Should Naive Have an Umlaut?

However, the ï in naïve is not an umlaut – it's a diaeresis, also known as a hiatus. ... “Naïve” is not pronounced the same as “knave”, but more like “ny-eev”; just as the name Zoë (sadly only rarely seen spelled with the diaeresis nowadays) is not pronounced “zo”, but “zo-ee”.

Does naive have two dots?

The two dots on the letter i are a French diacritic sign. The two dots in the French spelling naïf/naïve show that ai has not its normal pronunciation but is spoken as two separate vowels /a-i/. In English you can write naive or naïve. The French term for the two dots on e/i/u is tréma.

Why does naive have two dots?

3 Answers. As a French word, it is spelled naïve or naïf. (French adjectives have grammatical gender; naïf is used with masculine nouns while naive is used with feminine nouns.) The two dots above the "i" are called diaeresis.