1 – Bonjour et bienvenue!
Prononciation: Les accents
Accents
1. Accent aigu ( ´ )
The accent aigu is used to indicate a sound change when used above the letter e.
This is the [e] sound learned earlier in chapter 1: 1.3 – Le son [e] (R)
| é /e/ | année | Répétez! | André |
2. Accent grave ( ` )
The accent grave is used to indicate a different sound change when used above the letter e.
| è /ɛ/ | très | après | Michèle |
When used with letters other than e, the accent grave does not indicate a sound difference but serves to distinguish between different words which have the same spelling (apart from the accent) but different meanings.
| ou (or) | où (where) | |
| la date (the date) | là (there) | |
| il y a (there is/are) | à l’heure (on time) |
3. Accent circonflexe (^)
The accent circonflexe arose historically as a marker for vowels which were followed by another letter (usually s) in an earlier state of the language:
| être (<estre) | hôtel (<hostel) | forêt (<forest) | plaît (<plaist) |
4. La cédille (ç)
La cédille accent is used only with the letter c to indicate that it should be pronounced like /s/ when it is followed by the letters a, o, or u:
| Ça va? /sa/ | cahier /ka/ |
The cédille is not used with the letters e and i:
| Ce | merci | |
| c’est | ici |
5. Le tréma (¨)
The tréma accent is used with vowels to indicate that they are pronounced separately from a preceding vowel:
| Noël | naïf | Loïc |
