Many French words losing the circumflex accent

Submitted by Rome Lavrencic.

Sadly, many do not know the function and purpose of the lovely accent circonflexe. My students have learned that it can elongate the vowel sound. It is also helpful to many of my students who have also learned that the circonflexe often replaces a missing "S" from French to English: Hôpital (hospital), forêt (forest), mât (mast), vêtements (vestments - word fallen out of usage for clothing, but some students make the connection with a vestibule or vest), fenêtre (fenestra - another old word fallen out of usage for window; the root being Latin). And let's not forget that it can change the pronunciation of words and meaning, as I embarrassingly made with my blunder when I mispronounced a food order at a French restaurant. I meant to say Pâte (Pasta) and the waitor understood Patte (animal foot). Read the full article  by clicking here (http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/french-spelling-reforme-orthographe-je-suis-circonflexe-1.3433227). #JeSuisCirconflexe

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