What are those things above french letters called?
They are called accents and different accents are used for pronunciation in many different languages, not just French. Howeever the ones in French are: The accent aigu ´ (acute accent) can only be on an E. At the beginning of a word, it often indicates that an S used to follow that vowel, e.g., étudiant. The accent grave ` (grave accent) can be found on an A, E, or U. On the A and U, it usually serves to distinguish between words that would otherwise be homographs; e.g., ou (or) vs où (where). The accent circonflexe ^ (circumflex) can be on an A, E, I, O, or U. The circonflexe usually indicates that an s used to follow that vowel, e.g., forêt. It also serves to distinguish between homographs; e.g., du (contraction of de + le) vs dû (past participle of devoir). The accent tréma ¨ (dieresis or umlaut) can be on an E, I, or U. It is used when two vowels are next to each other and both must be pronounced, e.g., naïve, Saül. The cédille ¸ (cedilla) is found only on the letter C. It changes
