208 – How to Pronounce É in French (French Accents)
In this episode, you’ll learn how to pronounce the é (e with an acute accent) in French.
After the lesson, head over to the French Made Easy Exercise Library to practice!
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Links & Cheat Sheet:
📝 Lesson Cheat Sheet: The É Accent in French
📚 Lesson exercises: French Exercises Library 📚
⌨️ Keyboard with French accents: https://french.typeit.org/
Transcript
Bonjour à tous, hello everyone and welcome back to the French Made Easy podcast!
This is episode 208, numéro deux cent huit.
In today’s episode, we’re going to focus on the é (e with an acute accent) in French.
You’ve probably seen this little accent many times in words like le café, l’école, or even le bébé.
So, the é (e with an acute accent) is pronounced [e].
In this lesson, I’ll say some French words and sentences that include é, and you can repeat after me to practice and improve your pronunciation.
To help you follow along, make sure to download your free cheat sheet. It includes all the words and sentences, with their English translations. You’ll find the link in the episode notes — it’s completely free.
And I know many of you don’t have French accents on your keyboard, so I’ve also included a link in the transcript to a special keyboard that lets you easily type accents:
Let’s start with a few French words that contain the é accent. Please repeat after me:
la télé 📺 (TV / television)
le bébé 👶 (baby)
le marché 🧺 (market)
le café ☕ (coffee)
le thé 🫖 (tea)
Alright, now let’s practise with some sentences with the é accent.
Repeat after me:
La télé est à côté du canapé. (The TV is next to the sofa.)
Le bébé est déjà réveillé. (The baby is already awake.)
Le marché est très fréquenté en été. (The market is very busy in summer.)
Le café est déjà commandé. (The coffee has already been ordered.)
Le thé est ma boisson préférée. (Tea is my favourite drink.)
Alright, that’s it for our sentences. I hope you enjoyed today’s episode. Next week, we’ll practise another accent mark.
Thanks so much for listening.
À bientôt, bye!