No matter your current level, at some point while reading French you’ve probably seen letters that resemble English ones, only with unfamiliar markings above them (and sometimes below them). It could be the é in la télévision (the television), the â in âge (age), or the ç in commerçant (shopkeeper).
Beginners may simply gloss over these when reading, viewing them as “optional”. However, there is nothing optional about accent marks. They help us understand how we should pronounce certain letter sounds and where we should add additional emphasis! In some cases, they can even change the meaning of a word.
While it’s tempting to avoid learning accents, you’ll find that learning them alongside the basics makes everything easier, from writing to learning new vocabulary. Rosetta Stone can help you learn accent marks in a fun, engaging environment that boosts your retention. Check out our unique immersion approach to learning, or jump right into a subscription today!
What are the five accent marks?
There are five accent marks you’ll need to recognize in French.
- l’accent aigu (the acute accent)—Ex: é
- l’accent grave (the grave accent)—Ex: è
- l’accent circonflexe (the circumflex)—Ex: ô
- l’accent tréma (the trema)—Ex: ï
- la cédille (the cedilla)—Ex: ç
Why are accent marks important in French?
French accent marks sometimes function as they do in Spanish, placing emphasis on a certain syllable of a word. However, as always, there are exceptions! In fact, most French accents do more than just that, or something else entirely. Some accent marks in French, like the acute accent, change the pronunciation of the letter altogether. Others, like the grave accent, only slightly modify the sound of it. At other times, there is no emphasis or pronunciation change whatsoever, as is the case with some of the usages of the circumflex.
Whatever the purpose may be, knowing French accent mark rules can prevent miscommunication, as the including them may produce words of different meaning, such as côte (coast) and côté (side).
The pronunciation and purpose of each accent mark varies, and in the sections below we will break each of these down. Before proceeding though, we must first make sure we have a solid grasp of the French alphabet, and are able to produce the sounds of each letter in it correctly. So, brush up on that before reading more!
Understanding French pronunciation
Pronunciation is one of the things which makes French a challenging language to learn, even compared to its Latin peers like Spanish. Marked by various sounds unique only to itself, grasping French pronunciation is one of the biggest challenges for English speakers (and even Spanish and Italian ones too).
Though most of the letters are the same, many are pronounced with at least a slight degree of difference between their English counterparts. For example, thinking of the French “E” like the English one will produce errors that impede one’s ability to communicate. The further modification of this “E” sound by accent marks only increases the phonetic differences between the two languages.
On a positive note, French accent marks are easy to learn once one has achieved an understanding of the alphabet. What is more, Rosetta stone’s Alphabet tool is a great resource for learning or refreshing oneself on the French alphabet, accent marks included. It not only helps learners understand how letters are pronounced in isolation, but provides a variety of examples to put them into context.
Which letters take accent marks in French?
With the exception of the cédille, only vowels take accent marks. Below is a list of letters that can adopt each accent.
- l’accent aigu: “E” (é)
- l’acccent grave: “A”, “E”, and “U” (à, è, ù)
- l’accent circonflexe: “A”, “E”, “I”, “O”, “U” (â, ê, î, ô, û)
- le tréma: “E”, “I”, “U” (ë, ï, ü)
- la cédille: “C” (ç)
The five types of French accent marks
Below is a series of tables for each of the 5 accent marks in French with examples.
1. Cedilla (la cédille)
The cedilla’s main purpose is to distinguish the fricative “S” sound of the letter “C” from its velar “K” sound. In other words, to distinguish the “S” sound in words like “site” from the “K” sound in words like “kite”. In French, a “C” can be pronounced like a “K” or like an “S ” depending on the presence of the cedilla. Words with a cedilla are pronounced like an “S”.
So, in words like le mâcon (mâcon, wine from Burgundy) the “C” is pronounced like a “K”, whereas in words like un maçon (a bricklayer, mason) it is pronounced like an “S”. Words like glaçon (ice cube) are pronounced like “glasson”, whereas words like laconique (no cedilla) are pronounced as “lakoneek(uh)”.
The cedilla is also used in the past participle of certain verbs like the “conçu” (conceived) of concevoir (to conceive). At other times it can be used to distinguish an “S” sound from a “K” in conjugated forms of verbs, such as the first person plural conjugation of commencer (to begin), commençons [(we) begin]. The same applies to recevoir (to receive). However, all forms of recevoir take the cedilla except for the first person plural nous and the second person plural/formal vous. Thus (je) reçois, (tu) reçois, (il/elle/on) reçoit, and (ils/elles) reçoivent all adopt the cedilla to clarify any confusion as to the correct pronunciation of the letter “C”.
| French | English |
| ça | that |
| commençons | (we) begin |
| déçu | disappointed |
| la façade | the front of a building |
| la façon | a way, style (of doing something) |
| le français | French (language) |
| un garçon | a boy |
| une leçon | a lesson |
| provençal | provincial |
| reçu | received (past participle) |
2. Acute accent (l’accent aigu)
The acute accent is used to distinguish the typical pronunciation of the letter “E” from the “AY” sound in words like cérémonie. The difference between the “E” and the é is heard in words like un festival (a festival) and félicitations (congratulations). This sound resembles the sound of the letter “A” in the English alphabet. However, this analogy is merely approximate.
