An essential guide to French accent marks & how to type them

I’ll be honest: E accents in French was not my favorite topic as a child. And I was not particularly excited to meet these accent marks again when learning Spanish later on.

However, after learning other languages, I realized that accents are cool. Yes, they are, and they make languages richer! For example, the Swedish “º” makes words sound funny, and the Spanish “ñ” is pretty unique.

As far as French diacritical marks are concerned, my personal favorite is “accent circonflexe”, that is, “^”.

If this simple word freaks you out, you’ll be happy to know that it became optional in many instances for today’s French. But more on this later!

For now, mettons l’accent sur… French accent marks!

The 5 French accent marks

There are 5 French diacritical marks:

French e accent

• l'accent aigu (acute accent) – é
• l'accent grave (grave accent) – à, è, ù

Other marks

• la cédille (cedilla) – ç
• l'accent tréma (trema) – ë, ï, ü
• l'accent circonflexe (circumflex) – â, ê, î, ô, û

Letters with French accents

As you might have noticed above — wow, great sense of observation! — French accent marks are only used with vowels. So basically, you can’t add them to any letter you want. How fun would it be, though?

Of course, it wouldn’t be French without an exception to the rule. And the exception is — drum roll — cedilla!

When do French vowels have an accent mark?

Ok, now that you know the names of French accent marks, it’s time to learn how to use them.

Below is a detailed guide, one by one, to become the queen or king of French accents. What a title.

The cedilla (la cédille)

As mentioned, the cedilla in French is the only accent mark used with consonants. Well, with A consonant: “c”.

To put it simply, “ç” indicates that the “c” is pronounced like a “s”.

You’ll find it only before “a”, “o” and “u”, because a “c” placed before an “e” or “i” is always pronounced like an “s”.

Without a cedilla, a “c” before an “a”, “o” or “u” is pronounced “k”.

Examples:

• Ce garçon est courtois. (More personality traits in French here).
  This boy is courteous.
• Je suis française, mais je ne vis pas en France. (Learn how to ask “Where are you from” in French here).
  I’m French, but I don’t live in France.
• Je voudrais un verre d’eau avec des glaçons, s’il vous plaît. (More drinks in French here).
  I’d like a glass of water with ice, please.

The acute accent (l'accent aigu)

The infamous French “e” accent.

The accent aigu is particular: it’s the only accent that can be paired with just one vowel, that is, “e”.

While it’s not always easy to know which side the e accents are supposed to go, “e” accents have a purpose.

For example, the accent aigu has something to tell you: how to pronounce the “e”! “Pensé” doesn’t sound the same as “pense”.

If you see this accent, “e” will be pronounced like “ay” in English, but without the diphthong. If that sounds like Greek — or French accents — to you, have a look at our article on French vowels.

But anyway, simply put, just say “ay” but stop halfway through, just before the “y”.

Examples:

• J’ai pensé à toi hier. (If in a romantic situation, check out these romantic words and quotes in French.)
  I thought of you yesterday.
• Le linge est propre, je vais l’étendre. (Interesting fact: In Europe, few people have a dryer and most hang their clothes to dry!)
  The laundry is clean, I’m going to hang it.
• On voit les étoiles, le ciel est dégagé. (More weather vocab in French here.)
  We can see stars; the sky is clear.

The grave accent (l'accent grave)

On the other side of l’accent aigu — literally — we have l’accent grave in French. Don’t worry, despite its name, it’s nothing too serious!

Used with “e”, just like its enemy — in my wild imagination — the accent aigu, it’s used to indicate pronunciation. It’s always pronounced “eh”, as in “web”.

Used with “a” and “u”, the accent grave can help differentiate words that otherwise would look and sound the same, for example: où (where)/ou (or) and là (there)/la (the).

Finally, you’ll find it in words where it doesn’t seem to be useful, such as “déjà” and “voilà”. These are contractions of words that had an accent grave.

The circumflex (l'accent circonflexe)

My favorite! Unfortunately, it might be doomed to disappear. More on this accent debacle in this article from the BBC.

But despite its gloomy future, this cute “hat” accent is still present in many words of the French language. So you might as well learn it!

This little guy indicates pronunciation to differentiate between homonyms, or as a marker showing a linguistic change over time.

When used with “a”, “e” and “o”, it tells you how to pronounce the word:

• “”: “aah”, as in “vista”
• “Ê”: “eh”, as in “get”. Just like “è”, actually.

When used with “i” and “u”, the accent circonflexe does not indicate pronunciation. As you might have guessed, there is an exception, of course: jeune (young) and jeûne (fast). The latter sound is a bit less “open”.

Just like its best buddy l’accent grave, Monsieur circonflexe can be used to differentiate words which would otherwise be spelled the same way, but have different meanings. Examples: dû (owned)/du (from), mûr (ripe or mature)/mur (wall), sûr(sure, secure)/sur (on or over).

And finally, this accent can indicate the drop of an “s” in French spelling over time, such as in “forêt” or “hôpital”.

Examples:

• Quel est cet arôme ?
  What’s this scent?
• J’espère que je saurai bientôt parler français. (Our French courses can help!)
  I hope I’ll be able to speak French soon.
• Regarde cet âne, c’est une belle bête ! (More animals in French here).
  Look at this donkey, what a beautiful animal!

The trema (l'accent tréma)

Last but not least, and almost as cute as the circonflexe, we find the tréma. Yes, those two little dots you may find on top of “e”, “i” and “u”.

L’accent tréma is very useful, as it’s an indication that a vowel has to be pronounced after another. Without the tréma, the second vowel would be silent, or with a diphthong. The meaning might change, too.

For example: aigüe (acute, sharp in the feminine form - to be pronounced like this), maïs (corn - to be pronounced like this)/mais (but).

Examples:

• Il a accompli un acte héroïque.
  He did a heroic deed.
• Je rêves de vacances aux Caraïbes. (Did you know French is the official language in some Caribbean islands?)
  I’m dreaming of a vacation in the Caribbean.
• J’adore les mosaïques portugaises.
  I love Portuguese mosaics.

How to type French accents

I work in at least three languages every single day. And believe me, before I had my own laptop — with a Spanish keyboard for accents! - and had to work from cybercafés around the world — yes, I’m that old —- finding accents on different keyboards was a real headache.

If you’re struggling with your computer, below are a few tricks to type accents.

Keyboard

If you have the US International keyboard setting, use these codes:

Cédille

• Windows: Alt + C
• Mac: Option + C

Accent aigu

• Windows: ‘ (single quote) then e
• Mac: Command + E then vowel

Accent grave

• Windows: ` (to the left of 1) then the vowel.
• Mac: Option +` (next to Shift) then vowel

Accent circonflexe

• Windows: Shift + 6 then vowel
• Mac: Option + I then vowel

Tréma

• Windows: Shift + ‘ (single quote) then vowel
• Mac: Option + U then vowel

Note for Mac users: The codes above work, but the easiest way is to press and hold the desired key — for example, e — to see the accent menu. Just pick the letter you need, and that’s it!

Note for Windows users: You can also find a list of special characters and accents in symbols/emoji or by using “insert special characters”. While there is a numeric code for each accent on Windows (French accent codes + alt), this is not convenient if you’re writing in French regularly.

Phone/tablet

On your phone, you won’t have any issue to type French accents. Just hold down the letter you want, just like for Mac, and all the accent options will show.

By now, French accent marks should no longer be a mystery to you.

Well, except l’accent circonflexe, who always hides a little secret under its hat. Loic Suberville will tell you!

And if you like having fun with the French language, check out our other blog articles and our latest post on tongue twisters. It’s a mouthful!