If you want to learn the alphabet in French, it is probably because your teacher or French course always decides to teach it at the beginning. But for what? There are many good reasons to learn the French alphabet, as you will see in this article. But there are also many good reasons not to learn it, or at least not to make it the first thing you try to master in the Napoleon language.
The alphabet is often considered the foundation of a language, and many foreign language learning courses initiate students in this way. Actually learning the alphabet can be helpful, but it won't help you converse or expand your vocabulary.
This does not mean that you should ignore it, it simply means that you must give it the importance it truly deserves. That is why here we believe that the alphabet should begin to study once you have basic knowledge of daily vocabulary, conjugations, etc.
How to write the alphabet in French
Before starting, this is what you should know about the French alphabet: if you are a native speaker of the Spanish language, you will not have any problem, then French and Spanish share the same letters and even the Spanish language includes the ñ that our neighbors do not have. The only thing that changes is the variations of those letters and the pronunciation of them.
First, as in most Western languages, each French letter can be uppercase or lowercase.
Of course, many French letters also have variants - accents or other symbols added that (usually) affect their pronunciation. These are not included in the basic French alphabet, but it is important that they are known, so we have included them in the list that you will see below.
There's one thing to keep in mind: we've included lowercase accented letters, because that's how they're most often used. Officially, it is correct to use an accent on a letter in both lowercase and uppercase; however, in everyday French, many people omit the accent on the capital letter. Before seeing how the different letters of the alphabet are pronounced in French, an image of it with an example for each letter and its pronunciation:
And now, without further ado ...
How to pronounce the alphabet in French
Now we are going to see how each letter that makes up the French alphabet is pronounced in more depth, as well as the different variants it can have.
A
Variants:
à - Can be found in words like voilà, where it indicates that the sound of the letter is emphasized.
â - Found in the middle of many French words, including castle. Although the sound of the word does not always change much, this letter and accent combination is a trace of the past.
B
C
As in the English language, the sound of the c it may vary depending on the letter that follows. If it is followed by a e, i: y, will generally sound like a soft s, as in the word sky. If it is followed by an h, as in the word chat, it will make a sound similar to sh.
Variants:
ç - The famous cedilla is a way that the c take a soft sound regardless of the letter that follows it - as in the word French.
D
E
Variants:
é - Can indicate a particular pronunciation, or the past participle or adjective form of a verb. For instance, summer.
è - