# Why does résumé have a grave mark over the first e?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-resume-have-a-grave-mark-over-the-first-e/163200
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 21, 2003, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-resume-have-a-grave-mark-over-the-first-e/163200 "2003-03-21T20:25:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2003, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-resume-have-a-grave-mark-over-the-first-e/163200/1 "2003-03-21T20:25:35Z")
I thought that the grave mark meant that a vowel was pronounced where it otherwise wouldn’t be, like “séance”. But in “résumé”, the first e is pronounced the same as in “resume”, so why does it have a mark over it?
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### Author:  [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2003, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-resume-have-a-grave-mark-over-the-first-e/163200/2 "2003-03-21T20:41:57Z")
First, it’s not an accent grave, it’s an accent aigu (the accent grave goes down into the grave; clever, n’est pas?). The first accent aigu is to let you know how it’s pronounced-like the “ay” in “eight.” Without the accent it would sound like the e in “angel.” The one at the end is to let you know that it has that sound, and is pronounced (e’s at the end of words without accents are silent).
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### Author:  [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2003, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-resume-have-a-grave-mark-over-the-first-e/163200/3 "2003-03-21T20:42:04Z")
é has an acute mark.
è has a grave mark.
I think that the acute e is prononced like a long A, like in way or play or touché. I don’t know why it’s not pronounced like that in résumé, but I do know that resumé is a valid alternate spelling.
But even so, it’s not pronounced like the first e in resume. That has a long e sound (EE), not a short e (EH).
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2003, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-resume-have-a-grave-mark-over-the-first-e/163200/4 "2003-03-21T20:42:09Z")
_résumé_ takes an acute (not grave) accent over both Es (if we choose to include French diacriticals) because that is how it occurs in French. That is probably because it is a back-formation from the French participle _résumer_, where the accent ensures that a later syllable does not accidentally get the stress, as happens in many (most) three syllable French verbs.
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### Author:  [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2003, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-resume-have-a-grave-mark-over-the-first-e/163200/5 "2003-03-21T20:48:04Z")
Okay, right, in case you weren’t aware, this word comes from the French word for _summarized_. (And the French word for _acute_ is _aigu_.) I guess the pronunciation changed when English adopted the word, but not the spelling. Why, I don’t know. Here’s a job-hunting tip from The Onion this week that might help you out:
> [@](#):
>
> Be sure to pronounce résumé “REH-zoo-may,” which means “a list of one’s accomplishments and qualifications,” and not like the word “resume,” which means “to unpause Resident Evil 3.”
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### Author:  [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2003, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-resume-have-a-grave-mark-over-the-first-e/163200/6 "2003-03-21T22:03:51Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by SmackFu \*
> **I thought that the grave mark meant that a vowel was pronounced where it otherwise wouldn’t be, …**
No, the diacritic mark that does that job is the diaeresis, as in naïve, Zoë or Citroën.