Latin Capital E with Grave È

The Latin Capital E with Grave character (È) is a standard HTML entity defined in the HTML specification. In HTML source code, it can be written using the named entity reference È, the decimal numeric character reference È, or the hexadecimal numeric reference È. The character is assigned Unicode code point U+00C8 in the Universal Character Set.

The capital E with grave accent (È) is used in French and Italian. In French, the grave accent on 'e' indicates an open vowel sound, contrasting with the closed sound of é (acute). It appears in common words and is essential for distinguishing between otherwise identical French words.

Latin extended character entities provide the accented and modified letters required by dozens of European languages. From French accents aigus and graves to German umlauts, Scandinavian rings, and Icelandic thorns, these entities ensure correct rendering of non-ASCII characters within HTML documents. While modern UTF-8 encoded pages can include these characters directly in source code, HTML entities remain valuable for source code clarity and legacy compatibility.

When deciding how to encode the Latin Capital E with Grave character in your HTML documents, the named entity È is generally the most readable choice for developers reviewing or maintaining source code. The decimal form È and hexadecimal form È are equally valid alternatives that work in contexts where named entities may not be supported, or when generating HTML output programmatically from server-side code. All three representations produce identical visual output in every modern web browser.

Use this entity in French text (È as in sentence-initial forms of 'è') and Italian. In French, the grave accent on E distinguishes words like 'où' (where) from 'ou' (or), so correct accent usage is essential for meaning.