e / é / è

E, É and È

Level 1

É is closed and è is open. For é the mouth is less open, and for è it is more open.

How It Works

Occitan has two kinds of stressed e, and the accent tells them apart.

Letter	Sounds like	Examples
é	the e in “they”, short, without sliding into ee	mercé (thank you), téner (to hold), créser (to believe)
è	the e in “bed”	pèira (stone), tèrra (land), cafè (coffee), benlèu (maybe)

A plain e has no mark, as in femna (woman) and parlar (to speak). When it is stressed in a regular place, as in femna, it is a closed e and needs no accent. The acute accent appears where the stress breaks the rule, as in mercé and téner. The little word e (and) is a plain e too.

Do not copy the accent of another language. Coffee is cafè with a grave accent in Occitan, not café.

Examples (5)

mercé
thank you
The closed é is at the end and is stressed.
pèira
stone
The è is open, like the e in “bed”.
tèrra
land
The è is open.
cafè
coffee
A grave accent at the end of the word.
téner
to hold
The é is closed and stressed.

Common Mistakes

Using the acute accent for an open e.
café
cafè
In Occitan the open e takes the grave accent, so coffee is written cafè.

How It Connects

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

e / é / èLevel 1E, É and È

Learn This First

The sound of e, é and è depends on the vowel letters and their accents, so the alphabet comes first.

The Occitan Alphabet
Know the letters of the alphabet, because the accent on é or è decides which e you say: mercé, tèrra.
Level 1

Learn Next

Patterns that build on this one.

Stem Vowel ChangeLevel 2

Practice e / é / è in Bubblegum

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