🎧 Sound-alike words: a / à and et / est

📖 In short

French has words that sound the same but are spelled two ways and mean different things. The most famous are a and à, et and est, son and sont, on and ont. Each pair has a little trick to help you choose.

🔎 The lesson

1 a or à?

a is the verb avoir (has). If you can put avait in its place, write it without an accent. Otherwise it's à (to, at).

Il a un chien.He has a dog. (il avait ✓)
Il va à l'école.He goes to school.

2 et or est?

est is the verb être (is): you can put était in its place. et means “and”.

Le chat est noir.The cat is black. (était ✓)
un chat et un chienA cat and a dog

3 son or sont? on or ont?

Word	What is it?	The trick
sont	The verb être	Try étaient
son	Possessive	Try mon
ont	The verb avoir	Try avaient
on	Pronoun (we, people)	Try il

Ils sont contents.They're happy.
Il range son cartable.He's tidying his school bag.
Elles ont faim.They're hungry.
On joue au ballon.We're playing ball.

4 ou or où?

où with an accent means “where”, and ou without one means “or”: Tu veux du lait ou du jus ? Où est ton verre ?

💡 Watch out!

Read the sentence in your head with the swap word: if it still makes sense, you chose right.

🧩 Test yourself

1 Lina ... une poupée.

2 Le ciel ... bleu.

3 Ils ... en vacances.

→ Comparing: plus, moins, aussi ← The verb être in the present