There is a slight difference between é and “A”, but thinking of it this way should get most English speakers off to a good start. Its use also extends to verb forms, as the é is the ending for regular -ER verbs in the past tense like parler (to speak) donner (to give), and habiter (to live/reside). Note: the letters in parentheses indicate the feminine endings of adjectives.
| French | English |
| une allée | a path, aisle, or walkway. |
| le café | the coffee |
| défait(e) | defeated |
| donné(e) | gave/given (past participle of “to give”) |
| éternel(le) | eternal |
| la journée | the day (in the sense of the length of a day) |
| le marché | the market |
| se méfier | to be suspicious of |
| le passé | the past |
| la soirée | the evening (in the sense of length) |
3. Circumflex (l’accent circonflexe)
You might have noticed the circumflex on your first day of French in the word plaît in the phrase s’il vous plaît. The plaît here is in the 3rd person singular (il/elle/on) conjugation of the verb plaire (to please).
At times the circumflex serves the purposes of marking where an “S” once stood in old French. Words like “être” (to be), and “l’hôpital” (hospital) once had an “S” after the vowel with the circumflex, thus being pronounced like “estre” and “l’hospital.” It can also indicate where the letter Omega (ω) once stood in its Greek word of origin, as in the word un diplôme (a diploma) which comes from the Greek “δίπλωμα” (theeploma).
French speakers now either pronounce the vowel as they would normally, or slightly elongate its sound, as is the case for words like l’hâte (haste, hurry) or mûr (ripe). In certain words though it tells us to shorten and accentuate the vowel sound, such as with être (to be), un forêt (a forest), and l’intérêt (an interest).
Note: The presence or absence of these accent marks illustrates the point touched on earlier about how accent marks can change the meaning of a word altogether, such is the case here with mûr (ripe) and un mur (a wall). The same applies to the difference between une tâche (a task) and une tache (a stain).
| French | English |
| un ancêtre | an ancestor |
| un château | a castle or château |
| le côte | the coast |
| coûter | to cost |
| un forêt | a forest |
| un mâchoir | a jaw |
| mâchonner | to chew |
| les pâtes | pasta |
| rôtir | to roast |
| une tâche | a task |
4. Grave accent (l’accent grave)
The grave accent serves two purposes:
- To modify the sound of the letter “E” in order to produce a short “ai” sound similar to the word “air”.
- To distinguish the meaning (NOT the pronunciation) of homophones (words that sound the same). For example, “la” (definite, feminine, singular article) and “là” (there). Similarly, ou (or) and où (where).
Outside of these uses the grave accent has no change in sound. For example, when applied to the word déjà (already), the sound of the letter à does not change.
| French | English |
| à | to, at, in |
| déjà | already |
| dernière | last ( previous or final in succession, feminine form of adj.) |
| l’ère | era |
| une espèce | a species, kind, type |
| un frère | a brother |
| une grève | a strike (e.g. worker’s strike) |
| une lèvre | a lip |
| une pièce | a play, a room, a piece/part, or a coin |
| très | very |
5. Trema (l’accent tréma)
The trema has a very straightforward function, specifically to distinguish a given vowel sound from those that surround it. Though not as common as the previous categories of accents, it is necessary for correct pronunciation. For example, the word maïs tells us to pronounce the letter “I” separately from the letter “A” with the same close “I” sound found in the word marine in English. We pronounce it as we would in the alphabet, so that maïs sounds like “ma-ees.” This is what distinguishes it from the conjunction mais (no trema over the “I”) meaning “but.”
Similarly in the word “canoë” we pronounce the “E” separate from the “O” sound to say “cano-way.” As always, knowing our French grammar rules concerning gender agreement of adjectives helps us understand which form of a word to use. For example, in words like aiguë the ë not only changes the pronunciation, but also indicates the feminine form of the adjective aigue (acute).
| French | English |
| un canoë | a canoe |
| le caraïbe | the caribbean |
| laïc/laïque | secular (m./f.) |
| naïf/naïve | naive (m./f.) |
| le Noël | Christmas |
| maïs | corn |
| stoïque | stoic |
How to type French accent marks
Hopefully you find learning how to pronounce the accent marks relatively easy. However, something that might be more challenging is learning how to use the French AZERTY keyboard. English speakers use the QWERTY one, with QWERTY being the top-most letters from left-right, whereas in France the top-most letters are AZERTY. Learning the French AZERTY keyboard and the corresponding accent marks are necessary for efficient typing.
