and below some letters in French which change the pronunciation of letters.

Types of French accent: We have 5 types of French accents as follows:

1.  Accent aigu (é)                               [Ex. école, éléphant]
2.    2. Accent grave (à, è, ù)                 [Ex. règle, voilà, où]
3.    3. Accent circonflexe (â, ê, î, ô, û)  [Ex. âge, tête, hôtel, flûte, île]
4.    4. Cédille (ç)                                   [Ex. garçon, français]
5.    5. Tréma (ë , ï )                              [Ex. Noël, maïs]

The 5 French accents;

• 1 for a consonant
• 4 for vowels

1. The cédille (cedilla) Ç

The cédille is only used on the letter C. It changes a hard "c" sound (like "k") into a soft "c" sound (like "s"). Ç is never used before the vowels e or i, as these 2 vowels always produce a soft "s" sound (glace, ici).

e.g. Le garçon, Le leçon

2. The accent aigu (acute accent) é

The accent aigu is only used on the letter e.

e.g. Le canapé, Le café,

3. The accent circonflexe (circumflex) â, ê, î, ô, û

This accent can be put on all the five vowels (a, e, i, o, u).

e.g. Le château, une fête, Le dîner, L'hôtel

4. The accent grave (grave accent) à, è, ù

With a and u, the accent grave is used to differentiate some words; - à "to" versus a "has"

• où "where" versus ou "or"

e.g. La mère, La père, Le frère

5. The accent tréma (dieresis/umlaut) ë, ï, ü

The accent tréma indicates that the vowel is to be pronounced separately from the one immediately before it.

e.g. Noël, L'aïeul

LES NOMBRES

Numbers are a very important part of any language and are required in every possible situation, whether to ask the price of something, the time, how many hours late your plane is, or telling someone how old you are. For that we are going to learn 1-20 numbers in French.