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Accents and the cedilla

CEFR A1 · part 18 minInstant feedback

edumaterial's parts within the level. The European framework does not subdivide them.

  1. 1Try
  2. 2Learn
  3. 3Practise
  4. 4Check
The rule, in three lines

In French an accent does not show stress: it changes the sound or tells two words apart. é is closed (café), è and ê are open (père, fête), and ç sounds /s/ before a, o, u (garçon).

The usual slip. Writing French with no accents at all, or putting é everywhere. Tres and très are different words.

Why it catches you out. English uses no accents at all, so you drop them without noticing. But etudiant is simply misspelled, and ou / où are two different words.