With the growing importance of typing and texting in today’s world, learning the keyboard of different languages is just as important as being able to properly read and hand write. Just as we wouldn’t copy and paste all the various punctuation marks when texting, writing emails, or typing blogs in English, we likewise wouldn’t do so with accent marks in French. In time, you might find toggling between QWERTY and AZERTY keyboard no different than toggling between the two languages themselves!
In general, Macs and PCs can have their keyboard settings changed to allow easy back-and-forth between different keyboards. On some PCs one might have to download the keyboard though. Both generally also come with a visual aid for the user to see where the different accent and letter marks are. Alternatively one can use the “Insert” function on Microsoft Word and Google docs, but this is time intensive for the regular typer.
For a “translation” of what keys to type in your QWERTY keyboard to achieve the relevant accent marks in the AZERTY one, consult the table below.
| AZERTY | QWERTY |
| é | 2 |
| è | 7 |
| ç | 9 |
| à | 0 |
| â, î, ô, ê, û | [ + vowel |
| ù | ‘ |
You’ll probably notice that most of the accent marks are achieved by pressing on the numerical keys (1-0) and might be wondering how to type numbers. For this, it’s as easy as pressing “Shift + number”. So, to type “1” we press “Shift + 1”, “2” is “Shift + 2”, “3” “Shift + 3”, and so on.
When it comes to the trema, it can be a bit more complicated. For some macs using the hotkey of “Option-u + vowel” will work. Similarly, on a PC: ” + vowel might work. Some computers might require a user to manually set this hotkey themselves. If you aren’t able to access it with your AZERTY keyboard or hot keys, don’t worry. It’s not as common as the other accents so typically one can get by with either long pressing the key until the accent shows up, or by inserting it in a document then copying and pasting. Alternatively, if you have your keyboard settings set to French, auto-correct might do it for you!
Due to the peculiarities of the AZERTY keyboard, it isn’t always the case that accented letters are capitalized. However, it is important to know that the Academie Française proclaims that accented letters must be capitalized (which is one argument for updating or switching keyboards currently). So, though not necessary when typing, keeping this in mind for one’s handwriting is essential for retaining “official French”.
How to type French accents on a Mac
As with PCs, on Mac’s the user can copy/paste or use the “Insert” function on Microsoft Word or Google docs. One can also long press the desired key and choose from the range of accent marks that appear. However, these are not time-saving options for the consistent French language typer. Changing keyboards on a Mac is relatively straight forward. Mostly, one should be able to simply click on “system preferences” from the Launchpad, then “keyboard”, “input sources”, “+”, then one’s choice of French (there are several choices based on the region and purpose of one’s use).
For continental French, it should simply read “French”. You should then see the language with its corresponding flag and abbreviation (“FR” for French) in the task bar. You can click on it to change it, or simply press “CTRL + Spacebar” to toggle between French and the language you’re currently using. After that, it’s “simply” a matter of memorizing the keys! Don’t worry, you’ll be surprised what your muscle memory is capable of with enough practice!
How to type French accents on a PC
Switching keyboards on a PC might follow a similar path to that of a Mac. If one is using Windows 7 or Vista, on the “Keyboard and Language” tab in the search engine of the “Start Menu”, click “Change language”. Click “add” then choose the suitable version of French then “Ok” in the “Regional and Language options”. You should see “FR” for French in the language taskbar.
For Windows XP click ”Start”, “Run Box”, “Details” on the Language tab, “Add” (under “Installed Services”) then choose your desired French from the options in “Language Input”, then choose the appropriate keyboard lay out (AZERTY is best if it’s presented as an option). Some PCs or Windows versions may require you to download the keyboard, which is relatively quick and easy. Either way, finding a way to toggle to a AZERTY keyboard is necessary for common communication in a language such as French which demands the use of accent marks.
For other alternatives and further instructions on changing one’s keyboard settings for accent marks, click here.
Master French pronunciation with Rosetta Stone
Accent marks are the keys to unlocking correct pronunciation in French. As you come across new vocabulary, take note of which accent marks are present and if they affect the meaning of certain words!
If you’re eager to take your French to the next level, Rosetta Stone has immersive, bite-sized lessons that can help you build your French skills on your own schedule. Plus, we can even take your pronunciation a step further with TruAccent, which gives you immediate feedback on how you sound. We have everything you need to get conversation-ready in no time.
Written by Micah McCauley
Micah McCauley is a freelance contributor to Rosetta Stone with years of experience teaching French to non-native speakers. His career spans the U.S., France, and China. He is currently a student and associate instructor of French and Francophone Studies. He enjoys composing music, traveling, and learning Spanish in his free time.
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