How to write task without making a stain

To go further, you can consult our guide on the rules of French spelling.

“Tache” or “task” ?

The paronyms are numerous in French. These are words that are written in a similar way to another word, but without having the same sense. In this article, we are interested in the meaning of “stain” (without accent) and “task” (with a circumflex accent), so that you no longer confuse them !

When to write “spot” without accent ?

We write stain : “Stain” without accent is a female noun which designates a dirty, a soiling.

• I have a stain wine on my shirt.
• I can’t erase the stain blood on the sofa.

• defilement
• impurity
• withering
• macule
• soiling
• speckling
• dirt
• blunder
• imperfection
• brand
• brand

Examples of use of “stain” in literature

There was a stain ink on the carpet, at my feet. My dear pen had rolled there and dumped there.

Mathieu Lindon, the frightened

Their silhouettes were soon to disappear in the heat mist. There were only two left tasks, that of the red towel, on the shoulder of the Englishman, and the stain green from her dress to her.

Patrick Modiano, children’s cloakroom

The next morning, however, when the Otis went down for breakfast, they saw that the horrible stain blood had reappeared on the parquet floor. It is surely not the fault of the stain remover, said Washington, since I have always used it successfully. It must be the ghost. And the young man made the stain for the second time; But the next day, the stain had reappeared.

Oscar Wilde, Lord Arthur Savile’s crime and other tales

She never looked at a stain. A stain fading. A stain only exists to be erased. We only take it into account so that it disappears. A stain is ephemeral, it is only necessary to be thus. She contemplates her.

Jeanne Benameur, hands free

When to write “task” with a circumflex accent ?

We write stain : “Task” with a circumflex accent has another meaning, that of a work given to be accomplished, a action that we must carry out.

• I have many tasks to achieve to achieve my goals.
• He hates spending time to a stain which seems useless to him.

• work
• action
• work
• assignment
• duty
• chore
• work
• benefit
• occupation
• role
• job

Examples of use of “task” in literature

But he waste time once changed, wearing, nourished, it is not the stain miss. Easy seasonal jobs: shook a fence tree, cut a hedge, clean the channels, sweep the leaves to the edges of a meadow.

Jean Blanzat, the counterfeiter

[…] He put himself in condition with the same mental concentration as before a fight, and when they went down from the train, to Brick Church Station, that Sunday, he went so far as to mobilize the formulas he was chasing almost magically in the seconds preceding the gong “the stain to accomplish, just the stain. To be one with the stain. Forbidden to think of something else. »»

Philip Roth, the task

But, by founding this community of men in the world, we had saved the world and ourselves. We failed in this stain.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, war pilot

But you have put a chaplain near him whose stain is to make these men less heavy the atrocious hour where we expect. I think I can say that for men that we are going to kill, a conversation on future life does not help.

Albert Camus, letters to a German friend

Another doubt ? Review with this Voltaire project video:

To go further, you can consult our guide on the rules of French spelling.

How to write “task” without doing “stain” ?

“Task” and “task” are homophones: they are written differently, but they are pronounced in the same way. No wonder they are often badly spelled in CVs, motivation letters or simple emails. Don’t panic, here’s how to write them correctly.

The task: a job to be accomplished

The task designates a determined work that one has the obligation to do, and more generally a conduct, a mission (the task of a police officer). We would have liked it to be the name stain, with its accent, which designates the brand, the sign. But history has decided otherwise ! Indeed, stain comes from Latin taxa which also gave “tax”. The word first wrote tasche, Then the “S” gave way to the circumflex accent on the “A”.

Tip: tell yourself that’’before’’Complete a task (especially if it is difficult or dangerous), you have to put a hat or helmet on your head.

If we wanted to be rigorous, we would pronounce “task” with an “closed” (which is not easy !) and “stain” with a “opened”. This distinction is very rarely made, in any case in French spoken in France.

The stain: a brand, a dirt

Stain is from Latin tacca. He therefore has no “s” in his etymology which could justify a circumflex accent. The name designated in the 11th century a visible soiling, meaning which will be taken up nine centuries later in the advertisements of cleaning products !

Tip: Remember that stain’’Written with a simple “a”, the “a” brand “and” dirt “.

A ticket by Sandrine Campese, member of the Committee of Experts Project Voltaire, Author and trainer in spelling. To no longer make mistakes, train with the Voltaire project, n ° 1 of spelling and expression training with more than 7 million users (schools, businesses, individuals).