Accents Flashcards
accent circonflexe
Circumflex accent
Accent circonflexe. It’s usage is somewhat complicated
‘
Accent aigu
`
Accent grave
Which letters do accent circonflexe go on
â ê î ô û
Which letters do the accent aigu go over
é. there are many ways to pronounce an unaccented “e” in French. The grave accent makes it clear that you must say /ɛ/, when otherwise the “e” might be a different sound, or silent
la cédille
the cedilla
l’accent aigu
the acute accent
l’accent circonflexe
the circumflex
l’accent tréma
the trema
l’accent grave
the grave accent
Which letters do the cedilla go under
ç
Which letters do the trema go over
ë ï ü
Which letters do the accent grave go over
à è ì ò ù
é pronunciation
a in day - don’t pronounce y vowel sound
è ê ë
eh - e in best
ç pronunciation
s sound
Accent grave is used above a or u:
to distinguish words which have the same pronunciation but different meanings
a va à
- a is the third-person singular form of avoir (“to have”)
- à is a preposition that can mean “at”, “to”, or “in”
ça vs çà
- ça is a pronoun meaning “it” or “that”
- çà is an interjection that’s hard to translate. It can express worry or surprise (like saying “uh-oh!”) or it can be mere verbal filler, like saying “hey” or “well”.
la vs là
- la is the feminine form of the word “the” – or it other contexts it can mean “her”.
- là means “there” or “that
ou vs où
- ou means or
- où means where. this is the only word in the entire French language where you’ll find a grave accent above the letter “u”
déjà and deçà
already and closer than. these words without the accent grave above the a aren’t words
â pronunciation
American “hot”
ô
roughly like an English “oh” as in “boat” or “close”. It’s the same sound found in the French word au
î and û pronunciation
circumflex doesn’t change the pronunciation, except in the combination “eû”. Jeûne (“fast” as in a dietary fast) is pronounced differently from jeune (“young”).
So why bother writing a circumflex when it doesn’t affect pronunciation?
the word forêt, which means “forest”. As you might guess, the English and French words share a common root. As time went on, French people stopped pronouncing the “s”, but they continued to write it – it was a silent letter, of which English has many.
Eventually, it was decided to change the spelling of the word to remove the superfluous “s”. But for whatever reason, the French intelligentsia didn’t want to erase all trace that this “s” had ever existed – so the circumflex is an etymological tombstone – it tells you “hey, there used to be an extra letter here!”
Most commonly, a circumflex indicates a missing «s»
ancêtre – “ancestor” août – “August” côte – “coast” forêt – “forest” hôtel – “hostel” hôpital – “hospital” pâté – “paste” rôtir – “to roast”
sur vs. sûr
– sur is a preposition meaning “on”, or an adjective meaning “sour”.
– sûr means “sure” or “certain”. Note that the circumflex is still present in inflected forms like the feminine sûre, or in derived words like sûreté (security)
du vs. dû
– du means “of the” – it’s a contraction of de (of) and le (masculine form of “the”).
– dû is the past participle of devoir – “to have to”. Unlike sûr, the circumflex is not kept in the inflected forms: so it’s dû in the masculine singular but due, dus, and dues in the other three forms
mur vs. mûr
– un mur is “a wall”.
– mûr means “ripe” or “mature”, as well as being a slang term for “drunk”. The circumflex is preserved in the inflected forms (mûre, mûrs, mûres), and in related words like mûrir (to ripen.)
ë pronunciation
You may recognise the trema from the names Zoë and Chloë. Here, the trema tells you that the “o” and “e” are pronounced separately – so they rhyme with “snowy”, not “toe”
Trema common usage purpose
It’s written over the second of two vowels to tell you that they must be pronounced separately, whereas without the accent they might combine into a completely different sound:
coïncidence (coincidence)
Jamaïque (Jamaica)
Noël (Christmas)
This is by far the most common use of the trema.
