Alphabet, Sounds and Accents

The French alphabet and its phonetic features

⚡Key Points

26 letters→A-Z - same alphabet as English

5 accents→é è ê ë ç - diacritics

Vowels→A, E, I, O, U, Y

Final consonants→Often silent - except C, R, F, L

The French alphabet

French uses the 26-letter Latin alphabet - A to Z, like English. However, pronunciation and accent usage make French unique.

The French alphabet illustrated

✈️

Avion

⚽

Ballon

🐱

Chat

🐬

Dauphin

🐘

Éléphant

🌸

Fleur

🦒

Girafe

🚁

Hélicoptère

🏝️

Île

🏡

Jardin

🦘

Kangourou

🦁

Lion

🏠

Maison

☁️

Nuage

🍊

Orange

🍎

Pomme

🦎

Queue

🌹

Rose

☀️

Soleil

🚂

Train

🏭

Usine

🚗

Voiture

🚃

Wagon

🎵

Xylophone

🥛

Yaourt

🦓

Zèbre

Click on a letter to hear its pronunciation

Vowels and consonants

Vowels - 6	A, E, I, O, U, Y
Consonants - 20	B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Z

French diacritical marks

1. The 4 accents

French accents

Accent aigu	é	café - coffee, étudiant
Accent grave	è	mère - mother, père
Accent circonflexe	ê	être - to be, forêt
Tréma	ë / ï	Noël - Christmas, naïf

2. The cedilla

The cedilla

Cédille

français - French, garçon

💡The cedilla's influence on pronunciation

The cedilla - ç transforms the C sound into an S sound before the vowels A, O, U.

ça - that

garçon - boy

français - French

leçon - lesson

façade - facade

⚠️ Without cedilla: ca, co, cu. With cedilla: ça, ço, çu.

Essential pronunciation rules

💡The silent letter H

In French, the letter H is never pronounced. It is always silent, whether at the beginning, middle, or end of a word.

homme - man

hôtel - hotel

dehors - outside

ah - ah

⚠️ Exception: In some words of foreign origin, the H can prevent liaison - aspirated H, but it remains silent: le héros - no liaison, les héros - no liaison.

Silent final consonants

General rule

Final consonants are NOT pronounced

petit - T silent

français - S silent

beaucoup - P silent

Exception: CaReFuL

C, R, F, L are often pronounced finally

avec - C pronounced

pour - R pronounced

neuf - F pronounced

mal - L pronounced

Letters with multiple sounds

The letter E

Silent E: le - the, je - I, de - of/from or silent

Closed É: été, café

Open È: mère - mother, père - father

Final ER: parler - to speak, manger - to eat

The letter C

C + A/O/U : café, comme - like/as, cube - cube

C + E/I : ce - this, ici - here

Ç + A/O/U : français - French, garçon - boy

The letter G

G + A/O/U : gare - station, gomme - eraser, guide - guide

G + E/I : je - I, girafe - giraffe

GE + A/O : mangeons - we eat, Georges - George

The double "l" in French

Standard pronunciation

The double "l" - ll is generally pronounced as a single L

belle - beautiful

elle - she

aller - to go

ville - city

Special case: -ill-

When "ll" is preceded by "i", it is pronounced like a Y

fille - girl

famille - family

bouteille - bottle

merveille - wonder

Exceptions with -ill-

Some words keep the normal pronunciation

ville - city

mille - thousand

tranquille - quiet

Lille - Lille

Liaisons (la liaison)

💡What is a liaison?

Normally a final consonant is silent. But when the next word starts with a vowel or a mute h, that consonant often comes back to life and is pronounced together with the next word. This is called a liaison. For example, les amis sounds like "lay-z-ami". There are three types of liaison (see below).

In a liaison, some letters change sound: s, x → [z], d → [t], f → [v].

In the examples, "_" means the liaison is made, and "|" means it is not.

The three types of liaison

✅ Compulsory — always made

Article or number + noun

les_enfants (s → z), un_ami (n), deux_heures (x → z)

Pronoun + verb

nous_avons — we have, ils_ont — they have, vous_êtes — you are

Adjective before a noun

un grand_homme (d → t), les petits_enfants

After très and short prepositions

très_important — very important, en_Italie, chez_elle

🔀 Optional — depends on the register

Made in formal speech, often dropped in casual speech

After the verb être

il est_anglais/il est anglais — he is English (with or without liaison)

After pas

pas_encore/pas encore — not yet

After auxiliary verbs

je suis_arrivé/je suis arrivé — I arrived

⛔ Forbidden — never made

After et (and)

un café et | un thé — no liaison

Before an aspirated h

les | héros — heroes, en | haut — up/above

After a singular noun

un étudiant | intelligent

Noun subject + verb

Paul | arrive — Paul arrives

Practical example

FrançoisBonjour Hélène ! Comment ça va ?

HélèneTrès bien, merci ! Et toi ?

FrançoisÇa va. Tu prends un café ?

HélèneNon, un chocolat chaud, s’il te plaît.

FrançoisRegarde cette photo sur mon téléphone.

HélèneOh, la forêt ! Magnifique.