E, È or É? A Guide to Italian Accents

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It is one of the most common mistakes of all, made not only by learners but by many native speakers too: e or è? perchè or perché? E’ with an apostrophe? In this quick guide you will find all the rules for writing Italian accents correctly, with a trick for each case and an exercise at the end.

1. E or È? The basic rule

Form	What it is	Example	Trick
e	conjunction “and”	pane e vino (bread and wine)	you can replace it with “e anche” (and also)
è	verb essere, “is”	il caffè è caldo (the coffee is hot)	you can replace it with “era” (was)

Test it: Il caffè → era caldo works, so you need è. Pane → era vino makes no sense, so it is the conjunction e.

2. Grave (è) or acute (é)?

In Italian an accented e can have two sounds, each with its own mark:

• è – grave accent, open sound (mouth more open, as in “bed”): è, cioè, caffè, tè, piè, ahimè, and many foreign words such as bebè, gilè.
• é – acute accent, closed sound (mouth more closed, as in “day” without the glide): perché, poiché, affinché, benché, finché, né, sé, ventitré, trentatré, mercé.

Trick: every word ending in -ché and every compound of tre takes the acute accent. Writing perchè is a mistake!

3. What about the other vowels?

For a, i, u at the end of a word the grave accent is always used: città, così, più, virtù, lunedì. The reason is simple: these vowels do not have an open and a closed sound, so there is nothing to tell apart. The grave is also the normal choice for o (però, ciò, perciò); the acute on ó appears only in texts that want to show a closed pronunciation, such as dictionaries.

4. One-syllable words: when they need an accent

In general, one-syllable words do not take an accent (qui, qua, su, tre, re, blu, fa, va, sto, me, te). They only take one when it distinguishes two different words:

With accent	Without accent
dà (verb dare, gives): Mi dà una mano.	da (preposition, from): Vengo da Lugano.
là (there): Mettilo là.	la (article or pronoun): La vedo.
lì (there): Aspettami lì.	li (them): Li chiamo domani.
né (neither/nor): né caldo né freddo	ne (pronoun, of it): Ne vuoi un po’?
sé (himself/herself): Pensa solo a sé.	se (if): Se piove, resto a casa.
sì (yes): Sì, certo!	si (reflexive pronoun): Si chiama Anna.
tè (tea): Un tè caldo.	te (you): Vengo con te.

Sé stesso or se stesso? Both spellings are accepted today.

5. Watch out: accent or apostrophe?

• po’ (= poco, a bit) takes an apostrophe, not an accent: un po’ di pane (not “pò”).
• qual è is written without an apostrophe: Qual è il tuo nome? (not “qual’è”).
• Capital È: don’t write E’ with an apostrophe. On Windows you can type Alt + 0200; on a Mac or smartphone just hold down the E key and choose È.

6. Words stressed on the last syllable

The most useful rule to remember is this: words pronounced with the strong stress on their last syllable (called “tronche” words) are written with an accent. Think of città, caffè, perché, virtù, lunedì, però. The same goes for compounds whose last element would carry the accent on its own: ventitré contains tre, and the flower nontiscordardimé (forget-me-not) contains me. The mark tells you where the stress falls, and without it a reader might say citta instead of città.

7. Why “più”, “può”, “ciò”, “già” and “giù” have an accent

Some one-syllable words carry an accent for a different reason from the ones above: the pair of vowels at the end could be read as two syllables. With più, può, ciò, già, giù the accent shows that the word has one syllable, with the stress on the last vowel. There is no identical word without an accent to tell apart: here the accent is simply compulsory. That is why piu or pu are spelling mistakes.

8. Optional accents

In everyday writing you mark the accent almost only in the cases we have seen. There are, however, pairs of words spelled the same but stressed in different places, such as àmbito and ambìto, nòcciolo and nocciòlo, sùbito and subìto. In these cases the written accent is optional, but it is a good idea to add it when the context is not enough to make things clear. Ho subìto un torto (I suffered an injustice) and Arrivo sùbito (I’m coming right away) mean very different things.

9. “Più” or “piú”? Publishers’ choices

If you read books from different publishers you may meet più and piú, così and cosí. The most widespread system, the one you should follow at school and at work, uses the grave on à, ì, ù and chooses between acute and grave for e and o according to the sound. Some publishers adopt their own convention: acute for all closed vowels and grave for open ones. That is not a mistake in the book, it is an editorial choice. In your own texts, and in your exams, use the standard system.

10. How to type accented letters on a computer and phone

• Italian keyboard: the letters è, é, à, ì, ò, ù have their own key or a special key combination. For é and capitals you often need a trick.
• Windows: hold Alt and type on the numeric keypad 0232 for è, 0233 for é, 0200 for È, 0201 for É.
• Mac: press Option + ` and then the vowel for the grave (è); press Option + e and then the vowel for the acute (é).
• Smartphone: hold down the vowel key and pick the accented letter from the small menu.

Never write E’ with an apostrophe instead of È: it is a shortcut that appears often in chats, but in a formal text or an exam it counts as a mistake.

The mistakes I correct most often

In my teaching experience, these are the five most frequent slips, even among intermediate students:

1. perchè instead of perché: remember that every word ending in -ché takes the acute;
2. un pò instead of un po’: it is a truncation, so it needs an apostrophe;
3. qual’è instead of qual è: qual is shortened but is not written with an apostrophe;
4. E’ instead of È: use the accented letter;
5. si and sì mixed up: sì means “yes”, si is the pronoun.

Exercise 1: choose the correct form

1. Marco (e / è) Giulia sono fratelli.
2. Oggi (e / è) una bella giornata.
3. Non so (perchè / perché) non è venuto.
4. Vuoi un (tè / te) o un caffè?
5. Mi dai un (pò / po’) d’acqua?
6. (E’ / È) vero che parti domani?
7. (Qual’è / Qual è) la tua città preferita?
8. Non mi piace (ne / né) il latte (ne / né) lo yogurt.

Answers: 1. e – 2. è – 3. perché – 4. tè – 5. po’ – 6. È – 7. Qual è – 8. né… né.

Exercise 2: add the accents where they are needed

Rewrite the sentences with the correct accents and apostrophes.

1. Citta e caffe: ecco perche amo Milano.
2. Non ce piu latte, ma ce un po di caffe.
3. Ventitre studenti hanno gia finito, ne io ne tu.
4. Lei da il regalo a me e io lo do a te.

Answers: 1. Città e caffè: ecco perché amo Milano. – 2. Non c’è più latte, ma c’è un po’ di caffè. – 3. Ventitré studenti hanno già finito, né io né tu. – 4. Lei dà il regalo a me e io lo do a te.

Think about it for a moment

• Does your language have written accents? Do they work as they do in Italian?
• Which pairs of words (da/dà, la/là, se/sé) confuse you most? Try writing one sentence for each.
• Reread the last email you wrote in Italian: are there any e/è or perché to check?

Keep learning

• The Italian alphabet
• The verbs essere and avere
• Italian definite and indefinite articles

Write Italian well

Accents, apostrophes and punctuation make a difference in a work email or in an exam such as CILS or CELI. Book a free trial lesson or take the free level test. My structured courses are coming soon.

Sources

• Treccani – “Accento”, in La grammatica italiana
• Treccani – Questions and answers: acute and grave accent on a, i, u
• Treccani – “Qua o quà?”, in La grammatica italiana

The rules on compulsory and optional accents and on publishers’ conventions come from Treccani (sources above). The examples, tricks, keyboard shortcuts and exercises are my own and come from what I see when correcting homework.