Diacritical Marks

Communication, both formal and informal, in either written or oral form, is one of five essential goals of both the Georgia Performance and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Standards. The use of diacritical marks or accent marks is one aspect of meeting the communication goal. Diacritical marks are an aid to pronunciation, proper spelling, and help distinguish some sets of words that are otherwise spelled alike but different in meaning or grammatical usage. For these reasons, GaVS World Language students, at all levels of language development, are assessed on the proper use of diacritical marks or accent marks in their chosen language of study.

Be sure to contact your instructor if you need assistance with typing accent marks!

Ligatures

A ligature is a typographical combination of two vowels. The most common ligature in French is œ. Throughout the course, you will occasionally see two spellings of the œ ligature:

œ (ligature)
oe (no ligature)

In general, both spellings (with and without ligature) are considered acceptable, though the spelling with the ligature should be preferred. Examples:

sœur/soeur
bœuf/boeuf
œuvre/oeuvre

Setting Up A Keyboard to Type Accents

To help facilitate your use of accents, please watch the following video that applies to your computer (Windows, Mac or Chromebook).

Windows

Mac/Apple

Chromebook