As we’ve noted in previous lessons, accent marks are very important in French. Their presence or absence can completely change the meaning of a word, as in cote, côte, and côté or des, dés, and dès. In this lesson, we’ll investigate a more straightforward but no less significant distinction, between du and dû. 

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You may already know that in French de + le ("of" + "the") is always contracted into du. That’s why, in their introduction to their video on springtime trends (or trends of the springtime), Fanny and Corinne say tendances du printemps:

On va vous parler des tendances du printemps.

We're going to tell you about some springtime trends.

Caption 3, Fanny & Corrine parlent de la mode - Tendances du printemps

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Printemps is masculine, so, to put it mathematically: de + le printemps = du printemps. Note that, in the title, Fanny and Corinne parlent de la mode (talk about fashion). De + la can appear together in French, so no contraction is necessary there. You can find out more about these rules on this page.

When you put a circumflex on du, its pronunciation doesn’t change, but it’s no longer a contraction of de + le. Dû is the past participle of the verb devoir, which means “to have to” or “to owe.” So why does dû require a circumflex? For no other reason than to distinguish it from du! Though the circumflex is only used to distinguish meaning in this case, it can serve some other purposes as well, which you can learn more about here.

Here’s an example of dû used as a past participle, from a video about an electric sporting boat: 

Donc, on a dû utiliser deux moteurs.

So we had to use two motors.

Caption 25, Bateau sport 100% électrique - Le Nautique 196 E

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Dû can also be used as an adjective, in which case it means “due,” as in the expression “due to” (dû à): 

Peut-être que c'est aussi dû au fait que ma mère aimait beaucoup chanter.

Maybe it's also due to the fact that my mother liked very much to sing.

Caption 16, Mai Lingani - Mai et Burkina Electric

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Dû is the masculine singular form of the adjective, but note that the circumflex disappears in every other form: the feminine singular (due), the masculine plural (dus), and the feminine plural (dues). Remember: in this case, the circumflex is only there to prevent confusion with du.

In this caption from a video on AIDS, dû modifies the singular feminine noun banalisation, so it becomes due: 

Une banalisation qui est due d'ailleurs à la trithérapie.

A trivialization which, besides, is due to the tritherapy.

Captions 3-4, Le Journal - Le sida

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Finally, dû can be used as a noun (un dû) to mean “a due,” or something that one is owed: 

Je lui paierai son dû. 
I will pay him his due. 

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We hope that we have duly (dûment) demonstrated how much of a difference one little accent mark can make! 

Take a look at these three words: éventuellement, actuellement, forcément. If you read one of our previous lessons, you would probably guess that these words are all adverbs. And you would be right! You might also guess that they mean "eventually," "actually," and "forcefully." No such luck this time. These words are all false cognates (or faux amis, literally "false friends"), which are words that look similar in two languages but mean different things. French and English share too many faux amis to include in one lesson, so for now we'll focus on these three deceptive adverbs.

Éventuellement is synonymous with possiblement, which means "possibly" (no false friends there!). It can also be more specifically translated as "when necessary" or "if needed." 

Éventuellement dans... dans telle ou telle de cir'... situation...

Possibly, in... in such and such a cir'... situation...

Caption 19, Actu Vingtième - La burqa

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Aujourd'hui il y a dix-sept médicaments disponibles,

Today there are seventeen medications available,

utilisés éventuellement en combinaison.

sometimes used in combination.

Caption 17, Le Journal - Le sida

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"Eventually" is usually translated as finalement (finally) or tôt ou tard (sooner or later):

J'ai décidé finalement de ne pas aller à la fête.

I eventually decided not to go to the party. 

Nous y arriverons tôt ou tard. 

We'll get there eventually. 

Our second adverb, actuellement, is not "actually," but "currently" or "presently":

Actuellement sans travail, ils résident aujourd'hui près de Saintes, en France...

Currently unemployed, they now live near Saintes, in France...

Caption 3, Le Journal - Les Français de Côte d'Ivoire

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"Actually" in French is en fait (in fact):

Et... pour imaginer le texte, en fait j'ai eu une vision dans ma tête.

And... to imagine the lyrics, actually I had a vision in my head.

Caption 16, Melissa Mars - On "Army of Love"

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And in case this wasn't complicated enough, "currently" has a faux ami of its own: couramment (fluently).

Nicole parle couramment cinq langues.

Nicole speaks five languages fluently. 

Finally, forcément means "necessarily" or "inevitably." "Forcefully" is simply avec force or avec vigueur:

Je l'aime bien, mais euh, enfin,

I like him all right, but uh, well,

ce n'est pas forcément le meilleur qui soit...

he's not necessarily the best there is...

Caption 14, Interviews à Central Park - Discussion politique

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This one actually makes sense if you break up the word. Like many adverbs, forcément is made up of an adjective (forcé) plus the ending -ment, which corresponds to the English adverbial ending -ly. Forcé(e) means "forced," so forcément literally means "forcedly" or "done under force," i.e., "necessarily."

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Actuellement and éventuellement are also made up of an adjective plus -ment, and their adjectives are also false cognates: actuel(le) means "current" (not "actual") and éventuel(le) means "possible" (not "eventual"). These words have noun forms as well: les actualités are the news or current events, and une éventualité is a possibility. (Interestingly, éventualité is a cognate of "eventuality," another word for "possibility.") 

English and French share so many faux amis that there are entire books dedicated to the subject. But if you're not itching to memorize them all right away, you can learn why there are so many of them in this article.