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Linguaholic

ô in French


FlagOnce

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Accents in English is mainly related to the way you speak. But in French, the word "accent" means more than that, given there's the "accent aigu" é (e-acute) and "accent grave" è (letter with grave accent). But there's as well something else: the circumflex, like "ô".

"ô" in French has a special meaning that will help any English speaker. Take the example of forest. In French, it's forêt. Why like this in French? Because in French, the "^" (circumflex) is often indicating that there was the letter S after the circumflexed letter, but it was removed thereafter. That's why forêt is forest in English. The reverse isn't true: the "^" does not mean that in English you will have to add the S letter.

It's a general rule, I'm not sure it applies every where (être for example, I'm not sure about its origins). But I wanted to share that with you. In the hope it helps you.

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Interesting story, FlagOnce. I have studied French for years but I never really asked myself about the origin of the mysterious Circumflex. It makes a lot more sense now! Thank you for sharing.!

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