French Grammar: The Alphabet and Accent Marks
French Grammar: The Alphabet and Accent Marks
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French Grammar: The Alphabet and Accent Marks
la grammaire française: l’alphabet et les accents
The alphabet is essential for spelling French words and names! You can use the alphabet when spelling vocabulary words, filling out documents, and clarifying the spelling of proper names!
The French alphabet looks exactly the same as the English alphabet. However, the letters of the French alphabet have slightly different names than their English counterparts. It’s important to pronounce the letters of the French alphabet correctly!
Unlike English, some French words are also spelled with accent marks. French accent marks tell us how to pronounce certain letters in words, and also help us differentiate the meanings of homonyms (words that sound the same but are spelled differently). It’s important to use accent marks properly in order to spell French words correctly!
Study:
The alphabet (l’alphabet) is essential for spelling French words and names! You can use the alphabet when spelling vocabulary words, filling out documents, and clarifying the spelling of proper names!
The French alphabet looks exactly the same as the English alphabet. However, the letters of the French alphabet have slightly different names than their English counterparts. It’s important to pronounce the letters of the French alphabet correctly!
Unlike English, some French words are also spelled with accent marks (les accents)! French accent marks tell us how to pronounce certain letters in words, and also help us differentiate the meanings of homonyms (words that sound the same but are spelled differently). It’s important to use accent marks properly in order to spell French words correctly!
In English, we tend to draw out the sound of many letters of the alphabet. The letters of the French alphabet are pronounced shorter and more clipped than in English. Also, when pronouncing the letters of the French alphabet, you should never produce a puff of air (as we often do when pronouncing the alphabet in English). To make sure you’re not producing that puff of air, put your hand in front of your mouth as you pronounce each French letter.
L’alphabet français (the French alphabet)
A : ‘ah’
B : ‘bay’
C : ‘say’
D : ‘day’
E : ‘euh’ (pronounced like the ‘u’ sound in the English word ‘put’)
F : ‘eff’
G : ‘zhay’ (the ‘zh’ is pronounced like the ‘s’ in the English word ‘treasure’)
H : ‘ahsh’
I : ‘ee’
J : ‘zhee’ (the ‘zh’ is pronounced like the ‘s’ in the English word ‘treasure’)
K : ‘kah’
L : ‘ell’
M : ‘emm’
N : ‘enn’
O : ‘oh’
P : ‘pay’
Q : ‘koo’ (the ‘oo’ sound is pronounced with rounded lips, as if you’re going to blow a kiss)
R : ‘air’
S : ‘ess’
T : ‘tay’
U : ‘oo’ (the ‘oo’ sound is pronounced with rounded lips, as if you’re going to blow a kiss)
V : ‘vay’
W : ‘DOO-bluh vay’
X : ‘eeks’
Y : ‘ee GRECK’
Z : ‘zed
When spelling a word that contains a double consonant in French, you can simply indicate deux followed by the name of the consonant.
For example: nn = deux ‘enn’
‘bonne’ s’écrit: “bay” – “oh” – deux “enn” – “euh”
‘ville’ s’écrit: “vay” – “ee” – deux “ell” – “euh”
Les Accents (Accent Marks)
There are five accent marks in French. Four of them are used with vowels only. The fifth is used only with the letter ‘c’. Often, accent marks determine how the letter it is used with will sound. In some cases, accent marks don’t affect pronunciation, but do differentiate between words that sound the same but have different meanings.
It’s very important to use accent marks in their appropriate places. An incorrect or missing accent mark is just as much of a spelling mistake as an incorrect or missing letter would be. (Capital letters are the only exception to this, since they are usually left unaccented.)
Here are the five French accent marks:
Accent aigu (acute accent) : é
The accent aigu points up and to the right. This accent mark is only used over the vowel ‘e’. It appears in such words as étudiant, ménace and écouter. The accent aigu gives the sound of ‘ay’ to the letter ‘e’ over which it appears.
Accent grave (grave accent) : à / è / ù
The accent grave points up and to the left. This accent mark is used over the vowels ‘a’, ‘e’ and ‘u’. It appears in such words as Voilà!, père and où. The accent grave gives the sound of ‘eh’ (as in the English word “pet”) to the letter ‘e’. It does not change the sound of the vowels ‘a’ or ‘u’.
Accent circonflexe (circumflex accent) : â / ê / î / ô / û
The accent circonflexe looks like a little hat. This mark is actually a joining of the accent aigu and the accent grave. The accent circonflexe is used over the vowels ‘a’, ‘e’, ‘i’, ‘o’ and ‘u’, but it does not affect the pronunciation of these vowels. In many words, the accent circonflexe denotes the fact that the vowel over which it appears used to be followed by a letter ‘s’ (in Old French). Although the ‘s’ has been dropped in the modern French spelling of the word, the accent circonflexe continues to mark the former place of the bygone ‘s’. The accent circonflexe appears in such words as âne, bête, forêt, hôpital, hôtel, and île.
Accent tréma (trema accent) : ë / ï / ü
The accent tréma (sometimes called a “diaeresis” in English) looks like two little dots above a letter. This accent mark is only used over the vowels ‘e’, ‘i’ and ‘u’. Normally, when two vowels are next to each other in a French word, they combine to make one sound. The accent tréma is used when two consecutive vowels in a word must each be pronounced separately. The accent tréma appears in such words as Noël, coïncidence and contiguë.
Accent cédille (cedilla) : ç
The accent cédille looks like a number ‘5’ without its top horizontal bar. This is the only accent mark that is used with a consonant, and the only consonant it is ever used with is ‘c’. The accent cédille is the only accent mark that appears under the letter it is used with. Without the accent cédille, the letter ‘c’ in French is pronounced like an English letter ‘k’ before the vowels ‘a’, ‘o’ and ‘u’. The accent cédille changes the hard ‘k’ sound of the letter ‘c’ to a soft ‘s’ sound. The accent cédille is never used with a letter ‘c’ before ‘e’ or ‘i’ because letter ‘c’ always sounds like an ‘s’ before these two vowels. The accent cédille is used in words and phrases such as ça va, français, garçon and aperçu.
Autre ponctuation française (Other French punctuation)
apostrophe (apostrophe) : ‘
trait d’union (hyphen) : –
guillemets (quotation marks) : << >>
Adapt:
Comment dit-on book en français?
How do you say book in French?
On dit livre.
You say livre.
Et livre s’écrit comment?
And how do you spell livre?
Livre s’écrit: L I V R E.
Livre is spelled: L I V R E.
Tu t’appelles comment?
What is your name?
Je m’appelle Rémy.
My name is Rémy.
Et Rémy s’écrit comment?
And how do you spell Rémy?
Rémy s’écrit: R E, accent aigu M Y.
Rémy is spelled: R E, acute accent M Y.
Comment dit-on I have en français?
How do you say I have in French?
On dit j’ai.
You say j’ai.
Et j’ai s’écrit comment?
And how do you spell j’ai?
J’ai s’écrit: J apostrophe A I.
J’ai is spelled: J apostrophe A I.
Explore:
- YouTube / Learn French With Alexa: The French Alphabet
- YouTube / french101dotme: French Alphabet
- YouTube / rogerkeays: French Alphabet
- languageguide.org / French Alphabet
- YouTube / Learn French With Alexa: Accent Marks – Part 1
- YouTube / Learn French With Alexa: Accent Marks – Part 2
- YouTube / Learn French With Alexa: Accent Marks – Part 3
- YouTube / Learn French With Alexa: Accent Marks – Part 4
- learnfrenchlab.com: French Accent Marks
The LEAF Project
www.leaflanguages.org
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