(Étonnement général.)
2. Accented Capitals.—With one exception accents are to be used with capital letters in French. The exception is the grave accent on the capital letter A in such lines as—
A la porte de la maison, &c.;
A cette époque, &c.;
and in display lines such as—
FÉCAMP A GENÈVE
MACHINES A VAPEUR.
In these the preposition A takes no accent; but we must, to be correct, print Étienne, Étretat; and DÉPÔT, ÉVÊQUE, PRÉVÔT in cap. lines.[79] Small capitals should be accented throughout, there being no fear of the grave accent breaking off.
3. The Grave and Acute Accents.—There has been an important change in recent years as to the use of the grave and acute accents in French. It has become customary to spell with a grave accent (`) according to the pronunciation, instead of with an acute accent (´), certain words such as collège (instead of collége), avènement (instead of avénement), &c. The following is a list of the most common:
allège
l’Ariège
arpège
avènement
barège
collège
le Corrège
cortège
évènement
florilège
grège
lège
Liège, liège[80]
manège
mège
la Norvège or Norwège
piège
privilège
sacrilège
sacrilègement
siège
solfège
sortilège
sphège[81]