New editions of textbooks in France will look a little different. References to onions? You'll see the word ognon rather than oignon. A tale about a centipede? The many-legged insect will be known as ...

A major drama has broken out in France after the local language police decreed one of their cute little accents to be largely redundant Nom: Circumflex, or in French, circonflexe. Quel âge a-t-il? Oh, ...

If you happen to be writing in French about tasting oysters and onions on a weekend in August, things are about to change. Starting in September, schools in France will teach new spellings of some ...

A controversy brewing in France over a decision to eliminate the circumflex highlights fears about ‘English taking over’. Agnes Poirier takes a closer look. It took France completely by surprise. On 4 ...

Like the living creatures who speak them, languages evolve over time. New words are constantly added to dictionaries, old ones fade out of fashion and meanings shift. But linguistic changes aren't ...

French speakers have been scratching their heads in recent weeks over the alleged death of the circumflex. The news went viral that the accent, used in words such as goût (taste) or île (island), was ...

Suggested new spellings for more than 2,000 French words have sparked controversy. The Academie Francaise proposed changes in 1990, including the deletion of the circumflex accent (ˆ) and hyphens in ...

In future the French can go for a picnic, not a pique-nique. While doing so, they can choose to eat an ognon, not an oignon. And if they write a postcard – or more likely send a text message – they ...