LANGUAGE REFERENCE
French ALT Codes
Type à, é, è, ê, ë, ç, ù, œ without changing your keyboard.
French has the richest accent system of any major European language — five different diacritics (acute, grave, circumflex, diaeresis, cedilla) and two ligatures (œ, æ) across 38 unique accented characters. If you're writing emails in English and need to spell a colleague's name (François, Amélie, Noël) or slip in a French phrase like déjà vu or naïve, ALT codes get you there without switching layouts.
About French
Each French accent changes meaning. Accents aren't optional decoration — they often distinguish words. a (verb "has") vs. à (preposition "to"). ou ("or") vs. où ("where"). sur ("on") vs. sûr ("sure"). Dropping the accent in these cases isn't a typo — it's a different word.
The acute accent (accent aigu). Used only on é. Always indicates the sound /e/ (like the "ay" in "play"). Étudiant, café, résumé. This is the most common French accent and the one you'll need most.
The grave accent (accent grave). Used on à, è, ù. On è it indicates the sound /ɛ/ (like "eh" in "bed"). On à and ù it doesn't change pronunciation — it's a spelling marker to distinguish homophones.
The circumflex (accent circonflexe). The little hat — â, ê, î, ô, û. Historically marks where a letter (usually s) was dropped: hôpital comes from Old French hospital, forêt from forest. English cognates often still have the s. The 1990 spelling reform made the circumflex optional on i and u for most words, but most writers still use it.
The cedilla (cédille). Only used under ç. Softens c from /k/ to /s/ before a, o, u: garçon, leçon, façade. Without the cedilla, these words would be pronounced with a hard /k/.
The diaeresis (tréma). The two dots — ë, ï, ü, ÿ. Signals that the vowel is pronounced separately from the one next to it. Noël is pronounced "no-EL," not "nwel." Naïve is "na-EEV," not "nayv."