Everybody knows that the word ‘café’ is pronounced as ka-fay. But have you ever wondered why? Why is it not pronounced kaef or why is the word ‘life’ not pronounced li-fay? Well, you see that tiny little mark above the alphabet ‘e’ in ‘café’, that’s what makes all the difference. FYI, these are called diacritical marks and their presence above or below a letter, or in some other position can significantly change the pronunciation of the word. Accents, dots, curves, strokes, and rings, there exists a number of these points in almost every language. To make things simpler for you, here are the 6 of the diacritical marks that we encounter in English everyday.
You see, that little ‘mark’ can make a lot of difference.
Design credits: Suvojyoti Ray
