> But isn't \'e an abbreviation for \acute{e}, as david has already said, no. > and don't the French > conceptualize it as an accented 'e'? no, that's for english-speaking schoolchildren learning the language. just the same as, when i learnt latin, i learned that "v" and "u" are interchangeable, since there was in classical times no letter "u". the french alphabet has more letters than ours, that's all.