The accent circonflexe (^) exists in French words to replace the “s” that no longer exists but used to be there in older French.
For example: fenêtre used to be fenestre
It is still possible to see the “s” at times in family words like “défenestrer”.
knowing this, « être » becomes much more regular :
- être → estre (es, est, sommes, ê[s]tes, sont ; ser-)
some French derivations become clearer :
- fenêtre → défenestrer → L. fenestra
- fête → festival
- hôpital → hospitaliser (E. hospital, ise)
- intérêt → intéressant (E. interest, -ing)
- ancêtre → ancestral (E. ancestor, -ral)
- arrêt → arrestation
- épître → épistolaire (E. epistle)
some English cognates become more obvious :
- hôtel → hostel (E. ‘hotel’ borrowed from French)
- forêt → forest (tipp to remember ^ goes on the ‹e›)
- bête → beast
- côte → coast
- honnête → honest
- pâte, pâté → pasta, paste
- quête → quest
- enquête → inquest
- tempête → tempest
- vêtements → vestments (ie. clothes)
- baptême → baptism
sometimes, the acute replaces the circumfex for phonetic reasons :
- ḗcole → escole → L. schola (E. school)
- ḗtranger → estrangier (E. stranger)
- ḗtudier → estudier (E. study)
- dḗgoûtant → desgoustant (E. disgusting)
- dḗbarquer → desembarquer (E. disembark)
- rḗpondre → respondre (E. respond)
- rḗpublique → L. res publica
Also, where « c → ch » (eg. cantare→ chanter) :
- château → castel (E. castle)
- pêcher → L. piscare
and « w → gu » (eg. war→ guerre ; warden→ guardian) :
- guêpe → E. wasp ! (this is my n° 1 favourite cognate)
bonus etymologies :
- tête → L. testa
- fantôme → L. phantasma (E. ‘phantom’ borrowed from French)
- Pâques → Gk. pásxa → Am. pésaḫ (E. Paschal)
Also just be aware that the circumflex has some other uses too, like distinguishing « sur — sûr » or « dû » and the vowel quality in « âge »
Where was this post when I was doing A-Level French! This is actually a really interesting language change called “syncope” (the loss of a medial segment within a word) and what makes it even more interesting to me is that not only was the -s- dropped post vocalically and largely before voiceless stops, but that the circumflex was (unnecessarily but coolly) adopted as an orthographic marker of the lost -s-. Even more interesting is that syncope usually occurs in vowels. I love this.