Ah, zee French accent, not the one used for spoken words, but the one you type to indicate pronunciation. At last I've grasped how to type accents on a laptop. You hold down the letter e and up pops a series of letters e with different accents on top.
Most words have the rising sign, which means you tap the letter 2 at the same time as indicating letter e. In the word c e l e b r e (spell checker wants to change this to celebrate) you start with an e and number two, followed by the e and number one.
I was hoping to find a word which had the accents the other way to make it easier for me and you to remember which is one and which is two without having to squint at the numbers before tapping on the correct one. I may have to choose two separate words.
amour - love
amour propre - love of oneself
cause célèbre
coup de founder - clap of thunder (metaphor meaning stunning blow)
echelon - scale or height, from French échelle, ladder
exposé - revealing of secret story (French noun related to English adjective exposed)
memoir - memory - not a full biography but memory of a particular period, place or profession
nuance - slight variation with implication
panache - flair
poignant - sad, emotional, arousing pity, sharply pointed, making you tearful, possibly ironic, touching
riposte - retort or reply
tour de force - strongest point
unique - one-ness (like the English words unity, unison) (the French phrase filled unique
means only daughter
When written in English, the French accent on the word is essential, because the English word expose, which is a verb, is pronounced differently.
Angela Lansbury
Author, speaker.
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