Little fact about French because I just learned that

prudencepaccard:

culmaer:

limbile:

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 »

“guêpe → E. wasp ! (this is my n° 1 favourite cognate)”

You know what w→g cognate is, IMO, even cooler? “Garou” and “werewolf.” Frankish wari wulf (compare OE werewulf) became warous, which became garou(l) and finally loup-garou (a redundant expression, basically “wolf-werewolf,” which undoubtedly stuck because of the irresistible rhyme).