Do accents matter in TCF and TEF Canada?

Yes, in the writing tasks. A missing or wrong accent is a spelling error, and some accents change the word itself (a/à, ou/où).

Do capital letters take accents in French?

Yes, in careful writing: État, À bientôt. The Office québécois de la langue française recommends keeping accents on capitals.

Which accent is used most in French?

The acute accent, é, by far. It’s the only accent on past participles of -er verbs (parlé, arrivé), so it appears in almost every sentence in the past.

French accents practice: put the accents back

La chasse aux accents

Each word appears with its accents knocked off. Tap a letter to cycle through its accents (e → é → è → ê → ë) and rebuild the word. Every accent must be right, with none extra. Look-alikes such as ou and où come in a sentence.

3 min a round
Free, no sign-up
Writing

How to play

1See the meaning and the word with its accents knocked off.
2Tap a letter to change its accent: e → é → è → ê → ë, a → à → â, c → ç…
3Check: every accent must be right, and none extra. Look-alikes like ou / où come in a sentence.

What it trains

Accent spelling in 196 common words, and 24 pairs where an accent changes the word: ou/où, a/à, la/là, sur/sûr.

Why it matters for TCF and TEF Canada

In French, a missing accent is a spelling mistake, and sometimes a different word: a (has) and à (to, at). Clean spelling is part of how your writing is judged, and accents are where many learners lose easy points.

Practise writing in the real format: TCF Canada writing practice · TEF Canada writing practice

Learn while you play

Rules and tips to remember

é is the most common accent
It’s a closed “ay” sound, frequent at the start of words (école, état) and in past participles (parlé, allé).
è is the open e
It sounds like the e in “bed”: père, problème, très. It often comes before a syllable with a silent e.
ê often hides a lost s
forêt (forest), hôpital (hospital), fête (feast): where English has an s, French often has a circumflex.
ç keeps c soft
Before a, o and u: français, garçon, reçu. Before e and i, c is already soft, so no cedilla: ceci.
Accents that change the meaning
ou = or, où = where; a = has, à = to; la = the, là = there; sur = on, sûr = sure.

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