Acute and Grave Accents

Level 1

Grave means open. Acute means closed or stressed.

How It Works

Occitan writes two accents on vowels.

Accent	Letters	What it shows	Examples
grave	à è ò	an open vowel (è, ò) or a stressed a (à)	ailà (over there), tèrra (land), pòrta (door)
acute	é ó	a closed vowel	mercé (thank you)
acute	á í ú	a stressed vowel that breaks the stress rule	cossí (how), dessús (above)

The acute accent on á also comes in the verb ending -iá of the imperfect, as in aviá (he or she had).

Occitan has no circumflex accent. Keep the accent on capital letters too: write PÈIRE, not PEIRE.

A missing or wrong accent is a spelling mistake, because it changes the sound or the stress.

Using the acute accent for an open vowel.
térra
tèrra
An open e takes the grave accent.
Leaving out the accent on a stressed final vowel.
cossi
cossí
The stress is on the last syllable, so it needs the accent.

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Acute and Grave AccentsLevel 1

The grave and acute accents are the marks on o and e, so the entries on those vowels come first.

Patterns that build on this one.

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