Your guide to the French alphabet

If you’re learning French, then you’ll also need to learn the French alphabet (or l’alphabet in French!). Learning the letters is essential, and so is learning their names and how and when they’re used.

This simple guide will help you master the French alphabet and its uses!

What is the French alphabet?

Just like the English alphabet, the French alphabet has 26 letters—but they have different names and pronunciations!

Uppercase letters are called les majuscules, and lowercase letters are called les minuscules. Watch out, though: French doesn’t use uppercase as often as English! Words for days and months aren’t capitalized, and neither are adjectives related to nationalities or religions (unless these words come at the beginning of a sentence). So you might see un vendredi en juin (a Friday in June), mes amies françaises (my French friends), or une recette juive (a Jewish recipe).

And even though the word lettre (letter) is feminine, the letters themselves are masculine, meaning you’d say Mon prénom commence par un O (My first name starts with an O) instead of une.

French also has two ligatures, or letters that are really two separate letters stuck together. “Æ” (and its lowercase version, “æ”) is extremely rare, and you might see them called a-e lié (a-e joined together), e-dans-l’a (e-within-a), or a-e entrelacé (interlaced a-e). “Œ” or its lowercase version “œ” can be found in several common words, including sœur (sister), œil (eye), and bœuf (beef), and they’re called o-e lié (o-e joined together), e-dans-l’o (e-within-o), or o-e entrelacé (interlaced o-e).

Accent Marks

The French alphabet uses a variety of accent marks, and they’re important for French spelling! Some affect the pronunciation of certain letters, while others are just holdovers from older spellings or foreign words that were borrowed into French. Note that accent marks are sometimes dropped when vowels are capitalized, so don’t be surprised if you don’t see them there!

É, é
The acute accent, or accent aigu in French, tells you that the “e” is pronounced like /e/ in the International Phonetic Alphabet. Listen to the difference between il parle (he speaks) vs. il a parlé (he spoke). The acute accent only exists over the letter “e” in French.

È, è
This accent is called the grave accent or accent grave, and it’s most common over the letter “e,” where it tells you that the pronunciation is /ɛ/, like in the English word let. The difference between “é” and “è” can be difficult for English speakers to hear! Compare the difference between pré (field) and près (nearby).

There are also a few very common words where you’ll see “o” or “u” with a grave accent, including à (to), là (there), and où (where). The accent doesn’t change the pronunciation, and only exists to distinguish these words from other words: a (he/she has), la (“the” for singular, feminine nouns), and ou (or).

Ê, ê
The circumflex, or accent circonflexe, can appear over any vowel: â, ê, î, ô, or û. You might hear a difference between “â” and “a” in some dialects (like in château vs. chat), but others pronounce “â” and “a” the same way. “Ê” makes the same sound as “è,” so prêt (ready) sounds like près, but different from pré.

Ë, ë
The dieresis, called a tréma in French, can be found on most vowels: ë, ï, ü, and even ÿ, but not “a” or “o.” Sometimes it changes the pronunciation—compare maïs (corn) to mais (but) or Noël (Christmas) to moelle (marrow)—but most of the time, it’s just leftover from older French spelling or a word borrowed from another language!

Ç, ç
The cedilla, or cédille, is used under the letter “c” to signal that it should make the “s” sound and not the “k” sound. In French, “c” before “a,” “o,” or “u” sounds like “k” unless it has a cedilla, like in français (French), leçon (lesson), and reçu (receipt), while “c” before “e” and “i” already sounds like “s,” so you won’t see “ç” before these two letters.

How to use the French alphabet

When spelling your name or another word, you may have to use example words to avoid confusion. If you’re on the phone or or somewhere with a lot of background noise, letters like t and d can sometimes get mistaken for each other, as can f and s.

For example, someone named Daphne may spell her name by saying D comme dauphin, A comme abricot, P comme Pierre, H comme hôtel, N comme Nicolas, E comme Élisabeth (“D as in dolphin, A as in apricot, P as in Pierre, H as in hotel, N as in Nicolas, and E as in Élisabeth”).

Fun facts about the French alphabet

The accent circonflexe, while it doesn’t always change the pronunciation of a vowel, can sometimes give you a clue about the word’s meaning! In many cases, it tells you that a letter—most commonly an “s”—was removed from the word at some point in its history. Compare the following French words to their meanings in English: hôpital vs. hospital, forêt vs. forest, and tâche vs. task.

One of the most surprising things about French pronunciation (but certainly not the only peculiarity, as the internet is fond of pointing out!) is that the combination “oi” is pronounced oi, like in oiseau (bird), noir (black), or choix (choice). In many cases, this two-letter segment (or “digraph”) came from a stressed “e” in Latin, and took a long journey to arrive at its current pronunciation. Here you can see the approximate sound changes that were involved in this process:

e > ei > oi > we > wa

As is often the case with spoken vs. written language, the sound changes above weren’t always reflected in the spelling of these words as they changed over the centuries (and the current pronunciation still isn’t!). But French has had lots of spelling reforms in the past, so maybe one day the Académie française will decide to start spelling “oi” words with “wa” instead—Haitian Creole (as well as many other creole languages that adopted words from French) already do!

From A to Zède

Now that you’re a French alphabet pro, it’s time to put your knowledge to work! Practice spelling your whole name out loud, or level up your French skills with these other helpful guides:

• 4 French phrases that will make you sound like a local
• 30+ common French phrases for your trip to France
• What are the most common mistakes French learners make?
• A tour of French dialects around the world