the lettera withgrave accent, used to indicate that a vowel is stressed. Usually written only where stress cannot be predicted from orthography or for disambiguation.
Use of accents on capital letters is variable. European usage is sometimes to omit accents, though the French Academy considers it incorrect.[1] This is partly due to the keyboard layout used in France. Quebec usage is to put accents on capitals.
Used to make compound nouns to state what something is used for
moulinà poivre ―pepper mill
sacà dos ―backpack
boiteà musique ―music box
(before aninfinitive)to(used to express something not completed)
l'équipeà battre ―the teamto beat
Il n'y a jamais grand-choseà faire par ici. ―There's never muchto do around here.
Là où tu ne vois pas grand-chose, je ne trouve qu'une grande abondance de choses qui restentà faire. ―Where you see nothing great, I only see a great abundance of things that need doing.
Il reste deux tâchesà finir. ―There are two things leftto finish.
Il y a de la bièreà boire. ―There's some beerto drink.
Used to describe a part of something, often translated into English as acompoundadjective
un animalà quatre pattes ―a four-legged animal
une femmeau visage pâle ―a pale-faced woman
un hommeà longue barbe ―a long-bearded man — a man with a long beard
une chemiseà manches courtes ―a short-sleeved shirt
une maisonaux murs de brique ―a brick-walled house / a house with brick walls
Bien que la faim et le dénûment nous tourmentassent quelquefois, et même à peu près toujours, rien ne nous causait autant de tourment que d'être témoins des cruautés inouïes que mon maître exerçait sur les chrétiens. Chaque jour il en faisait pendre quelqu'un; on empalait celui-là, on coupait les oreillesà celui-ci[…].
Even though hunger and destitution tormented us sometimes, and even almost always, nothing caused us as much torment as being witnesses to the unheard-of cruelties that my master exercised on the Christians. Every day, he made someone hang; they impaled that one, they cut the earsoff of this one[…].
(Can wedate this quote?), Jacques Bouveresse,"Et Satan conduit le bal..." Kraus, Hitler & le nazisme, which is an introduction to the bookLa Troisième nuit de Walpurgis, by Karl Kraus, translated by Pierre Deshusses:
On peut remarquer, à ce propos, que ce n'est pas non plus dans des livreà prétention plus ou moins scientifique que Kraus avait l'habitude de chercher les instruments dont il avait besoin pour la déscription et l'expliquation.
It may also be noticed, on this matter, that it is also not on bookswith more or less scientific pretentions that Kraus used to search for the instruments which he needed for description and explanation.
Expresses a report/ratio of place (to), time (at), means, manner, price. It can indicate possession (of or's), particularly when used with a disjunctive personal pronoun, e.g.àmoi,àeux,àelle.
Introduces several types of grammatical complement: indirect object, attribution, name, adjective.
In French, a good number ofintransitive verbs useà to mark anindirect object, e.g.reussirà(“to succeed at”). Sometimes, their English equivalents are transitive verbs taking direct objects, e.g.jouerà (un jeu)(“to play (a game)”), in which case, translations generally do not require any counterpartial element be rendered forà, though some ways of rendering certain verbs will allow for it.
Whenà is followed by a definite article, the two combine to give the following combined forms:
However,à la andà l' are almost entirely not used if the location referred to is a country, subnational division, or continent, in which case,en is used instead. (The same does not hold, however, forau andaux.) Compareen France andaux États-Unis. The most notable exception isà la Barbade.
Logically following the previously described rule,à combines with the relative pronouns, which themselves contain an element of the definite article, producing these forms:
Generally not followed by articles or adjectives, but if necessary it may be construed with nominative, dative, or accusative:à ein oreinem oreinen Euro.
à in Géza Bárczi,László Országh,et al., editors,A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára [The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (ÉrtSz.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962.Fifth ed., 1992:→ISBN.
à in Nóra Ittzés, editor,A magyar nyelv nagyszótára [A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (Nszt.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031(work in progress; publisheda–ez as of 2024).
à in Pusztai, Ferenc (ed.).Magyar értelmező kéziszótár (“A Concise Explanatory Dictionary of Hungarian”). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2003. 2nd, expanded and revised edition→ISBN.Online searchable version (under development)
The grave accent is used to differentiate the preposition of a simple article. In "He wrote in pen", the respective particle without the diacritic will make the sentence have another meaning: "He wrote the pen."
Sistlidne Fredag gaf den sydliga vinden, som då började blåsa med laber kultie signalen till skådespelets början; dagen derpå defilerade i prydlig ordning en svärm af seglare omkring 40à 50 tre- och två-mastare, många i full skrud, med läsegel och skyskrap!
Last Friday, the southern wind, which began to blow gently, gave the signal for the start of the spectacle; the next day, a swarm of sailboats, around 40to 50 three- and two-masters, paraded in orderly fashion, many in full regalia, with studding sails and skyscrapers!
Hoàng Văn Ma; Lục Văn Pảo; Hoàng Chí (2006),Từ điển Tày-Nùng-Việt [Tay-Nung-Vietnamese dictionary] (in Vietnamese), Hanoi: Nhà xuất bản Từ điển Bách khoa Hà Nội
Lương Bèn (2011),Từ điển Tày-Việt [Tay-Vietnamese dictionary][5][6] (in Vietnamese), Thái Nguyên: Nhà Xuất bản Đại học Thái Nguyên
Dương Nhật Thanh; Hoàng Tuấn Nam (2003), Hoàng Triều Ân, editor,Từ điển chữ Nôm Tày [A Dictionary of (chữ) Nôm Tày][7] (in Tày and Vietnamese), Hanoi: Nhà xuất bản Khoa học xã hội [Social Sciences Publishing House]
In contrast tokhông which is used to make a yes-no question,à is used to seek confirmation, roughly equivalent toJapaneseね(ne) or the English use of tag questions. Compare tonhỉ, which is similar toJapaneseよ(yo) in that it is used to make a light assertion or remark. However,à denotes a speaker's stronger belief that the hearer will agree with him or her than the expressionphải không.
The negative reply to this type of question can start withkhông phải only to questions with a nominal predicate. Otherwise, the negative reply starts withkhông (or its variants, such ashông) or some other negators such asđâu.
