The difference between é and è in French

A little pronunciation guide showing the difference between é and è

What are the lines over é an è called?

The accent over the letter é is called an acute accent.

The accent over the letter è is called a grave accent.

You pronounce the two letters in slightly different ways.

é — like the vowel sound in the word “pay”
è — like the e in the word “fed”

So, you pronounce délicieux (delicious) and très (very) like this:

délicieux = day-lee-SIEUGH
très = treh

Let's practise

Have a go at pronouncing these words in French:

médecin (doctor)
marché (market)
scène (scene)
pièce (room / coin)
lèvre (lip)
première (first)
déjà (already)
parlé (spoken)
météo (weather)
frère (brother)
été (summer)
mère (mother)
déjeuner (lunch)
bière (beer)
trouvé (found)

ANSWERS

“mayd-SAN(g)”
“mahr-SHAY”
“sen”
“pee-ESS”
“leh-vreugh”
“preugh-mee-AIR”
“day-JSHAH”
“pahr-LAY”
“may-tay-OH”
“frair”
“ay-TAY”
“mair”
“day-jsheugh-NAY”
“bee-AIR”
“troo-VAY”

In context

It’s always good to look at rules in context, because it helps to solidify them in your mind. Let’s read through a few paragraphs from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, and focus on any words that contain either an é or an è.

1 M. MYRIEL.

En 1815, M. Charles-François-Bienvenu Myriel était évêque de Digne. C’était un vieillard d’environ soixante-quinze ans; il occupait le siège de Digne depuis 1806.

Quoique ce détail ne touche en aucune manière au fond même de ce que nous avons à raconter, il n’est peut-être pas inutile, ne fût-ce que pour être exact en tout, d’indiquer ici les bruits et les propos qui avaient couru sur son compte au moment où il était arrivé dans le diocèse. Vrai ou faux, ce qu’on dit des hommes tient souvent autant de place dans leur vie et surtout dans leur destinée que ce qu’ils font.

M. Myriel était fils d’un conseiller au parlement d’Aix; noblesse de robe. On contait de lui que son père, le réservant pour hériter de sa charge, l’avait marié de fort bonne heure, à dix-huit ou vingt ans, suivant un usage assez répandu dans les familles parlementaires. Charles Myriel, nonobstant ce mariage, avait, disait-on, beaucoup fait parler de lui. Il était bien fait de sa personne, quoique d’assez petite taille, élégant, gracieux, spirituel; toute la première partie de sa vie avait été donnée au monde et aux galanteries.

La révolution survint, les événements se précipitèrent, les familles parlementaires décimées, chassées, traquées, se dispersèrent.

était — was (“ay-TEH”)
évêque — bishop (“ay-VEK”)
c’était — it was (“say-TEH”)
siège — seat (“see-EJSH”)
détail — detail (“day-TY”)
manière — way (“mah-nee-AIR”)
arrivé — arrived (“ah-ree-VAY”)
diocèse — diocese (“dee-oh-SEZ”)
destinée — destiny (“des-tee-NAY”)
père — father (“pair”)
réservant — reserving (“reh-zair-VON(g)”)
hériter — to inherit (“eh-ree-TAY”)
marié — married (“mah-ree-AY”)
répandu — common (“ray-pan(g)-DOO”)
élégant — elegant (“ay-lay-GON(g)”)
première — first (“preugh-mee-AIR”)
été — been (“ay-TAY”)
donnée — given (“doh-NAY”)
révolution — revolution (“ray-voh-loo-SYO(g)”)
événements — events (“ay-vayn-MON(g)”)
se précipitèrent — were rushed through (“seugh pray-see-pee-TAIR”)
décimées — decimated (“day-see-MAY”)
chassées — pursued (“sha-SAY”)
traquées — hunted down (“trah-KAY”)
se dispersèrent — were dispersed (“seugh diss-pair-ZAIR”)

ê

You might have noticed a few words in that extract from Les Misérables contained an ê. The little hat on top of the e is called a circumflex accent. The pronunciation of the letter ê is exactly the same as the
e with a grave accent: è. So, it’s pronounced like the “e” in “fed”. Here are the words from the extract:

évêque — bishop (“ay-VEK”)
même — same (“mem”)
peut-être — maybe (“peugh-TEH-treugh”)
être — to be (“EH-treugh”)

Where did these accents come from?

The actual word for little lines, markers or accents added to letters is “diacritics’, which comes
from the Ancient Greek word “diakritikós”, meaning “distinguishing” or “separative”. Basically, they are distinguishing features that create differences between letters.

The French language is written using the Latin alphabet, but there came a point when that alphabet wasn’t enough to describe how the French language sounded. This became especially apparent during the Renaissance, when publisher printers decided to use accents to distinguish between different pronunciations of the vowels. The accents over the é and è made it clear how to say words. This was a big step away from the Latin language, which doesn’t have any accent markers or diacritics.

The first French accent to appear was the acute accent, which was used mainly on the end of words at first, to show that the “e” was pronounced like “ay”. Look at the difference in pronunciation between these pairs of words:

parle — speaks (“parl”)
parlé — spoken (“par-LAY”)

arrive — arrives (“ah-REEV”)
arrivé — arrived (“ah-ree-VAY”)

joue — plays (“jshoo”)
joué — played (“jshoo-AY”)

The acute accent then made its way into other parts of words, but also, the grave accent and the circumflex accents started to appear towards the end of the 17th Century.

Whilst the role of the acute accent was to mark a difference in pronunciation, the grave accent and the circumflex accent were used more to mark the disappearance of certain letters. Generally, an e with a circumflex accent (ê) shows that the old word used to have an “es” rather than an “ê”

fête – party (used to be “feste”)
ancêtre – ancestor (used to be “ancestre”)
forêt – forest (used to be “forest”)
conquête – conquest (used to be “conqueste”)
bête – beast (used to be “beste”)

All of this is, however, historical, and doesn’t affect how we learn modern French. It’s simply nice to know. For now, though, just remember how to pronounce them:

é — like the vowel sound in the word “pay”
ê & è — like the e in the word “fed”