Do French accent marks really matter or are they merely decorative? We learned from previous lessons that, yes, accents do matter. They are essential for clarity, grammar, and pronunciation in French. This is especially true for pairs of words that look and sound nearly identical. A single, tiny accent mark—easily overlooked—is all that distinguishes their meanings. To help you avoid some common mistakes, we will walk you through some of the most frequently used "accentonyms", such as ou (or) and où (where).

Two of these “accentonyms” are the shortest words in the French language: a and à. Without an accent, a is the third-person singular of avoir (to have) in the present tense, as in il/elle a (he /she has):

Elle a des répliques cultes

She has some famous lines

Caption 20, Français avec Nelly How to Speak Like Marie Antoinette - Part 1

 Play Caption

With an accent grave, à is a preposition meaning "at," "in," or "to":

Alors qu'est-ce qu'il s'est passé à Paris le quinze avril deux mille dix-neuf ?

So what happened in Paris on April fifteenth, two thousand nineteen?

Caption 14, Français avec Nelly L'histoire de Notre-Dame de Paris - Part 1

 Play Caption

On a similar note, do not confuse the feminine definite article la (the) and the adverb of location là (there). They might even appear within a single sentence as shown in the example below, so be sure to spell them correctly: 

Et... là où en fait tu vois la perspective de la Dame de fer, la tour Eiffel.

And... where you actually see the perspective of the Iron Lady, the Eiffel Tower.

Captions 31-32, Marie et Sandra Atelier d'art - Part 26

 Play Caption

Speaking of location, note the difference in meaning between ou (or) and où (where). Don’t forget to add an accent grave on the u to indicate “where” you are or are going:

Et où est-ce qu'on va ?

And where are we going?

Caption 11, Extr@ Ep. 11 - Les vacances - Part 8

 Play Caption

And use the unaccented ou (or) when discussing alternatives: 

Ce virus ou cette pandémie, pour être plus précis, a une envergure mondiale aujourd'hui.

This virus, or this pandemic, to be more precise, now has a worldwide scope.

Captions 19-20, Lionel L La pandémie

 Play Caption

Let’s move on to a different accent, the accent circonflexe (circumflex accent), which can modify all five vowels (â, ê, î, ô, û). For example, the words du (some) and dû (due/must have) have different meanings. The French indefinite article du means “some” in English:

D'abord, prenez du chocolat et faites-le fondre.

First, take some chocolate and let it melt.

Captions 3-4, Extr@ Ep. 5 - Une étoile est née - Part 7

 Play Caption

With an accent circonflexe, dû becomes a past participle (of devoir, "to have to/must") expressing causation or probability:

Ça a dû lui prendre un peu la tête.

It must have given her a bit of a headache.

Caption 33, Français avec Nelly How to Speak Like Marie Antoinette - Part 1

 Play Caption

Likewise, be sure to know the difference between these two very common words: the preposition sur (on) and the adjective sûr (sure).

Cette pluie sage et heureuse / Sur ton visage heureux

That wise and happy rain / On your happy face

Captions 32-33, Le saviez-vous? "Barbara" de Jacques Prévert

 Play Caption

 

Déjà d'une, on n'est pas sûr de vieillir, hein.

First of all, already, we aren't sure we'll reach old age, you know.

Caption 15, Télésonne Micro Trottoir : Bien vieillir ?

 Play Caption

Circumflex accents don’t affect pronunciation when modifying the vowels u or i. However, in addition to a change of meaning, there is a change in pronunciation with accented ê, â, and ô, providing an additional clue as to their spelling. For example, the unaccented o in notre (our) has a more open, shorter sound than the accented ô in le nôtre (ours). Listen carefully to the two examples below, as the difference is subtle:

Pour notre dernière étape, il faut suivre ce câble.

For our last stop, we have to follow this cable.

Captions 77-78, TF1 Info Week-end à Angers et son trésor médiéval - Part 2

 Play Caption

Ce frère, c'est le nôtre.

This brother, he is ours.

Caption 4, Le saviez-vous? Les pronoms possessifs - Part 2

 Play Caption

The accented ô in le nôtre (ours) has a deeper, longer sound. When in doubt, remember that the adjective notre precedes the noun it modifies, whereas the possessive pronoun le nôtre stands alone.

Likewise, listen for the subtle difference between the more open and shorter-sounding unaccented a, as in tache (stain), and the longer, deeper accented â in tâche (task):

Le plafond du cabinet était couvert d'une tache d'environ soixante-dix centimètres de diamètre.

The ceiling of the office was covered with a stain about seventy centimeters in diameter.

Captions 83-85, Le Jour où tout a basculé À l'audience - Mise en danger par un médecin ? - Part 4

 Play Caption

Pour vous faciliter la tâche

To make the task easier for yourself

Caption 145, Whoogy's Poulet au vin jaune & aux morilles - Part 1

 Play Caption

Finally, here is an example featuring an accent aigu (acute accent) that will change both pronunciation and meaning. Notice how such a tiny accent can make all the difference in the words sale (dirty) versus salé (salty). 

L'eau était s'... sale.

The water was d'... dirty.

Caption 42, Marie et Sandra Atelier d'art - Part 18

 Play Caption

C'est un peu salé. 

It's a bit salty. 

