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French alphabet
The French alphabet is the alphabet used to write French. It uses the modern Latin alphabet with its 26 letters to which must be added the letters from five diacritics, which then enrich it with thirteen accentuated vowels and the grapheme c cedilla "ç", as well as two ligatures e in the a " æ Æ "and e in the o" œ Œ ". It is therefore a total of 42 letters that make up the French alphabet.
In this chapter, you will get an overview about the French alphabet, the look and the differences between them
Lesson Outline
Hide- 1.What are the letters of the alphabet in French ?
- 1.1.Fundamental French alphabet
- 2.The proper alphabet in French
- 2.1.The grave accent in the French alphabet
- 2.2.The circumflex accent in the French alphabet
- 2.3.The acute accent in the French alphabet
- 2.4.The ç in the French alphabet
- 2.5.The umlet in the French alphabet
What are the letters of the alphabet in French ?
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Fundamental French alphabet
| Capital letters | Small letters | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| A | a | Annie, acheter |
| B | b | Boris, belle |
| C | c | Cloé, cloue |
| D | d | David, déménager |
| E | e | Elliot, emeraude |
| F | f | France, faillite |
| G | g | Gérard, garantir |
| H | h | Hélène, hache |
| I | i | Irma, idiot |
| J | j | Jacques, jouer |
| K | k | Koweit, kérastase |
| L | l | Lionel, lance |
| M | m | Mona, moule |
| N | n | Nathalie, nappe |
| O | o | Omari, oublier |
| P | p | Pascal, pierre |
| Q | q | Quentin, quille |
| R | r | Rosalie, roue |
| S | s | Sylvia, scier |
| T | t | Théo, tatouage |
| U | u | Ursula, unité |
| V | v | Victor, voyage |
| W | w | William, wagon |
| X | x | Xavier, xénophobe |
| Y | y | Yoan, yoyo |
| Z | z | Zoé, zèbre |
There are 6 vowels in French: a, e, y, o, u, i
The proper alphabet in French
These letters are variant of the fundamental alphabet and can be taken from the Latin language.
| Capital letters | Small letters | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| À | à | voilà |
| Â | â | Bâtir |
| Ç | ç | garçon |
| É | é | éphémère |
| Ê | ê | Tête |
| È | è | élève |
| Ë | ë | Canoë |
| Î | î | Accroître |
| Ï | ï | Caïman |
| Ô | ô | Hôtel |
| Ü | ü | Capharnaüm |
| Û | û | Bûche |
| Ù | ù | où |
The grave accent in the French alphabet
In French, only the vowels a, e, u can take a grave accent. The French grave accent is (`) and the vowels which take it are:
| Alphabet | Examples | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| à | Je vais à Paris | (I am going to Paris) |
| è | La lèpre | (Leprosy) |
| ù | Où vas tu ? | (Where are you going) |
With the vowels a and u, the accent does not modify the pronunciation but is only used for the homonym. and ù is also the interrogative or relative pronoun used to differentiate it from the coordinating conjunction.
With the vowel e, the accent indicates the pronunciation of an open e
The "e" grave accent appears in a word ending in "s".
- Après, dès, excès, accès, procès, près
The circumflex accent in the French alphabet
In French, the letters a, e, i, o, u can take this accent and is written (ˆ) and it indicates
- the pronunciation of an a, an e or an o
- the amassment of an old letter
- fortuitously, as a discriminating sign to distinguish homophones
Generally, you use it to "open" the vowel,
| Alphabet | Examples | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| â | Pâques | (Easter) |
| ê | Fenêtre | (Window) |
| î | Epître | (Epistle) |
| ô | Hôpital | (Hospital) |
| û | Piqûre | (Sting) |
The circumflex accent is sometimes used to signal a missing letter
Since 1990, the circumflex accent is barely used on the i and u: you use it on conjugated verbs in the past simple, subjunctive imperfect and the pluperfect
The acute accent in the French alphabet
In French, you can find an acute accent (ˊ) on the vowel e used to distinguish the phoneme with the closed tone /e/ from the phoneme /ə/.
You can meet it exceptionally on:
- open e /ɛ /
- in inverted subject verbs (aimé-je)
- in some verbal forms (je protégerais)
- in some words (évènement)
The ç in the French alphabet
The ç changes the pronunciation of the alphabet letter c. You can put it in front of letters like: a, o, u.
| Alphabet | Example | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| a | Façade | (Frontage) |
| o | leçon | (Lesson) |
| u | Reçu | (Receipt) |
The umlet in the French alphabet
The umlet are the two points that you put on the e, i, u to indicate that the preceding vowel must be pronounced separately.
The usage of ë, ü is rather rare in French and is only found in two categories of words. It is found in certain words where the umlaut indicates that:
- the preceding vowel is pronounced separately
- in particular names proper or words with several current spellings
| Alphabet | Examples | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| e | Noël | (Christmas) |
| i | Maïs | (Corn) |
| u | Ambigüe | (Ambiguous) |
Learn about the pronunciation of all these letters of the French alphabet in the following page !
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Elena is an excellent teacher and a very nice person. I have been training in Spanish with Elena for quite some time now after her being recommended to me by a friend, and have consistently been very pleased with our lessons. While I do not consider myself to be very good at learning foreign languages, Elena is very patient and adapts the lessons to my ability, making me feel at ease. In fact, I find her to be extremely skilled at assessing exactly where I am at any given time with respect to my individual learning situation, and structuring the lessons accordingly. I think I probably would have given up trying to learn Spanish had I not began my study with Elena; and that would have been a shame considering where I am now with the language. Because of Elena's skilled help, I am extremely pleased to not only be conversant in basic Spanish, but also have confidence that I will one day reach full proficiency with the language. No other learning method I tried before meeting Elena compares to the one-on-one, personalized instruction I receive from her, which comprises reading; writing; developmental exercises; and most importantly, conversation. To be able to look at Spanish now and have it appear largely familiar is extremely satisfying. I even plan to study Italian with Elena after reaching my desired level in Spanish. These are not things I ever imagined would occur at the beginning stages of my studies. I am a native English speaker and find Elena's English to be excellent. She had no difficulty instructing me from the very beginning levels where it was necessary that a lot of English be spoken in our lessons, to where we are now with much less English being spoken. The friend who recommended Elena to me learned Dutch from her, and is equally pleased with their experience. I would not hesitate to learn from Elena any of the languages she teaches. I give Elena my highest recommendations and thank her for all the help she has provided me.
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We are an Italian family residing in France for 3 months, we have two 10 year old children who have just started attending CM1. We asked Natalia to give the children two lessons a week to speed up their learning. We are super happy with the choice. Nous sommes une famille italienne résidant en France depuis janvier, nous avons deux enfants de 10 ans qui viennent de commencer la CM1. Nous avons demandé à Natalia de leur donner deux leçons par semaine pour accélérer leur apprentissage. Nous sommes super contents de Natalia. We are an Italian family living in France since 3 months, we have two 10 year old children who have just started attending CM1. We asked Natalia to give the kids two lessons a week to speed up their learning. We are super happy with this choice.
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