accent marks
Letters' tiny hats
Accent marks are small symbols added to letters to indicate pronunciation, stress, or meaning.
They appear in borrowed words like café, naïve, and résumé, though English often drops them over time.
In foreign languages, accent marks are essential—Spanish distinguishes si (if) from sí (yes).
Also called diacritics or diacritical marks.
Intensely severe or perceptive
- graveSerious and worrying
- circumflexPeaked accent mark
- tildeWavy diacritical mark
- cedillaMark softening consonants
umlaut · dieresis · breve · ring · horn · hook · tittle · ligature
Of or from Paris's nation
- SpanishLanguage of Iberia
- GermanCentral European language
- PortugueseOf a western Iberian nation
- VietnameseOf Southeast Asian nation
Polish · Czech · Hungarian · Turkish · Pinyin · Scandinavian · Italian · Romanian
Correct letter sequence
- transcriptionWritten version of speech
- typographyArranging letters for display
- scriptWritten words for performance
- romanizationScript-to-alphabet conversion process
transliteration · notation · encoding · character set · alphabet · writing system · punctuation · apostrophe
Sound routed through nostrils
- syllableUnit of pronunciation
- phonetic spellingTranscription based on pronunciation
- enunciationClarity of spoken words
- articulationClear vocal expression
phoneme · diphthong · pronunciation guide · IPA · respelling
acute
Intensely severe or perceptive
- graveSerious and worrying
- circumflexPeaked accent mark
- tildeWavy diacritical mark
cedilla · umlaut · dieresis · breve · ring · horn · hook · tittle · ligature · stroke
French
Of or from Paris's nation
- SpanishLanguage of Iberia
- GermanCentral European language
- PortugueseOf a western Iberian nation
Vietnamese · Polish · Czech · Hungarian · Turkish · Pinyin · Scandinavian · Italian · Romanian · Croatian
spelling
Correct letter sequence
- transcriptionWritten version of speech
- typographyArranging letters for display
- scriptWritten words for performance
romanization · transliteration · notation · encoding · character set · alphabet · writing system · punctuation · apostrophe · special characters
nasalization
Sound routed through nostrils
- syllableUnit of pronunciation
- phonetic spellingTranscription based on pronunciation
- enunciationClarity of spoken words
articulation · phoneme · diphthong · pronunciation guide · IPA · respelling
- diacriticsacute, cedilla, circumflex, breve, diaeresis
- languagelanguage, word, words, grammar, spelling
- lettersa, d, e, h, q
- DutchDutch, Holland, Amsterdam, Netherlands, Rotterdam
- Language Lessonsgrammar rules, verb conjugation, basic vocabulary, grammar practice, pronunciation guides
- punctuationperiod, comma, colon, apostrophe, semicolon
accent marksletters
Alphabetic characters or mail
consonants · vowels · numerals · punctuation
mark, accent, marking, accents, accentuate, accented, accentuation, accenting, accentuating