To be able to understand accents: ACCENTS IN FRENCH Learning objective: To be able to understand accents: Why we use them How we use them

WHAT ARE ACCENTS? * In French, accents are used with the vowels: a, e, i, o, u which makes the pronunciation different. There are 3 types of accents: 1. The acute accent (L’accent aigu) 2. The grave accent (L’accent grave) 3. The circonflex accent (L’accent circonflexe)

L’accent aigu The acute accent is only used with the letter E. é It is pronounced ai, like in j’ai. E.g : école (school); écrire (to write) écouter (to listen),été (summer or been)

L’accent grave The grave accent is used with A, E, U. When used with E → è , it is pronounced eh e. g : près, When used with A and U, the words mean different things. e. g: a (has): Il a les cheveux noirs à (to): je vais à la piscine

L’accent circonflexe This is used with A, U, E and make the pronunciation of the vowel HARD. e.g: pâtes (pasta) tête (head) août (august)

LA CEDILLE The cedilla is only used with the letter C, when followed by A, O and U. The ç is pronounced like an S. e,g : leçon (lesson); garçon (boy); ça (this); reçu (received);

L’apostrophe (’ ) The apostrophy is used to replace a vowel of a word which is followed by another word starting with a vowel or an H mute. e.g : la école → l’ école je ai → j’ ai de habitude → d’ habitude je ne ai pas → je n’ai pas

The trema (..) The trema (..) is used to indicate that 2 vowels needs to be pronounced separately. e.g : noël (Christmas), but sœur (sister) maїs (corn) , but mais (but) Mme Mostefaї