Les accents

Les accents

Objective: To learn about French accents and how they affect the pronunciation of words

Two cats are having a swimming race. One cat is called one two three and the other is called un deux trois. Which cat do you think won the race?

One two three because un deux trois cat cinq.

What are accents?

Watch the following videos and identify the different definitions of accents

Video 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YtMC4yUDhc

Video 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsgTzBx15UY

French Accents

é, è, ê, ç, à, ë

Accent aigu (Acute accent)

é.

• Found on "e".

• Pronounced as - ay

• Ex: école, état
  

Accent grave (grave accent)

• Found on "e", "a" ,"u"

• Pronounced as - eh when it is found on "e"

• Ex: père, mère

• On the other letters it is used to differentiate between homophones. e.g. La and Là.
  

Circonflexe (circumflex)

• Found on "e", "a" ,"u", "o", "i"

• Mostly distinguishes between two words

  E.g. Sur and sûr
  

Tréma (Dieresis)

• Found on "e", "u", "i"

• The vowels must be pronounced separately.

• E.g. Noël

Cedille (Cedilla)

• Comes before "a", "o", "u"

• Changes the "c" from sound "k" to sound "s"

• E.g. Garçon

Text 1

Dans la forêt, il y a un arbre.
In the forest, there is a tree

Text 2

Été est ma saison préférée.
Summer is my favorite season.

Text 3

Le garçon a un chat.
The boy has a cat.