Accents and spelling
In French the accent does not mark the stressed syllable — that is Spanish — but the sound of the vowel. É is closed (été), è and ê are open (père, fête). The circumflex is usually the headstone of a lost s, which is why the English cousin shows through: forêt is forest, hôpital hospital, île isle, château castle. The cedilla ç keeps the /s/ sound before a, o and u: français, garçon, reçu; without it, it would be /k/. The diaeresis splits two vowels that would otherwise be read as one: Noël, maïs. And the grave accent on a and u changes no sound: it tells words apart, like a (has) from à (to), or ou (or) from où (where).
Where this sits
- Comes after
- What isn't pronounced
Exercises from this rung
Generated by the app, from easiest to hardest
fran___ais
- ç
- z
- c
- s
Why The cedilla keeps the /s/ sound before a, o and u. Without it, francais would sound with a k. Before e and i it is unnecessary, because c already sounds /s/: cinéma, ce.
easierinforma___
- cion
- sion
- xion
- tion
Why The -tion suffix covers hundreds of words English shares: information, situation, question, attention. They are all feminine, without exception, which settles the gender of a whole family at once.
in betweenappeler → j'app___lle
- e
- ê
- è
- é
Why Some verbs double the consonant where the e becomes stressed: j'appelle, tu appelles, but nous appelons. Others use a grave accent instead of doubling: acheter gives j'achète. Written French compensates for what the sound demands.
harder