I am not speaking about the French accent from "Allo!Allo!". I meant the é, the ê and all those little bits that are so often forgotten. I can't stress enough that they are very important and if you woud forget them or mix them up at school in your "dictée" (dictation/spelling test), it would be bad news.
First of all because, in the case of the e, the little scribble above it makes a difference in its pronunciation, so to all those who asks "do we need to bother?" the answer is Oui! In English, "oo" does not sound the same in "blood" as in "boot". Some of us know the exact reason why, most have just learnt it by heart. And this is what you ought to try to do.
When you learn a new word, take the time to remember the accents (and the gender!) straight away.
Another reason why accents are important is that they help avoid confusion: "ou" is "or", "où" is "where" and can change the meaning of a word: " la cote "(rate) and " la côte " (rib).
A lot of accents are signs of the word's evolution and that can be fascinating...What have hôtel, hôpital, plâtre,château, pâte in common other than the accent? The "little hat" (accent circonflexe) actually replaces an ancient "s": hostel, hospital, plaster, castle, paste...
If you want to read more about accents, here are some useful links.
For beginners and improvers, try this quick test
For more advanced students, try the 100 words test.
Lots more exercises can be founded under Accents in http://www.lepointdufle.net/orthographe.htmNow comes another popular question: how do I type those accents on my keyboard? There are several techniques. I let you experiment and decide which works best for you and your PC.
1. In Word, you can Insert/Symbols, then choose the Latin 1 subset.You can insert the character chosen but this can be time consuming. You could also use the shortcut key, use the current or make up your own, for example F2+e makes é etc...I used this for years but it only worked on Word so moved on to the next option which works for Powerpoint, the internet ...
2. You can use your Alt key on the keyboard with a range of numbers to insert the letters with accents. See the grid on: http://www.zut.org.uk/general/accents.html. I have printed one and stuck it next to my keyboard.
3. You can type your text online with the accents on http://french.typeit.org/ , cut and paste your work wherever you need it when finished. It works!
So no more excuses for writing without accents in French, except when I am in a real rush! Je vous dis: "à bientôt!" (see you soon!).
