The French language uses five different accents (diacritics) on various letters:

Accent marks are not optional in the French language. However, they are often overlooked in English translations.
They can change the meaning of a word. They can affect the pronunciation of a word, but sometimes they don't.

Instructions for typing accented letters on a PC or Mac are downloadable at left. Here's a brief explanation of the different French accents:

Cedilla:

A 'ç' (c with a cedilla) is pronounced like an 's', and a 'ç' will only appear before an 'a', 'o', or 'u'.
Two common French terms that contain cedillas are François (a given name) and Français (meaning French).

Acute Accent:

The acute accent is only used above the letter 'e', and it's pronunciation does not change. Many sources say the 'é' (e with an acute accent) sounds like the English 'ay' in the word 'day', but that is wrong. The 'ay' sound is actually two sounds ('a' and 'y') and the 'é' is only to 1st half of the 'ay' sound. The correct pronunciation of 'é' (e with an acute accent) is more like saying 'ay', without moving you tongue or lips.

Grave Accent:

The grave accent can be found above an 'a', 'e', or 'u' (à/è/ù), but each one behaves differently. The letters 'à' versus 'a', and 'ù' versus 'u', are pronounced the same with or without a grave accent. The grave accent above the letter 'e', is pronounced 'eh', like the 'e' in 'get'. However, the main difference is in the meaning of words with or without the grave accent. For example; the word 'ou' means 'or', but the word 'où' means 'where'. The word 'la' is the feminine form of the word 'the' or 'her', but the word 'là' means 'there' or 'that'.

Circumflex Accent:

The circumflex is used above all five vowels in French (â/ê/î/ô/û), and it basically tells you how to pronounce 'a', 'e', and 'o'. The letter 'â' is pronounced like 'ah' as in 'pot'; the 'ê' is pronounced like 'eh' as in 'bet'; and the 'ô' is pronounced like the 'o' in 'goat'. A circumflex doesn't change the pronunciation of 'î' or 'û', with a few exceptions (ie; 'jeûne'). It is thought the circumflex denotes spelling changes over time, like a missing 's' (ie; 'forêt' was once spelled 'forest') or a missing doubled letter (ie; 'âge' was once spelled 'aage'). The circumflex can change the meaning of words, like the word 'sur' means 'on', whereas 'sûr' means 'certain'.

Trema Accent:

The trema can be found above an 'e', 'i', or 'u' (ë/ï/ü). It tells you that the vowel is pronounced distinctly from the one preceding it (like two separate syllables). So 'Noël' (Christmas) is pronounced as 'No-elle' (not as 'Nole'), and 'canoë' is pronounced as 'ka newy'.

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For a more complete explanation and audio pronunciation, check out these references:
http://www.languageguide.org/?lang=en
https://jakubmarian.com/category/french
https://www.fluentin3months.com/french-accent-marks/