How To Type And Pronounce Accents in French and other languages?

Problem
1 I can't type accents.
2 When I do, I still don't know what they mean. How do I look them up?
3 What are their names? In English French Spanish German, Russian, Czech, Norwegian Greek, Swedish

Answers
1 Typing
Hold down the vowel key on your laptop when you type and the letters with the accents appear. Sometimes you are offered a number and you press the number key at the top of your keyboard at the same time to select the correct vowel.
On a smart mobile phone without a keyboard, you slide your fingertip across to the vowel with your chosen accent in the pop-up box.

2 Diacritics
Check Wikipedia under diacritics.
Check Wikipedia under alphabet and the language you want.

3 Accents in general
Accents have two purposes. They tell you which syllable in the one you emphasize or accent. They change the pronunciation of a consonant or vowel.

alphabetically by name
acute - see French
cedilla - used in French and Romanian
circle - see Swedish
circumflex - see French
grave - see French
tilda - see Spanish
umlaut - see German

Alphabetically by language

Czech
The wedge or downward point over the letter c changes the pronunciation to ch as in the English words Chili and church. (Note that the word Czechoslovakian uses cz for the ch sound.)

English Accents
The double dot called an umlaut in German, also known as dieresis, is rarely used except in dictionaries and tells you to pronounce both letters as in coöperative. Pronounced co - op not coop. (Another English word with a double vowel sound is a vacuum cleaner, pronounced vac-you-um, although many people rush the word so it sounds like vac-ume. When giving a scientific paper at a conference you would be sure to pronounce the word vacuum.)

French Accents
Acute  - Goes upwards from left to right
Grave - Goes downwards from left to right
Circumflex (From the Latin meaning bent around, circum is around like circle, flexible bends. The symbol looks like a pointed Chinese coolie hat or a roof on a house.

When I was taught French at Grammar school by a native French speaker I was told the hat accent often indicates a missing s, as in the French word hôpital - so an English speaking person reading the French, like me and you, can guess the translation.

Table d'hôte is the table of the host, so often the dish of the day in a restaurant, with no choice. Therefore, you can also recognize île de France as the island of France.

German
unlaut - double dot

Hungarian

The sz looks confusing, but it's simply as, with a slight z sound as on bus stops with the sign BUSZ and more clearly in the girl's name Suszanna. 

Romanian

Spanish
Tilda - wave line turns n into a n+y sound as in canyon (in English) and piña colada prounced pinya colada in Spanish.

Swedish and Norse
Circle

Useful Websites
https://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/Diacritical.pdf
https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,,-185751,00.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acute_accent

I'm taking a tea break. I'll add more details shortly. Come back later.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, former school teacher and home tutor, polyglot learner of languages, and teacher of English and other languages to Toastmasters International English and advanced and bilingual speaking groups and university and poly students and businesses.

Tips on Speaking French and where to Practise It

French flags. Photo from Wikipedia.

Problem
How do you get a real French accent?

Answers
1 The first thing to notice is that the French do not accent the first syllable, which is British, but the
s e c o n d syllable. So an English speaking person would say PARis, emphasis on the first syllable. A French person would say, ParEE.

2 Often the French do not pronounce the last letter. For example, Paris is parEE.

3 Notice when translating that adjectives come second. Moulin rouge. Cafe Rouge.

4 Accents are easy. An accent going uphill from left to right on an e sign is pronounced ay.  But coming down it is er or e as in get. I remembered when I was learning French by looking at the word for schoolchild, élève. (ay - lev.)

Tips
You can hear a French accent by watching old films made in France on the internet. You can tune into French broadcasts on the radio and TV.

If you want to remember French names, you will find that large numbers of French women have a name which starts with Marie and has another name attached. For example, Marie Antoinette. many of the men have the name Jean, for John, attached to the front of another name. For example the film director, Jean-Luc Godard.

Note that in Canada the accent is different, more like in the south of France around Marseilles.

Where can you practise reading and writing French?
Belgium
Canada
France
Saint Martin in the Caribbean.
Switzerland

If you are bilingual, the international Mother Language day is February 21st.
The UN French language day is March 20th.

Clubs Where You Can Practise
Many embassies and clubs and other organisations hold events and film festivals. For example:
SINGAPORE
French Francophone Toastmasters Club in Singapore. First Friday of the Month at Cairnhill CC. The international toastmasters International organisation has speech manuals in French.
LONDON, ENGLAND
Experience French Toastmaster International speakers club, meets on a Monday, in London, promotes its meetings on www.Meetup.com
Charles Peguy Centre in London.

Useful Websites and Resources
www.duolingo.com Free French course on the internet.
https://www.rocketlanguages.com/french/lessons/french-accents

Author
Angela Lansbury, teacher of English, French and other languages. I have many more posts on France and French food and speaking French and other languages and restaurants. Please follow me, bookmark your favourite posts and share them with your friends.

What French accents mean - how to pronounce French

Problem
What do the French accents mean? How do you type French accents?

à - type this accent by pressing down the a key and then without releasing it, press 1 (one).à
This means the a (ay) if pronounced a s h a r p a as it cat.
For example
à la mode - the first à is sharp, as if (as in as and at) as if you were pricked by a pin.
The second a in la sounds like do re mi fa so la - la or lah, as in laugh!
voila

Let's look

the cédille Ç,
the accent aigu é,
the accent c i r c u m f l e x (spaces to thwart spellchecker changing the word)
â, ê, î, ô, û,
the accent grave à, è, ù
and the accent tréma ë, ï, ü.
French accents - Rocket Languages

ç Cedilla underneath c
ë To get the double dots over the e, press down the keyboard key for e and hold it down. Up op a series of letters e with different accent. Whilst holding down the e, tap the number 4. ë
The cedilla is like a comma under the letter c.

â Circumflex above
The circumflex is like a hat or roof. It usually stand for a missing letter, commonly the S.
For example tête meaning head. (Press on the e key - tap the number 3.)

Another circumflex is on the a. â

é è Aigu and Grave above
Take the word for school pupil at a secondary school: élève
The first accent on the e, going up, is the a i g i meaning sharp, indicating an upward or sharp 'eh!'
The second accent called grave (pronounced g r a h - v )as in la la la, far.

Tréma or double dot above ë or ï
For the letter i, type i and then the number two.
It is used to show both the letter (vowel) is it above and the previous vowel are both pronounced.
For example
heroīne
Israël
Noël
Just think of the two dots meaning pronounce two letters.

Tips
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaeresis_(diacritic) (explains the double dot)
http://www.tolearnfrench.com/exercises/exercise-french-2/exercise-french-18620.php (explains the double dot)
https://www.rocketlanguages.com/french/lessons/french-accents

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author, speaker, and language teacher. Please share my posts.