aiguës

Aiguës is the feminine plural form of the French adjective aigu, meaning sharp, pointed, or acute. It agrees with feminine nouns in gender and number, as in notes aiguës or douleurs aiguës. The masculine singular is aigu, the feminine singular aiguë, and the masculine plural aigus; the feminine plural is aiguës.

Etymology and form

The word derives from Latin acutus and entered French through Old French. The feminine form adds -e and the plural forms adjust for gender and number, yielding aigues in the masculine plural and aiguës in the feminine plural.

Usage

In medicine, aiguë describes a sudden, severe condition or pain, as in douleur aiguë (acute pain) and douleurs aiguës (acute pains). In music and acoustics, aigu refers to high-frequency or high-pitched quality; feminine plural notes aiguës denotes high-pitched notes or tones, while masculine forms are typically used in other contexts (par exemple, notes aigus). In linguistics or phonetics, aiguë can describe sharp or pointed features of sounds or vowels when the noun is feminine (voyelle aiguë is less common than more standard terms like voyelle accentuée).

Notes on orthography

Aiguë carries a diaeresis on the final e to indicate the feminine form, and aiguës retains the diaeresis in the plural. In most everyday uses, the base meaning remains “sharp” or “acute,” with the exact agreement determined by the gender and number of the noun it modifies.

See also

aigu, aiguë, aiguâ–accents and their role in French orthography.