Caption 24, Mère & Fille Cuisine Monster

 Play Caption

We hope this lesson vous a facilité la tâche (made your task easier) and will help you avoid common mistakes in the future. For a more comprehensive list of “accentonyms,” check out this site. Thank you for reading!

Unlike English, French makes liberal use of accent marks to modify pronunciation and differentiate meanings. They are an essential part of the language. However, since accents are rare in English, they can present a challenge for French learners. They may find the subtle differences in pronunciation challenging, not to mention that accent marks add another layer of difficulty with spelling. In this lesson, we will focus on the most common one, the accute accent (accent aigu), which exclusively modifies the letter e, as in café. 

The primary function of the accent aigu is to signal a change of pronunciation of the letter e (which is either silent or pronounced like the "a" in "a dog"), into a closed é (the same as a Spanish e). Unfortunately, such a sound does not exist in English, but it's roughly equivalent to a shortened, denser “ay” as in “day," pronounced with tighter lips. In English, you may be familiar with the loanword café, but can you say it the French way? Listen to the way a native pronounces it:

Enzo retrouve Brice au café.

Enzo meets up with Brice at the café.

Caption 2, Le Jour où tout a basculé À la recherche de mon père - Part 8

 Play Caption

In addition to altering pronunciation, the accent aigu can signal a change in meaning. For instance, the difference between the present tense and past tense of some verbs is only an accent away, as in parle (speak) versus parlé (spoken). In the present tense, parle (speak), like all regular -er verbs, ends in a silent e, pronounced "parl." 

Bon, je parle, je parle.

OK, I'm talking, I'm talking.

Caption 106, Whoogy's Poulet au vin jaune & aux morilles - Part 1

 Play Caption

Conversely, parlé (spoke/spoken) is the past participle, with the final é clearly pronounced, sounding roughly like “parlay” in English. So be sure to pronounce the endings correctly, as all -er verbs have a past participle ending in é:

Il a parlé de haine. Il a parlé d'humiliation.

He spoke of hatred. He spoke of humiliation.

Captions 78-79, France 24 Nicolas Sarkozy condamné à 5 ans de prison

 Play Caption

While parle and parlé are pronounced differently, parler (to speak) and its past participle parlé (spoke/spoken) sound the same but have a different ending, as is the case for all -er verbs. They can be hard to distinguish in speech, so it's best to rely on context and grammar to guide you. Generally, a verb following a conjugated verb will be in the infinitive form, as shown below:

Elle ne veut plus me parler

She doesn't want to talk to me anymore

Caption 54, Français avec Nelly Comment remplacer "mais"

 Play Caption

Moving away from verbs, accent aigu marks are usually less problematic when placed on other parts of speech, as they don’t involve grammar shifts:

Je viens de donner un cours avec un étudiant américain.

I just gave a class with an American student.

Caption 13, Français avec Nelly Les États américains

 Play Caption

Ils marchèrent un moment à travers le marécage

They walked for a while through the marsh

Caption 7, Piggeldy et Frédéric La pluie

 Play Caption

You may encounter words with multiple é’s, such as réédité (reprinted). Ré- here acts as a prefix ("re-" in English), which is followed by the past participle édité (printed):

La ville de Soissons a réédité des affiches de l'époque

The city of Soissons has reprinted posters from the era

Caption 22, Voyage en France Soissons - Part 1

 Play Caption

The record for the number of é’s found in a single word is five, as in hétérogénéité (heterogeneity):

Une riche et fructueuse hétérogénéité culturelle reflète cette variété naturelle.

A rich and fruitful cultural heterogeneity reflects this natural variety.

Here is another succession of vowels that may seem strange to an English speaker: three e’s in a row, as in créée (created)! The first é comes from the stem of the infinitive, créer (to create). The second is the past participle ending (créé, created). And the final (silent) e is the feminine ending:

Alors l'Assemblée générale de l'ONU a été créée après la fin de la Seconde Guerre mondiale en mille neuf cent quarante-cinq.

So the UN General Assembly was created after the end of World War Two, in nineteen forty-five.

Captions 8-10, France 24 On vous explique... l’Assemblée générale de l’ONU

 Play Caption

You'll notice that most of the words with é in the example above are cognates with English: assemblée/assembly, générale/general, créée/created. Cognate nouns ending in é in French often end in y in English, as in assemblée/assembly. 

Although accents aigus seem to pop up just about anywhere within a word, as seen in the example above, there are some restrictions. For instance, they cannot be placed before a double consonant, as in embelli (embellished):

Il fut bâti au treizième siècle et embelli jusqu'au seizième.

It was built in the thirteenth century and embellished until the sixteenth.

Caption 9, Voyage en France Vexin Normand - Gisors - Part 2

 Play Caption

In this word, the second e is pronounced é, but because it precedes a double l, it doesn't take an accent aigu.

When an e appears before a single consonant followed by a silent e, as in collège (middle school), the first e takes an accent grave (è), not an accent aigu:

J'ai douze ans et je pars au collège, en cinquième.

I'm twelve years old, and I go to middle school, in fifth grade [seventh grade].

Captions 2-3, Leïa L'école

 Play Caption

We'll focus on the accent grave in our next lesson. In the meantime, keep taking note of accent marks in our Yabla videos to familiarize yourself. Thank you for reading!