The Importance of Accents
In French, accents are not optional decorations; they change pronunciation and meaning. For example, ou means "or," while où means "where."
Types of French Accents
- L'accent aigu (é): Only found on the letter 'e'. It indicates a closed 'e' sound, like in the English word "say."
- L'accent grave (à, è, ù): Indicates an open sound for 'e' (like "set"), or distinguishes homophones (words that sound the same but have different meanings).
- Le tréma (ë, ï, ü): The two dots indicate that the vowel should be pronounced separately from the preceding one (e.g., *Noël* is pronounced "No-el," not "Nol").
- La cédille (ç): Changes a hard 'c' sound (like "cat") into a soft 's' sound (like "soup") when followed by a, o, or u (e.g., *Garçon*).
Guillemets and Spacing
French uses specific quotation marks called Guillemets (« »). Unlike English quotes, French typography traditionally requires a non-breaking space inside the guillemets (e.g., « Bonjour ») as well as before punctuation marks like exclamation points and colons.