French Alphabet

-- French Alphabet --

Generally the sounds are not too difficult for a native English speaker to master. The hardest letters to master are E, I, G, J.

or if you want L'Alphabet Français sung to you...

-- French Alphabet --

There are four accents for the vowels É À Ô Ï and one accent Ç that can be used on the consonants.

What are the French Accents?

• The accent aigu É (acute accent) can only be on an E.
• The accent grave À (grave accent) can be found on an A, E, or U. On the A and U, it usually serves to distinguish between homographs (word that has the same spelling as another) e.g. ou (or) and où (where).
• The accent circonflexe Ô (circumflex) can be placed on an A, E, I, O, or U. It helps to distinguish between homographs e.g. du (contraction of de + le) and dû (past participle of devoir).
• The accent tréma Ï (umlaut) can be on an E, I, or U. It is used when two vowels are next to each other and both must be pronounced, e.g., naïve, Saül.
• The cédille Ç (cedilla) is found only on the letter C. It changes a hard C sound (like K) into a soft C sound (like S), e.g., garçon. The cedilla is never placed in front of E or I, because C already sounds like an S in front of these vowels.

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