Updated on May 29, 2024
French accents: everything you need to know
French and English use the same alphabet, but there is a big difference between the two languages: French often uses accents, mostly on vowels.
In several cases, they inflect the pronunciation. They can also affect the meaning or the grammatical nature of a word. This is what makes them such an important and necessary feature to master if you want to learn and speak French.
The good news is there are only five types of accents in French (put it this way, it’s a much smaller number than how many different types of cheese there are in France!):
Let’s review them according to their type and purpose:
Accents are most famously known for changing pronunciation. Indeed, some of the most frequent accents have no other aim. Yet, other accents have a different purpose. Let’s look into this in more detail.
Don’t be fooled. Even though the acute accent is used only on one letter, the vowel “e”, it is more common than any other accent in the French alphabet.
You will find it frequently on adjectives and on past participles, such as “préféré” (“preferred”), “doré” (“golden”) or “foncé” (“dark” when referring to colors in French like “dark red” or “dark blue”). In fact, you can also find it in English on words borrowed from French like “café”, “appétit” or “résumé”.
As for pronunciation, the acute accent sounds very much like “ay”. You can practise the sound via Youtube videos.
After the acute accent, the French accent grave is frequently used on the letter “e”, on common words like “très” (“very”), “thème” (“theme”) or “crème” (“cream”).
Though close, its pronunciation is not to be confused with “é”. Instead, the sound “è” is similar to how you pronounce “bed”, “fresh” or “get”.
Next comes the accent circonflexe “ê”, which is pronounced in the same way as the accent grave “è”.
You can find it in words like “être” (“to be”), “forêt” (“forest”) or “fenêtre” (“window”). The two accented letters used to be pronounced differently in old French, but the distinction has been lost over the centuries, even though both accents are still in use.
We also use the circumflex accent over the letter ‘u’ to differentiate it from other homophones. For instance, to distinguish the partitive masculine singular article “du” from the past participle “dû,” the noun “mur” from the adjective “mûr,” the second person singular pronoun “tu” from the past participle “tû,” and the preposition “sur” from the adjective “sûr.”
Though a less common accent, the trema plays an important role: it is used when the vowels “e”, “i” or “u” sit next to another vowel, in order to indicate both vowels should be pronounced separately. For instance, “maïs” (“corn”) is pronounced “ma-iss”, whereas “mais” (“but”) is pronounced as one vowel, like “may”. The trema on “ï” is what allows us to distinguish between the two French words.
The cedilla is a little squiggly mark that is exclusively used on the consonant “c” with the vowels a, o or u, to indicate when the letter should be pronounced as “s”. It’s the only accent mark used with a consonant in French spelling.
You will find it in common words like “garçon” (“boy”), “déçu” (“disappointed”) or “français” (“French”). Without it, the letter “c” is pronounced like “k”, such as in “commentaire” (“comment”), “casser” (“break”) or “cuisine” (“kitchen”).
The consonant “c” is already pronounced “s” when it is followed by the vowels e and i, such as in the word “cédille” itself. This is why the cedilla is never needed with those two vowels.
You may have noticed that we have left several vowels with accents in the list above. In those remaining cases, the accents don’t alter the pronunciation but play other, equally important roles.
Contrary to the grave accent on “è”, the one on “à” and “ù” doesn’t impact the pronunciation. When used with “a” and “u”, the accent grave can help differentiate words that have the same pronunciation but different meanings, such as the following cases:
Interestingly, “où” (meaning “where or when”) is the only word in the entire French language where you have a grave accent above the letter “u.”
As you can see in those examples, such word pairs often have very different grammatical functions. In that sense, they can be compared to English homonyms like “there” and “their”, or “your” and “you’re”.
While you can’t hear any difference when French people say these words, the addition of the grave accent is essential in order to write grammatically correct sentences.
As with “à” and “ù”, the circumflex accent on “a”, “i”, “o”, “u” doesn’t change the pronunciation. Instead, it helps to distinguish between two homophones, for instance “mur” (“wall”) and “mûr” (“mature” or “ripe”), “sur” (“on”) and “sûr” (“sure”), or “du” (a French article which may have different meanings like “some”, “from” or “of the”) and “dû” (“had to”).
The accent may also be a trace of the letter “s” that used to feature in some words in old French, as you can sometimes tell from the English corresponding word, such as with “hôpital” (“hospital”), “intérêt” (“interest”) or “île” (“island”).
As you can see, accent marks are as important in French writing as they are in speaking. This simple fact can quickly become a hassle when you are in front of an English keyboard. Thankfully, there are a few tricks and shortcuts that will help you speed the process.
Typing French accents is particularly easy on mobile devices. All you need to do is hold the letter you want to add an accent to and all the existing accents for that letter will appear.
Another method is to download the French keyboard on your mobile in addition to the English one. Not only will you see all the special characters on the French keyboard, but you will also benefit from auto-suggestions in French rather than in English.
The first solution that may come to mind is simply to get a French keyboard. However, on top of that extra expense, you will need to get used to the different positions of several letters, punctuation signs and other special characters on the keyboard.
You may therefore prefer to learn to use keyboard shortcuts from your current keyboard to type French accents. All you will have to do is opt for the US (international) keyboard setting from the main menu:
On Windows: Start Menu > Settings > Time & Language > Region & Language > English > Add Keyboard > United States (International).
On Mac: Settings > Keyboard > Input Sources > US International – PC.
We have detailed the five shortcuts you will need to know, depending on which type of computer you own.
| French accent | PC Computer | Mac Computer |
| Acute accent | Single quote ‘ followed by e | Command+E followed by vowel |
| Grave accent | ` (to the left of 1) followed by vowel | Option +` (next to Shift) followed by vowel |
| Circumflex accent | Shift+6 followed by vowel | Option+I followed by vowel |
| Trema | Shift + single quote ‘ followed by vowel | Option + U followed by vowel |
| Cedilla | Alt+C | Option+C |
Whether you’re looking to speak or write in French, accents are an essential and common ingredient of the language. They change the pronunciation of certain vowels and help distinguish between words that would otherwise be spelled or uttered in exactly the same way. But rest assured: you will soon become familiar with them as you simply cannot escape them.
Here are also some of the questions people ask relating to the French accent marks and how they are used
The accent tréma, also known as the dieresis, consists of two small dots above the letter and is applied to e, i, and u (ë/ï/ü). It is similar to the German umlaut, featuring two dots positioned over the second of two consecutive vowels.
Its sole purpose is to signal that the letter in the French word should be pronounced separately from the preceding vowel, as seen in examples like “Noël” (Christmas).
In French, there are five diacritical marks: the acute accent, the grave accent, the circumflex, the diaeresis and the cedilla.
French accent marks serve to indicate pronunciation, distinguish between homonyms, and represent historical orthography. They include the accent aigu (´), accent grave (`), accent circonflexe (^), cedilla (ç), and tréma (¨). Each mark has specific rules and applications in French spelling and pronunciation.
French accent marks are indispensable elements in French orthography, serving to refine pronunciation, disambiguate homonyms, and preserve the historical integrity of words.
These diacritics on French vowels and consonants shape the phonetic nuances of French words, so understanding these accent marks not only helps you master French pronunciation but also deepens your appreciation of the language’s rich linguistic heritage.
