--- title: Accents: é, è, ê, ç and friends — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Accents: é, è, ê, ç and friends», a lesson of the french course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: French letters sometimes wear little hats, lines and tails, called accents, and they are part of the spelling, just like the dot on an i. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/3-accents-e-e-e-c-and-friends/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [French](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/) / Accents: é, è, ê, ç and friends # Accents: é, è, ê, ç and friends Lesson 3 of the french course of Mova's primary school: 19 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/french/3-accents-e-e-e-c-and-friends/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/3-accents-e-e-e-c-and-friends/0/) — French letters sometimes wear little hats, lines and tails, called accents, and they are part of the spelling, just like the dot on an i. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/3-accents-e-e-e-c-and-friends/1/) — An accent can change the sound: café without its é would be read "kaf", and sale (dirty) and salé (salty) are two different words. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/3-accents-e-e-e-c-and-friends/2/) — An accent can also change only the meaning: ou means "or" and où means "where", and they sound exactly the same. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/3-accents-e-e-e-c-and-friends/3/) — The little hat ê often marks a lost s from long ago, so forêt was once "forest", and fête was once "feste" (a feast). - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/3-accents-e-e-e-c-and-friends/4/) — Leave an accent off in a French test and you lose a mark, just as you would for writing "frend" instead of "friend" in English. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/3-accents-e-e-e-c-and-friends/5/) — The accent aigu (é) leans up to the right and makes e say "ay": le café is "ka-FAY", l'école (school) is "lay-KOL". - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/3-accents-e-e-e-c-and-friends/6/) — The accent grave (è) leans down to the right and makes e say "eh", as in "bed": la mère (mother) is "MAIR". - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/3-accents-e-e-e-c-and-friends/7/) — la mère (mother), la mer (sea) and le maire (mayor) all sound like "MAIR" but are spelled differently and mean different things. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/3-accents-e-e-e-c-and-friends/8/) — The accent circonflexe is a little hat (ê, â, î, ô, û); it often stands where an s used to be: forêt (forest), hôpital (hospital), fête (feast), île (isle). - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/3-accents-e-e-e-c-and-friends/9/) — The cédille is a little tail under c (ç); it makes c say "s" before a, o or u: le garçon (boy) is "gar-SON", ça (that) is "SA". - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/3-accents-e-e-e-c-and-friends/10/) — Without its cédille, garçon would be read "gar-KON", because c before a, o or u says "k". - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/3-accents-e-e-e-c-and-friends/11/) — a without an accent means "has": il a un chat (he has a cat); à with an accent means to, at or in: il va à Paris (he is going to Paris). - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/3-accents-e-e-e-c-and-friends/12/) — They sound the same. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/3-accents-e-e-e-c-and-friends/13/) — ou means "or" and où means "where": Thé ou café ? (tea or coffee?), Où est le chat ? (where is the cat?). - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/3-accents-e-e-e-c-and-friends/14/) — The tréma is two dots (ë, ï); it tells you to say two vowels separately: Noël is "no-EL", le maïs (sweetcorn) is "ma-EES". - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/3-accents-e-e-e-c-and-friends/15/) — In good French writing, capitals keep their accents: ÉCOLE, À BIENTÔT. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/3-accents-e-e-e-c-and-friends/16/) — sale (no accent) means dirty and sounds like "SAL"; salé means salty and sounds like "sa-LAY". - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/3-accents-e-e-e-c-and-friends/17/) — The names: aigu means sharp, grave means low, circonflexe means bent around; cédille is "say-DEE-y" and tréma is "tray-MA". - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/3-accents-e-e-e-c-and-friends/19/) — Slang here: "boss" (Liverpool) means great; "wee" (Scotland) means small; "heaps" (Australia) means very; "lush" (Wales) means lovely; "peng" (London) means great-looking; "them accents is" is broken grammar for "those accents are". - ← previous: [Funny French sounds: nasal vowels, the French r and u](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/2-funny-french-sounds-nasal-vowels-the-french-r-and-u/) - next →: [Hello and goodbye: greetings](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/4-hello-and-goodbye-greetings/) - ↑ back to [French](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/)