How-To Creole

How to Use Accent Marks in Haitian Creole

Pronunciation Guide play_circle_filled

What You Will Learn

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• In this lesson you will learn how accent marks work in Haitian Creole and how to use them.
• Watch the video to have a better understanding of how to pronounce letters with accent marks in Creole.

How Accent Marks Work in Haitian Creole

Keypoint

• Haitian Creole only uses one accent mark -- the grave accent mark. It looks this: `

• You can put the grave accent mark above the Creole letters a, e and o to create different sounds. When the grave accent mark is placed above those letters, they look like this: à, è, ò
• But, the only accented letters you have to focus on are è and ò. This is because the accented letter à is very rare. Furthermore, the accented letter à never appears by itself. It always appears as àn in Creole text.

How to Pronounce Creole Letters With Accent Marks

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• 1. Àn - sounds like the English name Ann.
• 2. È - sounds exactly like /e/ in Get.
• 2. Ò - sounds exactly like /o/ in Order.

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How to Type Haitian Creole Accent Marks on a Keyboard

Keypoint

• Press and hold Alt and then type the numbers (see image below)
• If you have a laptop, you may have to press and hold Fn and Alt at the same time, and then type the numbers.

How to Type Creole Accent Marks on a Touchscreen

Keypoint

• Tap and hold a letter and then select the letter with the grave accent mark

• For example, to type the letter è on a touchscreen device, first tap and hold the letter e. You will then see several characters pop up. Next, select the letter e with the grave accent mark → è.

Note:

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• The same methods work for Mac keyboards as well. All you have to is press and hold a letter and then you will see accent mark options pop up.