Les signes orthographiques La prononciation Les 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!

Here are the letters you will have to use: 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 ë î ï ô ö ù 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

Step One – Making the Shortcuts Then MORE SYMBOLS

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 + A è ALT + 1 ê ALT + 3 î ALT + I ô ALT + O ù ALT + U ç ALT + C

Step Three – Typing in French! Je suis métis, un mélange de couleurs oh oh Oh métis, je viens d'ici et d'ailleurs Si parfois je me perds au milieu des deux rives Si j'ai besoin de repères, mes racines me guident Un sentiment basique, un élan, une chance Une si belle mosaïque et dans mon coeur ça danse Je suis la preuve vivante que tous les humains sont les mêmes Je suis l'enfant d'Adam et Eve Je suis un rêve comme Ismaël en Israël Renie ta haine et fais sourire les anges Métis des Indes et du Brésil On est métis comme Sade, Bob Marley Tu peux te marrer ou bien te barrer On peut en parler Multicolores, anti-connards et tous mes colocataires Caracolent en tête pour des idées D'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 oh Oh métis, qui viens d'ici et d'ailleurs Je suis métis, un mélange de couleurs oh oh Oh métis, je viens d'ici et d'ailleurs oh oh