French Accent Homographs
Think accents don't matter when writing in French? Think again!
You may not realize it, but French accents have a purpose. While some accents just signify that an S used to follow that vowel in Old French (e.g., étudiant used to be spelled estudiant), most French accents indicate the correct pronunciation of the letter they modify. In addition, there are dozens of French word pairs which are spelled (though not always pronounced) the same other than accents. To avoid confusion, you should always distinguish between these words by using the correct accents.*
a - third person singular of avoir (to have)
à - (preposition) to, at, in
acre - acre
âcre - (adjective) acrid, pungent
âge - age
âgé - (adjective) old
aie - first person singular subjunctive and second person singular imperative of avoir
aïe - (interjection) ouch
arriéré - (adjective) overdue, backward; (noun) backlog, arrears
arrière - back, stern, rear, aft
bronze - bronze object
bronzé - past participle of bronzer (to tan, bronze)
ça - (indefinite demonstrative pronoun) that, it
çà et là - here and there
colle - glue
collé - past participle of coller (to glue)
congres - eels
congrès - conference, congress
cote - quotation, quoted value, rating
coté - highly thought of / rated (past participle of côter)
côte - rib, slope, coastline
côté - side
cure - cure, treatment
curé - priest; past participle of curer (to clean out)
crêpe - crepe (thin pancake), crepe paper
crêpé - past participle of crêper (to backcomb, crimp)
de - (preposition) of, from
dé - thimble, die
des - (indefinite article, partitive article) some; contraction of de + les
dès - (preposition) from
différent - different
diffèrent - third person plural conjugation of différer (to differ)
du - contraction of de + le
dû - past participle of devoir (to have to)
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