Accents and Nasal Sounds

French accents are not decoration. They do two jobs: they change how a letter sounds, and sometimes they change the word entirely. Both matter in the exam, because the Listening dictation requires you to write the correct accent, and the Speaking reading-aloud task requires you to produce the correct sound.

There are five accents to know:

Accent	Name	Appears on
é	accent aigu	e
è	accent grave	e, a, u
ê	accent circonflexe	a, e, i, o, u
ï	tréma	e, i, u
ç	cédille	c

Two accents mainly affect sound (é and è/ê), one splits vowels apart (the tréma ï), one softens a consonant (the cédille ç), and several also distinguish words that would otherwise be spelt the same. The next slides take them in turn, then move to the four nasal vowels.

The accent aigu appears only on e, and it gives a closed "ay" vowel, like the vowel in English play but clipped short.

Word	Gloss
été	summer
café	coffee
écouter	to listen
parlé	spoken (past participle)

This is the sound of the verb ending -er (manger = "manzhay") and the past participle ending -é (j'ai mangé = "I ate"), so it appears constantly. It is also the sound of -ez endings (vous parlez).

Whenever you hear a clean, closed "ay" at the end of a French word, it is almost always spelt -é, -er or -ez. Deciding which one is a key dictation skill and depends on the grammar, not the sound.

Say it short and tight: French é never glides into "ay-ee" the way an English long-a can.

The accent grave on e (è) and the accent circonflexe on e (ê) both give an open "eh" sound, like the vowel in English bed — noticeably more open than é.

Sound	Words	Gloss
è (grave)	père, mère, très	father, mother, very
ê (circumflex)	tête, fête, forêt	head, party, forest

So é ("ay") and è ("eh") are different vowels, and mixing them up is a spelling error in dictation.

The circumflex often marks a letter — usually an s — that dropped out of the old spelling, and the English cognate frequently still has it: forêt (forest), hôpital (hospital), château (castle), île (island). Spotting that "missing s" is a handy way to remember where the circumflex goes.

Accent grave and circumflex on e sound the same ("eh"). The difference between them is spelling and word history, not pronunciation.

Two more accents do special jobs, and several accents exist purely to tell words apart.

The tréma (ï, ë, ü) tells you the two vowels are pronounced separately, not blended:

Word	Said as	Gloss
Noël	"no-el"	Christmas
maïs	"ma-ees"	maize/sweetcorn
naïf	"na-eef"	naive

The cédille (ç) forces a soft "s" sound before a, o, u, where c would otherwise be hard "k": français, garçon (boy), ça (that), reçu (received).

Several accents distinguish otherwise identical words — the accent is the only difference:

Without accent	With accent
a (has)	à (to, at)
ou (or)	où (where)
la (the)	là (there)
sur (on)	sûr (sure)
du (of the)	dû (had to)

Leaving the accent off these words gives the wrong word, so it counts as an error in the dictation and in written translation.

A nasal vowel is a single vowel sound made with air escaping through the nose. It is written as a vowel plus n or m, but that n or m is not pronounced as a separate consonant. French has four of them.

Nasal	Spellings	Example (gloss)
"on" (open, like song without the g)	an, am, en, em	grand (big), chambre (bedroom), enfant (child), temps (time)
"ohn" (rounded)	on, om	bon (good), nom (name), maison (house)
"an" (as in bank)	in, im, ain, ein, aim	vin (wine), pain (bread), plein (full), faim (hunger)
"uhn"	un, um	un (a/one), brun (brown), lundi (Monday)

Notice that an/am/en/em all give the same nasal sound — so an (year) and en (in) rhyme — and that in, ain, ein and aim also all match, so vin, pain and plein share one sound. This is exactly what makes dictation tricky: several spellings hide behind one sound, and you choose the spelling from the word, not the sound.

The n or m is a signal that the vowel is nasal, not a consonant to pronounce. Bon is one nasal sound, not "b-o-n".

A nasal vowel stops being nasal — and you hear the n or m clearly — in two situations: when the n/m is followed by a vowel, or when it is doubled. This is the single most useful rule for the masculine/feminine pairs the exam loves.

Nasal (n/m signals nasal vowel)	De-nasalised (n/m now sounded)
bon "bohn" (good, m)	bonne "bon" (good, f)
un "uhn" (a, m)	une "ün" (a, f)
an "on" (year)	année "a-nay" (year)
plein "plan" (full, m)	pleine "plen" (full, f)
certain (certain, m)	certaine (certain, f)

So adding a feminine -e (which doubles the n or gives a following vowel) breaks the nasal sound and reveals the consonant — a pattern you will use in both dictation and reading aloud.

French word stress is also worth a note: it falls evenly on the final syllable of a word or phrase and is light. Unlike Spanish, French accents do not mark stress — téléphone is stressed on the last syllable, not where the accents sit.

1. Confusing é and è

é is the closed "ay" of été; è and ê are the open "eh" of père and tête. In dictation, write the accent that matches the sound — they are not interchangeable.

2. Dropping meaning-changing accents

à, où, là, sûr and dû are different words from a, ou, la, sur and du. Omitting the accent gives the wrong word and loses the mark.

3. Pronouncing the n or m in a nasal vowel

In bon, vin and grand, the vowel is nasalised and the n or m is not a separate consonant. Do not say "b-o-n"; make one nasal sound.

4. Forgetting that a feminine -e removes the nasal

bon becomes bonne ("bon"), un becomes une ("ün"), plein becomes pleine ("plen"). The added vowel or doubled consonant de-nasalises the sound, so you now hear the n.

5. Treating an accent as a stress mark

French accents change vowel quality or word identity, not stress. Stress always sits lightly on the final syllable, wherever the accents appear.