La prononciationLes signes orthographiques

Lesson Objectives

• To learn the names for the accents and how they change the sound of words.

• To learn how to insert accented letters into French texts.

• A surprise!

Introduction

French use accents and spelling marks that do not exist in English. These marks are part of correct spelling and CANNOT be

left out.

Here are the letters you will have to use:à â

é è ê ëî ïô öù û

ç

L’accent aigu (acute accent)

• It is only found on the “E”.• It makes the same sound as weigh.• This is also the case with open syllables (et, er,

ez).

L’accent grave (grave accent)

• It is used to distinguish between homographs on the “A” and “U”. (ou vs. où, a vs. à)

• It is also found on the “E”. In this case, it sounds like bed.

L’accent circonflexe (circumflex)

• Found on all vowels, it can also distinguish homographs. (du vs. dû)

• With the “E” it sounds like bed.

le tréma (diaresis)

• Found only on U, I, and E.• It requires you to pronounce both vowels.

la cédille (cedilla)

• Only on the letter “C”.• It changes the hard “k” sound to a soft “s”.• It isn’t needed before E and I, because it “C”

says “s” before these vowels always.

Typing Accents

Step One – Making the Shortcuts

Open a new document in Word

Go to the INSERT tab

Click on SYMBOL

Then MORE SYMBOLS

Step One – Making the Shortcuts

Step One – Making the Shortcuts

Here you will need to make sure the font is set to (normal text)

You now need to scroll through to find the é

Step One – Making the Shortcuts

Now click on SHORTCUT KEY

Step One – Making the Shortcuts

In ‘Press new shortcut key’ hold

down ALT + E together

Then click on ASSIGN and CLOSE then

CANCEL

Step Two – Creating More Shortcuts

Test your shortcut by pressing ALT + E together in your Word document. You should have an é

Now re-do the previous steps for the following letters:

à ALT + Aè ALT + 1 ê ALT + 3î ALT + Iô ALT + Où ALT + Uç ALT + C

Step Three – Typing in French!Je suis métis, un mélange de couleurs oh ohOh métis, je viens d'ici et d'ailleurs

Si parfois je me perds au milieu des deux rivesSi j'ai besoin de repères, mes racines me guidentUn sentiment basique, un élan, une chanceUne si belle mosaïque et dans mon coeur ça danse

Je suis la preuve vivante que tous les humains sont les mêmesJe suis l'enfant d'Adam et EveJe suis un rêve comme Ismaël en IsraëlRenie ta haine et fais sourire les angesMétis des Indes et du BrésilOn est métis comme Sade, Bob MarleyTu peux te marrer ou bien te barrerOn peut en parlerMulticolores, anti-connards et tous mes colocatairesCaracolent en tête pour des idéesD'un monde plus métissé

Copy this into your Word document.

Save it as – Yannick Noah

Song - Métis(se) by Yannick Noah

You just typed up some of the lyrics to a song – now let’s watch it!

Les Paroles - Refrain

Je suis métis, un mélange de couleurs oh ohOh métis, qui viens d'ici et d'ailleursJe suis métis, un mélange de couleurs oh ohOh métis, je viens d'ici et d'ailleurs oh oh