How important are accents in French?
It’s best not to worry too much about accents at first. Some, like the circumflex, are redundant though they are historically interesting in that they replaced ‘s’ at an earlier stage in the development of French. Others are useful because they affect the way the vowel is sounded: notice in the program for example the difference in the ‘è’ of ‘frère’ (brother) and the ‘é’ of ‘thé’ (tea). However, you will find that it is more important to communication that you aim to keep your vowels ‘clean’ and ‘tight’. You will notice that doing this requires far more active shaping of the mouth and lips than is customary in English.
