French Accent Marks Explained: The Accent on French Letters

French has five marks that go on letters: the accent aigu (é), the accent grave (à è ù), the accent circonflexe (â ê î ô û), the tréma (ë ï ü ÿ) and the cédille (ç). They change how a vowel sounds, separate words spelled the same, or record a letter that dropped out of the word long ago.

Unlike Spanish, French never uses accents to show stress. This guide explains what each mark does and when to write it, following Académie française conventions. To copy the letters themselves, go to French letters with accent marks.

The five marks at a glance

Accent aigu (é)

The accent aigu appears on one letter only: e. It gives the closed sound similar to "ay" in "say", without the glide. French never writes á, í, ó or ú.

You find é in a few predictable places:

• Past participles of -er verbs: parlé, mangé, arrivé
• Common prefixes: dé- (défaire), ré- (réécrire, réunir)
• Words where an s at the start dropped out long ago: école (school), étude (study), état (state), épice (spice), étranger (stranger)

The last group is a handy memory trick. If an English word starts with "s" plus a consonant, the French version often starts with é.

Accent grave (à, è, ù)

On e, the accent grave gives the open sound of "e" in "bed": mère, père, très, problème. You often see è before a syllable that ends in a silent e: lever becomes je lève, acheter becomes j'achète.

On a and u it does not change the sound. Its job is to tell apart words that would otherwise look the same:

The ù appears in only one common word: où. The à also appears in déjà, voilà and au-delà.

Accent circonflexe (â, ê, î, ô, û)

The circonflexe is the only French accent that can sit on all five vowels. In many words it marks an s that was dropped from the spelling, and the English cousin often still has that s:

It also separates some pairs of words:

On ê it gives the open e sound, like è. On ô it usually gives a closed o, so côte and cote sound different.

The 1990 spelling reform

The 1990 rectifications, approved by the Académie française, made the circumflex optional on i and u. Under the reform you may write ile, paraitre, cout and maitre. The accent stays on â, ê and ô, on words where it changes the meaning (dû, mûr, sûr, jeûne), and in verb endings such as nous fûmes and qu'il fût.

The Académie treats both spellings as correct; neither is a mistake. Many publishers still use the traditional forms. Pick one system and use it consistently. The reform also allows évènement for événement and je cèderai for je céderai, so the accent matches the open sound.

Tréma (ë, ï, ü, ÿ)

The tréma, two dots over a vowel, tells you to pronounce that vowel separately from the one before it. Compare mais (but, one sound) with maïs (maize, "ma-eess").

• ë: Noël, Israël
• ï: naïf, héroïque, maïs
• ü: Saül, capharnaüm
• ÿ: only in a few names, such as L'Haÿ-les-Roses

In words such as aiguë and ambiguë, the tréma traditionally sits on the e even though it is the u that is sounded. The 1990 reform moves it to the u: aigüe, ambigüe. Both spellings are accepted. The same two dots do a different job in German, as explained in umlaut and diaeresis letters.

Cédille (ç)

The cédille goes only under c. A plain c before a, o or u sounds like k; the cédille makes it sound like s.

• ça, garçon, français, leçon, reçu
• commencer gives nous commençons
• recevoir gives je reçois

You never need it before e or i, because c already sounds like s there: ceci, cinéma.

Do capitals keep their accents?

Yes. The Académie française says accents on capitals have full spelling value and should be written: ÉCOLE, État, À bientôt, Ça va. Missing accents can change the meaning. The headline "POLICIER TUÉ" means a police officer was killed; "POLICIER TUE" means a police officer kills.

The habit of dropping them came from typewriters and early computer keyboards that lacked accented capitals. That limit no longer applies. See how to type French accents for capitals on every system.

Common mistakes

For how these marks work in other languages, see the acute accent, grave accent and circumflex pages.