Which is correct: “expose” or “exposé”?

Question

What is the preferred way to write words such as exposé in English?

My Firefox spellchecker even tells me that exposé is incorrect and suggests expose.

If exposé is correct, then how does this sit in the grand scheme of things? Does this mean that é is also part of our alphabet, or is this word special in that is not formally recognised as being part of the English language?

Answer 1

Exposé is a French loanword. As such it uses the accent and is pronounced differently than the English verb "to expose".

Whether accented letters are formally part of the English alphabet might be up for debate, depending on how you define "formal".

Loanwords are not uncommon in English, and we try to keep the correct diacritical marks where it makes sense and helps readability: especially when the word can be confused with another English word (see also resume vs. résumé). Accented words are not too rare.

However, accented words are still relatively exceptional. We don't alphabetize specially for accented letters like some languages: it's mostly treated as the same letter, but with a foreign accent. Most English speakers don't commonly know the names of the accents acute, grave, circumflex, umlaut, etc., so I would go out on a limb and say that they are not formally part of the language.

Answer 2

The only correct spelling for the noun is exposé.

However, if you're on anything but a Mac, trying to key in characters with accents or other diacritical marks is an exercise in geekery.

(Edit: Merriam-Webster Unabridged lists the unaccented expose as an acceptable variant, in recognition of the keyboard gymnastics otherwise involved.)

Answer 3

Surely it would come down to the way you would say the word if you were talking to another person? If I was talking/writing about an exposé (noun) that I heard/read about I would spell it as I said it. Writing the word as expose indicates the verb to me.

I do get frustrated at written words not being shown in the manner in which they are intended to be pronounced; it tends to interrupt the reading flow (for me) while my old brain shudders to a halt, reformats the word in terms of its pronunciation, and then carries on.

If you have an ingrained objection to using accents in your writing don't use foreign words. Find a pure english version, if there is any such things these days!