When you’re studying a language, it’s important to learnabout words and culture, but what about individual letters?
The French language has an interesting relationship to someof them. French vowels, as you’ve probably noticed, are sometimes topped byaccents. These can serve an important purpose, but sometimes…not so much. Andwhile many French people find it extremely important to write correctly, others(at least in informal writing) can’t be bothered with including them.
Let’s look at one particular letter in French – the most frequently used one in the language: e. How is the letter e pronounced in French? What role does it play in French words? And what’s with the accent aigu (acute accent), accent grave, and accent circonflexe ?
Table of Contents
E’s long history- and one of history’s few e-less books
Why is the letter e so important in French?
Which French accents are used with the letter e?
Why are there accents in French?
Should you put an accent over a capital e in French?
Other French e variants
E as an abbreviation and a prefix in French
Do French people always put an accent on their e’s? Should you?
How can you tell when to put an accent on an e in French?
How to type French accents on Windows and Mac
E’s long history- and one of history’s few e-less books
The letter e has a very long history. It actually evolved from anEgyptian hieroglyphic! In its journey to the letter we know and use so muchtoday, it’s also been a part of many alphabets, including the first known one, created by thePhoenicians in the 15th century BCE.
E is a useful letter, of course, but some people havetried to do without it. French author Georges Perec’s 1969 novel La disparition isnotorious for being written without a single e…and still being prettygood!
On the other hand, ever theverbal acrobat (like all of his fellow Oulipo writers), a fewyears later, Perec wrote the novel LesRevenentes, which used the letter e as the only vowel inthe entire book (some verbaltrickery was involved)!
Why is the letter e soimportant in French?
The letter e is the most frequently used letter in a number of languages, including French.
In addition to representing sounds that appear in a majority of words, another reason for its predominance in French is because the letter e is used:
1. as the past participleending for regular -er verbs. Examples: joué, écouté
2. as a way to indicate thefeminine version of a word, an adjective or other part of speech modifying afeminine word, or, with some names and nouns, a female being or job (inthis case, e is sometimes on its own or included in suffixes like -euse,-ienne, – esse, ice, -onne, etc.).Examples: une (the version of un used with a feminineword); présidente (a female president); intelligente (afemale or feminine subject is intelligent); Simone (the feminine version of thename Simon).
Which French accents are used with the letter e?
As you’ve probably noticed, the letter e in Frenchdoesn’t always stand alone. Often, you’ll see an accent (also known as adiacritic mark) above it.
There are four diacritic marks that can be used with the letter e in French. These are:
Here’s what it means when you put one of them over the letter e in French:
L’accent aigu (acute accent) – é
ewith anaccent aigucan indicate a particular pronunciation, or the past participle or adjective form of a verb.For example,été.
L’accent grave (grave accent): ` – è
ewith anaccent graveindicates a particular pronunciation, as in the wordcrème.
L’accent circonflexe (circumflex): ̑ – ê
ewith anaccent circonflexemight indicate that you should briefly linger on a sound, but mostly it’s a sort of monument to an older version of a word, where an s once followed the e.For example,fête used to be written and pronounced feste in Old French.
Le tréma (diaeresis): ¨ – ë
ewith a tréma(diaeresis) means that this letter must be pronounced apart from those around it, as in the wordNoël.
Why are there accents in French?
Although they’re a major part of written French, accentscame about a lot more recently than the letters they adorn. According to this source,accent marks over e’s started being used in the 16th centuryCE — so a very long time after the letter e itself appeared!
Here are three basic reasons why the French add accentsto letters:
1. To indicate pronunciation.
Although it can be annoying (even for native French speakers) to have to remember to add them above a letter, accents in French are often just trying to help you out. They provide a way for speakers to know exactly how a letter should be pronounced.
For example, take the accent double whammy word élève. If thereweren’t any accents on those first two e’s, you wouldn’t necessarilyknow they’re not both pronounced the same way,not to mention the subtledifference in how they should be pronounced.
This said, as French Togetherfounder and native French speaker Benjamin pointed out in his article about the accent marks in French , it can be hardto hear the difference between different kinds of e’s, even for Frenchpeople. He also writes that you probably don’t have to worry about notprecisely pronouncing each letter as it’s indicated – although of course, in anideal world, you’d nail it every time.
As a non-native French speaker, I can definitely attest to this.For example, although élève is one of the first words I learned in Frenchclass, which means I’ve heard and used it for far longer than I’d like toadmit, I still sometimes slip and pronounce the first e much like thesecond one. Luckily, since people know I’m a foreigner, they’re not usually toothrown off by this and still understand me.
So, if you’re having a bit of trouble hearing the differencebetween the French e’s in words with multiple syllables, don’t worry.Try to improve, of course (more on that a little later), but don’t be afraid tospeak.
2. To avoid confusion between words.
Most of us know someone who overexplains everything or completely states the obvious. Accents in French sometimes have this role. In most contexts, it would be pretty hard to confuse a (avoir in the third person present) and à (“to”), but that accent is there just in case!
3. As a historical marker.
Every time I come upon an accent circonflexe, my etymology-loving heart skips a beat. Sure, it’s annoying to have to remember to put that little hat on top of a vowel, especially since it has no bearing on the letter’s pronunciation, but it’s like a little step back in time.
Barring a few exceptions (like being used to avoid confusing duand dû), an accent circonflexe indicates that a long time ago,an “s” used to follow the accented letter. This is really fascinatingbecause it gives us an easy way to image how early French speakers sounded.
You’ll notice cool things like the fact that être was oncepronounced “estre” (which also gives some insight into why many of its present-tenseconjugations include an “s” (tu es, il/elle/on est…). Or that laforêt was once la forest, making it easier to see how the word was borrowed intoEnglish in the early Middle Ages.
