French grammar tips: Look out for the accent
It can seem unfair, when in a French class, that you spell a word perfectly but still get marked down because you have missed off the accent - after all, are these random dashes or doodles really so important?
But accents aren't just a source of grammar and spelling pedantry - they are also giving you helpful guidance on how to pronounce a word that you see written down. They are, in short, your friend.
Meaning
In some cases, accents even change the meaning of a word -
pate
is pasta, while
paté
is meat paste, an important distinction if you are vegetarian, gluten intolerant or simply detest spaghetti.
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Likewise
a
means have (
il a une pomme de terre
- he has a potato) while
à
means to (
Il va à Paris
- he's going to Paris).
An accent can also give you a vital clue as to the grammatical tense (along with the auxiliary verb) -
Il donne du sang
,
Il a donné du sang
; he gives blood or he gave blood.
Pronunciation
But mostly, accents are there to give you a clue about how a word is pronounced, which is vital if you haven't yet come across this word in spoken French.
Going back to our previous example -
pate
is pronounced roughly as 'pat', while
paté
is 'pat-ay'.
Accents
é
- the
accent aigu
or acute accent. If the accent is on the final é of the word, it is telling you to pronounce that letter. Therefore
comte
(pronounced com-tuh) is a count or nobleman, while
comté
(pronounced com-tay) is a delicious cheese.
In the middle of the word, it slightly changes the sound of the vowel to 'ay'. For example,
un défi
is pronounced uhn day-fee, rather than uhn deh-fee.
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If the é is at the start of the word, it doesn't make a major difference to the pronunciation - but does offer a little clue about what the word might mean, since it denotes that the old French or Latin equivalent began with an 'es' or 's'. Helpfully, that's often the same for the English word - so
établir
= establish,
étables
= stables etc.
è, à or ù
- the
accent grave
can be placed over either an e, an a or a u. The ù is the least common.
When used on an è it's a pronunciation marker, it indicates that the letter is pronounced as 'eh' rather than 'ee', for example
espèce
(space) or
pièce
(room).
When used for à or ù it indicates the meaning of the word - eg
a
versus
à
, or
la
(the) versus
là
(there). The pronunciation does not change with the accent.
It is used only once with a ù, which might be why even French people forget it, to distinguish between
ou
(or) and
où
(where). As with à, the pronunciation does not change.
ç
- the cedilla is probably the most straightforward, but also impactful, accent as it changes 'c' from being pronounced as a hard 'kuh' sound into a soft 'suh' sound.
Therefore the ex president pronounces his name fran-swah Hollande, rather than fran-cwah, while salad niçoise is a nee-swoise, not a nee-cwoise. Probably it's most ubiquitous use is in
"ça va"
- which is pronounced sah-vah.
ë, ï, ü
- this accent is known in French as a
tréma
and is another pronunciation accent - specifically it is used when two vowels are next to each other and should be pronounced separately, not rolled into each other as is more common in French.
This often produces a slightly comical 'eeee' sound that can be hard for foreigners at first. For example
maïs
(sweetcorn/corn) is pronounced my-eees, while your French friend Loïc pronounces him name low-eek.
France's state secularism can be a hard concept for foreigners to grasp - but pronouncing it isn't much easier -
laïcité
is pronounced lie-ee-sit-ay.
â, ê, î, ô, û
- the
circonflex
- aka 'little hat' - accent is in fact an
endangered
species. There have been several proposals to stop using it, but each time French people have campaigned to save their beloved accent and it remains in use.
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In most cases it doesn't change the pronunciation, and is another 'historical marker' accent, indicating that the word at one point had an 's' which has now disappeared - for example
hôpital
(formerly hospital, as in English) or
forêt
(forest).
It sometimes slightly changes the pronunciation, if an a, e or o is involved and can - like an à - also change the meaning of a word.
For example the difference between
sur
(on) and
sûr
(sure) or
tache
(stain or mark) and
taĉhe
(task). In both cases, those words are pronounced the same.
Grammar
There are also some grammar aspects to accents, as verbs sometimes lose or change their accents depending on whether and how they are conjugated. It doesn't make a difference to how you say things, so we'll let your French teacher explain that.
And as with all things related to French grammar, there are also some exceptions to the basic rules outlined above.
Grammar tips series
From agreeing adjectives to the subjunctive, French grammar can be fiendishly - some claim deliberately - complicated and almost all French learners have at one point despaired over ever getting it right.
People learn languages in different ways - some people prefer to just throw themselves into chatting, others like to have a textbook and some exercises. But the formal and structured nature of the French language means that if you want to become fluent - and if you need written French - then you are going to have to learn some grammar.
That's the purpose of our weekly series of French grammar tips and tricks - and you can also sign up to receive them as a newsletter.
The following tips are not intended as a substitute for formal classes or sweating over those verb tables (sadly, those are necessary for most people), but may be of some help to language learners.
They come from our own experiences of living and working in France, and as with
our popular French word of the Day feature
, we've tried to focus on examples that will be useful in everyday life.
French grammar tips: Guessing the gender of nouns
French grammar tips: Understanding place names
French grammar tips: Cheat's guide to the subjunctive
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