Diacritics (accents)
“Diacritics, often loosely called ‘accents’, are the various little dots and squiggles which, in many languages are written above, below or on top of certain letters of the alphabet to indicate something about their pronunciation.”1
Related:
Common diacritics
Acute accent
A mark (´) placed over certain letters in some languages to indicate an alteration of a sound. As in risqué,2 or the first “e” in célèbre.
In French the acute is used on é. It is known as accent aigu, in contrast with accent grave. It creates a closed “ay” sound. See The difference between accent aigu and accent grave in French.
The letter “a” with an acute accent: á.
The letter “e” with an acute accent: é.
Grave accent
In French the accent grave (è) creates an open “eh” sound. For example, the second “e” in célèbre. See The difference between accent aigu and accent grave in French.
The letter “a” with a grave accent: à.
The letter “e” with a grave accent: è.
Circumflex accent
The cicumflex accent is the “little hat”. In French it often indicates the presence of a letter that has become silent and been removed from the spelling of the word, for example, the silent “s” before a consonant. An example is feste (first appearing around 1080) becoming fête.3
The letter “a” with a circumflex accent: â.
The letter “e” with a circumflex accent: ê.
Diaeresis, trema, or umlaut
A mark (¨) used over a vowel, as in German or Hungarian, to indicate a different vowel quality, usually fronting or rounding.
Fronting: (tentatively) the process by which a back vowel becomes front in the context of another front vowel.4 Analogous to the difference between “man” (back) and “men” (front).
The letter “a” with an umlaut: ä.
The letter “o” with an umlaut: ö.
Tilde
Often used to denote a nasal sound.5
The tilde is also used in math and computer science as a symbol for approximation. For example ~900 KB.
The letter “n” with a tilde: ñ.
Ring or bolle
The letter “a” with a bolle: å.
Slash, solidus, or virgule
The letter “o” with a slash: ø.
Audio and video examples
The difference between accent aigu and accent grave in French
References
Trask, Larry, University of Sussex. “Diacritics.” (Department of Informatics, University of Sussex, 1997.) https://www.sussex.ac.uk/informatics/punctuation/misc/diacritics.
Wikipedia contributors. “Acute accent,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Acute_accent&oldid=1330090733 (accessed January 8, 2026).
Learning Portuguese. https://www.learningportuguese.co.uk/guide/pronunciation/diacritics.
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Larry Trask, University of Sussex, “Diacritics,” (Department of Informatics, University of Sussex, 1997,) https://www.sussex.ac.uk/informatics/punctuation/misc/diacritics. ↩︎
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Oxford English Dictionary, (via Google Search). ↩︎
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Wikipedia contributors, “Circumflex in French,” (last edited: November 28, 2025,) https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Circumflex_in_French&action=info. ↩︎
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Oxford English Dictionary, (via Google Search). ↩︎
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Learning Portuguese, https://www.learningportuguese.co.uk/guide/pronunciation/diacritics. ↩︎