If this doesn’t excite and fascinate you the way it does me,no worries – just remember to stick the accent circonflexe over theright e’s and you’ll be fine.
Should you put an accent over a capital e in French?
You may have noticed that all of the e’s with accentsin this article have been lowercase. That’s because many French people don’tput accents over capital e’s – or any other capital letter, for thatmatter.
Although French grammar has very strict and well-establishedrules, among everyday French people, there’s a lot of uncertainty about whetheror not omitting an accent over a capital letter is correct.
According to this academic website,the AcadémieFrançaise,the honored, official authority on the French language and its rules, dictatesthat you should add an accent to a capital letter, for the same reasonsthat you add accents to lowercase ones.
The article features some colorful (and somewhat extreme)examples of misunderstandings that might ensue if you didn’t put an accent on acapital letter. That being said, manyFrench people still don’t do this, and most of the time everyone seems prettyclear about what’s going on.
Why the confusion about this rule? According to the article, before the days of computers, it was very hard to type accents over capital letters. I’ve never written anything in French with a typewriter, so I can’t say that it was any easier to make accents over lowercase letters, but there you go.
Additionally, the article concedes, before we were all typing and texting, writing out accents over letters slowed people down. For these reasons, many French people learned – even in institutions like schools – that it was okay to omit an accent over a capital letter.
So, to break it down: If you want to follow the rules and be writing 100% correct, Académie Française-approved French, add an accent to any capital letter that needs one. But if you forget to do this, most French people won’t notice and will still perfectly understand what you mean.
Other French e variants
Those four accents aren’t the only way e gets dressed up differently in French. You’re probably familiar with words like sœur (sister), cœur (heart), and œuf (egg). You may have also run into a term like curriculum vitæ.
In all of these examples, the letter e looks likeit’s squished together with an o or a. This is called a ligature(ligature). Essentially, theseblends are a holdover from Latin, which is the principal language that French evolvedfrom. In fact, you’ll only see æ used with terms directly borrowed fromLatin.
On the other hand, the ligature œ is used with many French words. It essentially means that the “o” and “e” have been combined together into one sound. You can hear it pronounced in cœur by clicking here.
Ligatures may look weird, but don’t worry. Since they’re in some French words you’ve already probably learned , you know that you can pronounce them. Just don’t overthink it.
E as an abbreviation and a prefix in French
The French love acronyms – that is, abbreviating a long term by using the first letter of each word. So you’ll find E in many French acronyms. You can see some examples on the list at the bottom of this page.
Aside from that, though, there are two common ways theletter e is used on its own in French:
1. As shorthand for the suffix “-ième” (th/nd).
A very frequent example of this is with floors of a building or arrondissem*nts (districts) in cities like Paris and Lyon. For example: Elle habite au 2e étage d’un immeuble dans le 19e arrondissem*nt. (She lives on the 2nd floor of a building in the 19th district.)
Note that, as with “th” in English, you may see this writtenas a letter that’s the same size as the number preceding it, or as a small efloating in the air just after the number. Example: 19e or19e. Whether it’s small or regular size, whene has this meaning, it’s always pronounced like the suffix it’sabbreviating: –ième.
2. As an internet/technology-related prefix borrowed from English.
The most common of these is e-mail or email. (Note that while you might see this borrowed English word in writing, it’s even more commonly said or written in informal situations as mél.)
Most words using this form of e are directly taken from English, which makes them a bit controversial for French people who want to preserve their language (including the members of the Académie Française).
Additionally, older generations may simply not understand what you’re saying, due to not having studied English and being less exposed to technology, so it’s a good idea to know the purely French equivalent of these e words, even so (For instance, the “official” French word for “email” is courriel (short for courrier électronique)).
Do French people always put an accent on their e’s?Should you?
Most French people learned to use accents in their formative school years, but even they – or at least, younger generations – might skip some, especially less important ones like the accent circonflexe if they’re writing quickly online or a text message.
Still, phones nowadays use autocorrect, so even if a French person didn’t bother to take the time to put an accent above an e, their phone might just do it for them or easily give them that option to choose from. So, maybe French grammar and spelling are better than ever, despite the fact that French people have slang and text speak, too!
Should you include the accents on the e’s in French? Absolutely! It seems like not including those accents is a pet peeve of many French people! I’ve even seen museum labels that occasionally have a missing accent that a French person took the time to sneakily fill in with a pen.
That said, don’t let the fear of forgetting an accent makeyou afraid to communicate in written French. The most important thing is to putyourself out there. Although most French people don’t like accent mistakes,they will definitely be understanding if you make one – after all, you’re not anative speaker!
How can you tell when to put an accent on an e in French?
As you get used to French pronunciation, you may start to suspect that there should be an accent on an e in certain words. I know this has been the case for me. But it’s not always easy – and that’s normal, too. Remember that Benjamin says even native French speakers like him may have trouble differentiating certain e sounds at times.
If you’re finding it tricky to determine if you need anaccent on an e based on sound alone, the best way is to read in Frenchand observe. You’ll sometimes notice patterns.
One very easy example of this, which you may know already,is that if the e at the end of a word or just before the final e ofa word is pronounced, it will have an accent aigu. Here are some examples:parlé, regardé, lycée.
So, if, like many of us, you don’t have an excellent ear, thebest way to learn French accents is to be observant.
How to type French accents on Windows and Mac
So now you know all about the letter e in French – except maybe for one important thing. How do you type the accents that sometimes go along with it?
If you’re using a PC, here’show to type accents with Windows and other options.
And here’show to type French accents on a Mac.
If you feel at “ease” with all things e in French now, let’s finish with a Georges Perec-inspired challenge: Try to write a page in French without using the letter e – or using the letter e as the only vowel!
