French puts three different accents on the letter e: é, è and ê. They are not decoration. Each one tells you how to say the vowel, and a missing or wrong accent shows in the most ordinary words, such as été, très or même.

Here is what each accent does, the rules of thumb that hold for most words, and how to type them on any keyboard.

1. É vs è vs ê: one letter, two sounds

• é, the accent aigu (acute): a closed sound, close to the start of "day" without the glide. été, café, parlé.
• è, the accent grave (grave): an open sound, like the e in "bed". mère, très, après.
• ê, the accent circonflexe (circumflex): usually the same open sound as è. fête, tête, être.

So é is the odd one out: è and ê sound alike, and what separates them is history. On other letters, accents mostly change the meaning rather than the sound, as with a or à in French.

2. When to write é

At the end of a word, é is everywhere: past participles of -er verbs (parlé, mangé), and nouns in -é, -ée or -té (café, idée, liberté).

At the start of a word, é often stands where English kept an s. French dropped that s centuries ago and marked the spot with the accent.

English	French
school	école
student	étudiant
state	état
spice	épice
sponge	éponge

3. When to write è

è appears when the next syllable holds a silent e, the kind covered on the page about French silent letters. That is why one verb can switch between é and è: préférer but je préfère, répéter but je répète. Verbs like lever and acheter do the same with a plain e: je lève, j'achète.

It is also the spelling of common endings in -ère, -ème and -ès: mère, problème, deuxième, très, après, succès.

4. When to write ê

The circumflex often marks an s that French lost long ago. English borrowed many of these words before the s disappeared, so the English cousin is your clue: fête (feast), forêt (forest), bête (beast), intérêt (interest), arrêt (arrest).

Some very common words carry it with no English cousin to help: être, même, tête. Those you simply learn.

5. When e takes no accent at all

An e before a double consonant or before x never takes an accent, even when it sounds like è: belle, terre, elle, exemple, examen. An e followed by a consonant in the same syllable usually goes without one too: merci, mer, sec.

Spelling	Sound	Examples	Clue
é	closed	été, école	end of a word, or a lost s at the start
è	open	mère, il lève	silent e in the next syllable
ê	open	fête, forêt	a lost s, often kept in English
e + double consonant	open	belle, terre	no accent needed
e + consonant, same syllable	open	merci, mer	no accent needed

6. Words learners often misspell

• très, not trés
• problème, not problême
• même, not méme
• élève, with two different accents
• préféré, with three times the same one
• événement or évènement: both are accepted since the 1990 spelling reform

Capital letters keep their accents in careful writing: École, les États-Unis.

7. How to type é, è and ê on any keyboard

• iPhone and Android: hold down the e key and slide to the accent you want.
• Mac: Option+E then E for é, Option+` then E for è, Option+I then E for ê.
• Windows: Alt+0233 for é, Alt+0232 for è, Alt+0234 for ê, typed on the numeric keypad. With the US-International layout, ' then e gives é, ` then e gives è, ^ then e gives ê.

The habit to keep

Look at what follows the e. A double consonant means no accent; a silent e in the next syllable means è; an English cousin with an s points to é at the start of a word or ê in the middle. The rule page on French accents covers the accents on other letters, and Apostrophe· dictates sentences that make you write them, with the rule explained when you miss one.

Frequently asked questions

What is the accent aigu in French?

The acute accent, written é. It only appears on e and gives it a closed sound, as in été or café.

Do è and ê sound different?

In most accents, hardly at all: both give an open e, as in mère and fête. The circumflex usually marks a letter French lost long ago, often an s.

Do capital letters keep their accents in French?

They should. École and les États-Unis keep their accents in careful writing, and it avoids reading mistakes.

Is it événement or évènement?

Both are correct. The 1990 spelling reform accepted évènement, which matches the pronunciation, and dictionaries list both.

Why is it je préfère but nous préférons?

Because è appears when the next syllable has a silent e. In je préfère the final e is silent, so the vowel before it opens; in nous préférons there is no silent e after it.

Read next