The French alphabet: letters, pronunciation, accents and spelling

The 26 letters and their names

In the pronunciation column, “zh” is the s in “measure”, “uh” is the short vowel in “the”, and (n) marks a nasal vowel. The French é is a pure sound: say “bay” or “day” without the little “ee” glide English adds at the end.

Letter names are masculine: un a, un e muet, deux l. In Belgium you may hear wé for w; everywhere else it is double vé.

The tune of the alphabet song is the same in French and English, and it is French to begin with: the melody of “Twinkle, Twinkle” is an old French song, Ah ! vous dirai-je, maman. Pupils like knowing that.

Four pairs English speakers mix up

1. E and I. French e is “uh” and i is “ee”. An English speaker who says “ee” for E is saying the French I. This is the most frequent spelling error of all.
2. G and J swap sounds. French gé sounds like English “J” (jay), and French ji sounds like English “G” (gee). Pupils who know this rule stop guessing.
3. A and R. French a is “ah”, not “ay”; erre is “air”, not “ar”.
4. U and Q. Both use the French u, lips rounded and pushed forward. Neither is “you” nor “kyoo”.

Accents, cédille and tréma

1. É, è and ê change the sound. é is the closed “ay” of été; è and ê are the open e of “bet”, as in mère and fête. An e with no accent is often “uh” or silent, but it can also sound like è before a double consonant or a final consonant: elle, mer.
2. The grave accent on a and u tells words apart. a (has) and à (to, at); la (the) and là (there); ou (or) and où (where). The letter ù exists in one word only: où.
3. The circumflex often marks a lost s. hôpital (hospital), forêt (forest), fête (feast), île (isle), château (castle). A great cognate trick for KS3. It also separates pairs: sur (on) and sûr (sure), du and dû.
4. The tréma splits two vowels. maïs (maize) is “ma-EES”, while mais (but) is “may”. Same in Noël and naïf. A ÿ appears only in a few names, such as L’Haÿ-les-Roses.
5. The cédille softens c. Before a, o and u, ç is an s: ça, garçon, reçu. It never appears before e or i, where c is already soft.
6. Capitals keep their accents. The Académie française recommends École, État, Ça. In France accents are often left off capitals in practice, especially on signs; in Quebec they are kept consistently.

The 1990 spelling reform made the circumflex optional on i and u, except where it tells words apart (sûr, dû, mûr) and in some verb endings. Boîte and boite, connaître and connaitre, août and aout are all correct. Accept both from pupils.

The ligatures œ and æ

Two letters joined together, not letters of the alphabet: in dictionaries, œ is filed as o + e.

• œ, called e dans l’o or o e collés: cœur (heart), sœur (sister), œuf (egg), bœuf (beef), œil (eye), vœu (wish), œuvre (work of art). It usually sounds like eu; in a few learned words it is é, as in Œdipe.
• æ, called e dans l’a or a e collés: rare, in Latin words and names such as ex æquo (tied, also written ex aequo), curriculum vitæ and Lætitia. It sounds like é.

In quick typing many French speakers write “coeur” or “soeur”, but careful writing uses the ligature. For pupils, knowing that sœur has one is enough at KS3.

Silent letters and the h

Many final consonants are silent: petit, vous, grand. A handy rule of thumb taught in many UK classrooms is CaReFuL: final c, r, f and l are often pronounced (sac, mer, neuf, sel). It has exceptions, starting with -er verbs such as parler, and blanc.

The h is never pronounced. Most words start with a “mute” h, which allows elision and liaison: l’hôtel, les hôtels (lay-zo-TEL). A few start with an “aspirate” h, which blocks both: le haricot, les héros (lay ay-ROH). Dictionaries mark them.

Spelling aloud: names and email addresses

• Comment ça s’écrit ? or Ça s’écrit comment ?: How do you spell it?
• Tu peux épeler ton nom ? Vous pouvez épeler, s’il vous plaît ?: Can you spell your name?
• deux l, deux t: double l, double t
• e accent aigu, e accent grave, c cédille
• majuscule, minuscule: capital, lower case
• trait d’union: hyphen, as in Jean-Pierre; apostrophe
• arobase: @; point: dot; tiret: hyphen; tiret bas or tiret du 8: underscore
• In Quebec, @ is also called arobas or a commercial.

To clear up a letter, people add a word: M comme Marseille, B comme Bordeaux.

Je m’appelle Hughes : H, U, G, H, E, S.My name is Hughes: H, U, G, H, E, S.

Mon adresse, c’est jo point smith arobase exemple point com.My address is jo.smith@exemple.com.

Garçon s’écrit avec un c cédille.Garçon is spelt with a c cedilla.

Typical mistakes of English-speaking learners

• E and I swapped, and G and J swapped: see the four pairs above.
• English names for letters: “aitch” for ache, “why” for i grec, “ar” for erre.
• Accents in the wrong direction, or é used for every accent: “mére”, “trés”.
• Missing cédille: “Francais”, “garcon”, “ca va”.
• Reading the tréma as a German umlaut, from pupils who also learn German.
• Pronouncing silent letters: a t at the end of petit, an h at the start of hôtel.
• Spelling double letters one by one (“L, L”) instead of deux l: not wrong, but less natural.

In class: spelling routines

1. Show a word: the word of the day, a pupil’s name, a French town.
2. One pupil spells it aloud; the rest write it on mini whiteboards without looking.
3. Reveal the word and check the traps: E or I, G or J, accents, cédille.
4. Reverse the roles: you spell a mystery word, the class writes it and translates it.
5. Pass the role of speller to a different pupil each day.

Quick games work well alongside: le pendu (hangman); le petit bac, the classic French game where you find a word in each category starting with a given letter; and an “E or I?” quick-fire round.

Adapting to your class

• A1Say the letters and spell your first name: Je m’appelle Léa : L, E accent aigu, A.
• A2Spell a surname, a town, an email address; ask Ça s’écrit comment ?
• B1Accents and what they change: a / à, ou / où, sur / sûr; dictation
• B2Spelling of sounds: the many ways to write “o” (o, au, eau) or “è” (è, ê, ai, ei); mute and aspirate h

At KS2, the song and the vowels are a good start. At KS3, the accents and the four pairs deserve explicit teaching. At GCSE, spelling a name or a street is a classic of listening practice, and accurate accents count in writing.

Frequently asked questions