Verified answer

The circumflex (circonflexe in French) usually falls on top of a vowel that once preceded a consonant that's no longer there. The vanished vowel was typically an 's'. The word 'hôte' (guest/host) was once spelled 'hoste' and 'pâte' (pastry) used to be 'paste'.

Languages that do things like this are said to have historical spelling. Older material hangs around in any written language for a while until enough of the right people decide it's time to change the spelling system. Even then, nobody truly gets rid of historical spelling, they just try to tame it.

French hasn't had anything close to a major spelling change in centuries. And any such change would be hotly debated in the near future. So expect the circumflex to stick around.

True, French speakers could read French just fine without the circumflex. And we could read English just fine without silent 'k' or 'gh' in words like 'knight'.

Surely, a question about spelling can't be coming from an English speaker. Wait, is it speeker? Speikor? Spiechar?

Accent circonflexe is, in 90% of cases, a remnant of an earlier s in spelling. That s disappearing usually left behing a longer vowel.

Depending on the variety of French you have been exposed to, this length may no longer be heard, but it still is in for many speakers.

There is a difference between côte and cote for instance.

In fact, the letters are generally not pronounced the same as they would be without the circumflex. The circumflex is a sign of a missing "s" in an older form of the language. French même = Spanish mismo, etc.

the pronunciation is not the same. it may sound like it is to a non-native speaker but trust me, it's not. So sometimes we need this accent circonflexe like in Cote and Côte (different pronunciation, different meanings)

Same word can have few meanings...for instance;

"Flat tire" = "Pneu crevé"

"Il; meurt de faim" or "Il crêve de faim" = "He is starving"

"Je vais à l'école" = "I am going to scdhool"

"Il a fait ses devoirs" = "He did his homework"

Those accents show also how to pronounce the word correctly.

Why do Americans say "blood" and "blead" OR "cell" and "sell" OR "cop" and "cup"...etc

In French "jeûne" and "jeune" are two different words

not at all pronounced the same.

It's a beautiful language as is, don't pick at it.

French people who spell well like to brag about how well they spell. They don't want more people to be able to.