ACCENTS
There are 5 French accents:
- the cédille Ç,
- the accent aigu é,
- the accent circonflexe â, ê, î, ô, û,
- the accent grave à, è, ù
- and the accent tréma ë, ï, ü.
1. The cédille (cedilla) Ç
The cédille is only used on the letter C. It changes a hard “c” sound (like “k”) into a soft “c” sound (like “s”). Ç is never used before the vowels e or i, as these 2 vowels always produce a soft “s” sound (glace, ici).
2. The accent aigu (acute accent) é
The accent aigu is only used on the letter e.
3. The accent circonflexe (circumflex) â, ê, î, ô, û
The accent circonflex indicates that (historically) an “s” used to follow that vowel e.g. écouter and escouter
4. The accent grave (grave accent) à, è, ù
With a and u, the accent grave is used to differentiate some words;
- à “to” versus a “has“
- où “where” versus ou “or“
5. The accent tréma (dieresis/umlaut) ë, ï, ü
The accent tréma indicates that the vowel is to be pronounced separately from the one immediately before it.
PUNCTUATION MARKS
. | un point | full stop, period,dot |
, | une virgule | comma |
: | les deux points, un deux-points | colon |
; | un point-virgule | semi colon |
‘ | une apostrophe | apostrophe |
! | un point d’exclamation | exclamation point |
? | un point d’interrogation | question mark |
… | les points de suspension | ellipsis |
– | un trait d’union | dash, hypen |
— | un tiret | m-dash |
_ | un underscore, un souligné | underscore |
° | un symbole du degré | degree sign |
« » | guillemets (m) | quotation marks, corresponding to inverted commas ” “ |
( ) | parenthèses (f) | parentheses |
[ ] | crochets (droits) (m) | (square) brackets |
{ } | accolades (f) | curly brackets, braces |
< > | crochets fléchés (m), crochets pointus (m) | angle brackets |
& | une esperluette, un et commercial, un et anglais | ampersand |
* | un astérisque | asterisk |
# | un dièse (Fr), un carré (Can) | number sign |
$ | un signe du dollar, un dollar | dollar sign |
£ | un symbole livre | pound sign |
% | un signe de pour-cent, un pour-cent | percent sign |
+ | le signe plus | plus sign |
– | le signe moins | minus sign |
= | un signe égal | equal sign |
< | un signe inférieur | less-than sign |
> | un signe supérieur | greater-than sign |
| | une barre vertical, opérateur de transfert des données | pipe |
/ | une barre oblique, trait oblique, un slash | forward slash |
\ | une barre oblique inverse, un anti slash | backslash |
@ | un aroba, un arobas, un a commercial | at sign |