French Diacritics and Marks of Accent

French Diacritics and Marks of Accent

French Diacritics and Marks of Accent

There are numerous French Words used in English 

and spoken across the world, hence it would be very 

helpful to know about French Diacritics and Marks 

of Accent.

 

 

Think about three words written over here:

 

Compétition/Competition

 

Télévision/Television

 

Coïncidence/Coincidence

 

 

French and English Speaker both use the above

words equally however there are some differences

in there written format. English speaker generally

ignore the Accent signs however french use it on

mass level.

 

French Language contains 5 basic Accent and these are strictly used in both oral and written.

 

ç – the cedilla (la cédille)

 

é – the acute accent (l'accent aigu)

 

â/ê/î/ô/û – the circumflex (l'accent circonflexe)

 

à/è/ì/ò/ù – the grave accent (l'accent grave)

ë/ï/ü – the trema (l'accent tréma)

 

Where and How to Use French Accent?

 

ç – the cedilla (la cédille) - 

Cedilla is always used with letter 'C'. Letter 'C' itself

sounds like 'K' however adding Cedilla changes it's

sound as 'S' as pronounced in word 'Sea'.

 

é – the acute accent (l'accent aigu) -

Acute only used with 'e' and enhances its

pronunciation as 'ay' as marché (Mar-shay - Market)

 

â/ê/î/ô/û – the circumflex (l'accent circonflexe) -

 

Little Pointed hat, circumflex does not change

pronunciation however it's mandate to use these in

written french language. Though this accent is 

majorly responsible to change meaning of the words 

where these are used. circumflex are used with a, e, 

i, o and u.

 

à/è/ì/ò/ù – the grave accent (l'accent grave) -

Grave accent can be applied on any vowel however it

only affects when it sits with letter 'e' and enhanced 

it pronunciation as 'ehh'.

 

ë/ï/ü – the trema (l'accent tréma) -

Two dots over a latter is called trema. It comes with 

two vowels and the route cause of applying this 

accent is to pronounced both vowels separately. Like 

coïncidence (ko-insi-dense).

 

List of French words with Accent or Diacritics 

 

 

• déstruction—destruction

• détail—detail

• littérateur

• materiel

• naïve

• voilà

• vis-à-vis—with regard to

• à la carte – Itemized menu with separate price

• bezique – Type of Game

• boîte – Nightclub

• chèque

• cinema

• Crédit—credit

• Demonstration

• Detail

• Detective

• Édification

• Education

French Diacritics and Marks of Accent