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 |