[Originally posted on 12/24/13 on the Duolingo French for English speakers forum by Remy]
In French, there are 4 accents for vowels and 1 accent for a consonant.
The “accent aigu” ´ (acute accent) can only be on an E.
The “accent grave” ` (grave accent) can be on an A, E, or U. On the A and U, it usually serves to distinguish between words that would otherwise be written the same, ex: ou (or) vs où (where), “a” (has) vs “à” (to, at)
The “accent circonflexe” ˆ (circumflex) can be on an A, E, I, O, or U. In general, it indicates that an S used to follow that vowel, e.g., forêt (forest).
The “accent tréma” ¨ (dieresis or umlaut) can be on an E, I, or U. It is used when two vowels are next to each other and both must be pronounced, ex: maïs.
The “cédille” ¸ (cedilla) is found only on the letter C. It changes a hard C sound (like K) into a soft C sound (like S), e.g., garçon. It never appears in front of E or I, as C always sounds like an S in front of them.
Accents have to be placed in their proper places, otherwise it is considered as a spelling mistake. (Exception: capital letters are often left unaccented)
Selected comments on original post
Almost correct 🙂 you need a verb after the “pour” you could say “Merci beaucoup pour m’avoir expliqué ça” in english it means Thank you a lot for explain me this. If you have some other questions I’m a french native speacker 🙂
Merci beaucoup pour m’avoir l’expliqué, est-ce faux?
J’ai mal avec ‘avoir’. ….pour me l’expliquer, pour m’expliquer cela, pour expliquer ça à moi; [any one right?]
Remy [contributor]
“Œ” (capital) or “œ” (lower case) is called “e dans l’o” (literally “e in the o”). It is the fusion of the letter “o” and the letter “e”.
It has 2 possible pronunciations:
- the same as the “e” in the pronoun “je” (I), for example in “vœu” (vow/wish)
http://translate.google.fr/#fr/en/vœu (Click on the speaker button)
- the same as the “eu” in the adjective “neuf” (new), for example in “bœuf” (beef) or “œil” (eye)
http://translate.google.fr/#fr/en/bœuf
http://translate.google.fr/#fr/en/œil
(Click on the speaker button)
Exception: capital letters are often left unaccented
Are there any rules on this? What is considered “normal”?
Remy [contributor]
The “Académie Française” recommends to accentuate the capital letters, but unaccented capital letters are tolerated.
Duolinguists 