Putting on a French Accent the Acute Way

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

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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

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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

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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"

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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

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Ils marchèrent un moment à travers le marécage

They walked for a while through the marsh

Caption 7, Piggeldy et Frédéric La pluie

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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!