Accentué

Accentué is a French term derived from the verb accentuer, meaning to emphasize, to stress, or to make more pronounced. In contemporary French, accentué functions both as a past participle and as an adjective. As a past participle, it is used with the auxiliary avoir to form compound tenses: for example, “Il a accentué les mots importants” (He emphasized the important words). As an adjective, it agrees in gender and number: “une intonation accentuée” (a heightened intonation), “des mots accentués” (accented words).

In linguistic and literary contexts, accentué describes features that have been made more noticeable or pronounced, such as prosodic stress in pronunciation, rhythmic emphasis in poetry, or stylistic emphasis in prose. It can also denote a general intensification of expression or tone within a text or performance.

Etymology and morphology: accentué comes from the French verb accentuer, which itself traces to Latin and Old French roots related to emphasis or musical cadence. The masculine singular form is accentué; feminine singular is accentuée; masculine plural accentués; feminine plural accentuées.

Usage notes: The term is widely understood in French and is not restricted to specialized linguistics. In English-language analyses, it is commonly translated as “emphasized” or “accentuated.” When referring to diacritics themselves, French typically uses phrases like “voyelles accentuées” rather than describing diacritics as “accentuated letters.”

Examples: “Le narrateur a accentué le ton du passage pour souligner le suspense.” “Dans le poème, les syllabes accentuées contribuent au rythme.” “Des voyelles accentuées apparaissent dans les mots été et naïf.”