ACCENTED VOWELS

PAGE CONTENT:
  • How do you pronounce the French accented vowels?
  • How to write accents in computers?

HEAR THE ADUDIO version

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ACCENTS on VOWELS:


You will find the following accents on vowels in French ` ' ^ " -eg. è é ê ë

 

  • NO CHANGE in pronunciation: The accent on the a i o and u does not change the alphabetic pronunciation of it. You continue pronouncing them as the alphabet vowel sounds.
  • SOME CHANGE in pronunciation: Only the French pronunciation of e is affected by the accents.

 

  1. a à ä â pronounced like the Alphabet A :::: BUT if you do not use the accents correctly, the meaning can be altered:::: il a = he has, BUT à = to, in, at
  2. In the case of the accent on the U in a vowel pair: pronunciation does not change but the meaning DOES!!!!:::: ou = or où= where
  3. Accents on the O and I? Yes, but pronunciation remains like in the Alphabet.


  4. SO FOCUS YOURSELF ON THE "e" . The accents on the E definitely change the alphabetic pronunciation of it -e è é ê ë
    • the alphabet e : le, de, ne, te, que

    • è ê ë: père, être, Noël yield similar E vowel sounds : similar to the "a" in the English "cat" but can be slightly longer.

    • é : été is different ( the E here sounds like the E sound in "says", but shorter and sharper

    CAREFUL: if the letter e in a syllable is followed by consonants (e+ consonants) the "e" is either pronounced:
    1. é, like "été" in the monosyllabic words 'et, les, des, mes, tes etc.' OR
    2. è, like "père" in "tu es" or "il est" or "elle"
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    For a more detailed view or study of the WHOLE of the French sound system or other variants of a vowel, please go to
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True-False Question
Read and listen to the information provided above and answer the questions here.


There are 4 possible accents in French plus the cedilla across the letter c: sharp ('), grave(`), circumflex (^)and trema(¨)

True False


All French vowels' pronunciation is affected by the accents.

True False


Only the pronunciation of the Alphabet letter "e" is affected by the accents.

True False


The following French vowels are pronounced the same:è ê ë

True False


The letter e in the French words les, mes, tes, des and et is pronounced the same as é

True False


The French a i o u letters can receive any of the four accents but they will still be pronounced as the alphabet vowels.

True False


French e when followed by sounded or silent consonants (eg. tu es, elle ), is pronounced like è

True False


When the French syllable's final letter is a non-accented e , it will be pronounced like the Alphabet e; eg. le, ne, de, te ,que etc.

True False
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