French accents - part 1 (French Essentials Lesson 17)

Today, folks, let's have a look at French accents, okay? As in the little dash that you put on top of the E and the A and the I and so on, and not as in the French accent. What I'd like you to do is have a look at the accents we have in French. Well, we have a few, okay? But I'd like to concentrate on two accents today, okay? So that's why I've titled the French accent part one. Okay, let's have a look. Now, as you may be familiar, when you read French, you may have noticed that on top of the E, you have a little dash, okay? This is called an accent, okay? An accent. And you may have noticed as well that sometimes it goes one way and sometimes it goes the other way, okay? Well, it has a purpose, okay? It means something. So if you see it, you need to write it properly, okay? And you need to read it properly too. Because the reason why they are on top of the E would be to change the sound, okay? Let's concentrate on the accent aigu or acute accent. And not a cute accent, by the way. Now, the accent aigu looks like this. Okay, now it looks like this. It has an E and a dash, okay? That goes from the left up to the right. Now, the accent aigu has this sound. Can you say that? Okay, now you will find the accent aigu in words such as the baby. Okay, or you could find it in And that's the summer. You could find it in And that's the shoulder. Okay, you can find it in Okay, and that's poetry. And you have also, look at this one. It has a double accent aigu. And that means created, okay? So you can have two E with an accent aigu next to each other, okay? So that is my first accent, the accent aigu. The one that everybody knows as long as you know how to pronounce it, which is E. Now, what is the other accent I'd like to teach you today? Remember, there are a few, okay? But I'm concentrating on these two today. Well, you have the accent grave or grave accent, okay? The accent grave is the other direction. So it starts from the right and goes towards the left, okay? The accent grave is Now, if you compare Two different sounds, okay? So the accent grave is Now, you will also find the accent grave on the A, which is a A, and the U, which is a U as well. So watch out for that. But the A and the U sound will not change if you have the accent grave, okay? But it will change if you put it on the E, if that is clear. Now, you will find the accent grave on words such as That's the brother. That's the father. That's the mother. You will find it also on which is very You would find it on which is the cream, okay? Okay. You will find it on which is an A with this accent, which means It doesn't. It means at, okay? Or to, okay? Or you would find it on Now, watch out here because, and it tells you, that two words of the same sound, okay? We call them homonyms, I think. Homonyms, yeah? That means two different things. So the U, where you have an accent grave on top of the U, means where. That means, where is it? And the U, where there is no accent grave, means or, okay? Coffee or milk, for example, okay? Café or lait, okay? So, what you need to know, that sometimes, you can find the two accents in the same word. So one accent aigu and one accent grave. And you need to take that in consideration because the sound changes then, okay? So you will find that in the common noun, the proper noun, sorry, Helen. Now, Helen in French is Now, have a look at that. Okay? You will find also this word in the two sounds, two different sounds. But yet, we are using an E every time. So élève means pupils, okay? Pupil, okay? Which means ephemeral. Do you say ephemeral, Adam? Which means, which doesn't last. It's éphémère. You will find that there are two accents aigus and then suddenly, an accent grave. Éphémère, okay? I'm changing the sound here. Another one. That means light, okay? Feminine word. Yeah, in that case. You will find it in Already. Have a look. There is an accent aigu on the E and an accent grave on the A. Déjà. Or you will find it on which means deceased or it's dead in effect. Okay? So, what I'd like to finish now and a little recap, okay, before I do that is that we have two accents, main accents. Remember, this is part one and there is another lesson coming on other accents. You will find the accent aigu, okay? Which is this one and we pronounce it and you will find the accent grave which is this one and we pronounce it okay? Which you will find also on the A and the U but the pronunciation does not change, okay? Let's have a look at this sentence which I've just made up which is mad, I tell you but hey, it shows you the use of accents. Here we are. Now, this is a bit mad but have a look. Can you read with me? No, no, seriously. Can you? Okay? Now, I'm just showing you that we have different sounds if you put a different accent on top of the E. Now, in the summer, the father of the baby with light cream with his pupil called Helen and they write poetry or poems together okay? So, I hope this first lesson on accents was useful to you and you've always wondered what this accent meant. Well, there you are. I've tried to explain you as clearly as possible and I hope I have done just that. Remember, if there is no accent, the sound will remain That's it for me. Remember to subscribe to my YouTube channel and have a look at the other lessons numbered. They are really cool. And why don't you have a look at my website LearnFrenchWithAlexa.com where I teach you with lots and lots and lots of material and I teach you French and take the French to a higher level. Okay? And I have a Patreon page as well. Have a look at the Patreon page. That's it for me. Au revoir. Bisous, bisous.