Drew’s 4th French Lesson (Accent Marks)
There are four French accents for vowels and one accent for a consonant. For specific information on what the accents do to change the pronunciation of the letters they modify, please see the appropriate letter pages.
The accent aigu
´ (acute accent) can only be on an E (alt+0233 or alt+0201). At the beginning of a word, it often indicates that an s used to follow that vowel, e.g., étudiant.
The accent grave
` (grave accent) can be found on an A (alt+0224 or alt+0192), E (alt+0232 or alt+0200), or U (alt+0249 or alt+0217). On the A and U, it usually serves to distinguish between homonyms, e.g., ou (or) vs où (where).
The accent circonflexe
^ (circonflex) can be on an A (alt+0226 or alt+0194), E (alt+0234 or alt+0202), I (alt+0238 or alt+0206), O (alt+0244 or alt+0212), or U (alt+0251 or alt+0219). The circonflexe usually indicates that an s used to follow that vowel, e.g., forêt. It also serves to distinguish between homonyms; e.g., du (contraction of de + le) vs dû (past participle of devoir).
The accent tréma
¨(dieresis or umlaut) can be on an E (alt+0235 or alt+0203), I (alt+0239 or alt+0207), or U (alt+0252 or alt+0220). It is used when two vowels are next to each other and both must be pronounced, e.g., naïve, Saül.
The cédille
¸ (cedilla) is found only on the letter C (alt+0231 or alt+0199). It changes a hard c sound (like k) into a soft c sound (like s), e.g., garçon. The cedille is never placed in front of E or I, because C always sounds like an S in front of these vowels.
It is essential to put accents in their proper places – an incorrect or missing accent is a spelling mistake just as an incorrect or missing letter would be. The only exception to this is capital letters, which are often left unaccented.
(courtesy of http://french.about.com/library/pronunciation/bl-pronunciation-accents.htm)
To type French accent marks what I suggest is reading this document:
http://french.about.com/library/bl_faq_accents.htm
I use the French Canadian layout and the English American layout aswell. You can change from one keyboard layout to the other with a Left Shift + Left Alt.
