Essential French Grammar (2012)

Written Accents

There are three written accents which are placed on vowels in French. The most common is the acute accent (l‘accent aigu)’ which is used only over the vowel e. The é has the sound of English a as in ABC: la vérité (the truth), parlé (spoken).

The grave accent (l’accent grave) is used mainly over e, which then has the sound of e in met: le père (the father), il lève (he raises). The grave accent is also used over a and u (without affecting their pronunciation) in a few words to distinguish them from other words with the same spelling: à (to, at), a (has); là (there), la (the, it, her); où (where), ou (or).

The circumflex accent (l‘accent circonflexe) may be used over any vowel (â, ê, î, ô, û), and generally lengthens the sound of the vowel: l’âge (the age), être (to be), l’île (the isle), le Rhône (the Rhone River), sûr (sure).

The above accents do not indicate any special voice stress on the syllable where they occur.

The cedilla (la cédille), is placed under the letter c to give it the sound of s before a, o or u: français (French), le garçon (the boy, waiter), reçu (received).