The Acute Accent, ′, (accent aigu) is placed over the letter e only, and gives it an acute or sharp sound.
Ex. café, coffee; célébré, celebrated; nécessité.
The Grave Accent, `, (accent grave) is placed over the vowels a and e and the diphthong ou, and gives them not different sounds but makes them long or broad.
Ex. là, there; père, father; où, where.
The Circumflex Accent, ˆ, (accent circonflexe) is placed over all five vowels and gives them a very long or broad sound. It generally indicates the loss of a letter next to the accented vowel.
Ex. hâte, haste; hôte, host; même, self; sûr, sure.
The purposes for which the accents are used, are:
To mark certain inflections, as e. g., the participles past of verbs:
Ex. élevé, elevated; fermé, closed.
To distinguish two similar words of different meanings:
Ex. la, the, and là, there; ou, or, and où, where; des, of the, and dès, since; a, has, and à, to; notre, our, and le nôtre, ours; sur, upon, and sûr, sure; du, of the, and dû, due.
To indicate the loss of a letter:
Ex. mère, from mater; pâtre, from pastor; hôte, from hostis; sûr, from securus; épître, from epistola.
The effect of the accents on the vowel e is shown in five different ways. The Acute Accent gives it a sharp sound:
Ex. célébré, celebrated; sévérité, severity.
The vowel e has the same sound as if it were thus accented, when, in final syllables, it is followed by a silent consonant:
Ex. nez, nose; placet, petition; parler, to speak, except in tu es, thou art, and il est, he is, where it has a grave or broad sound.
The Grave Accent gives it a broad sound:
Ex. frère, brother; procès, process; dès, since.
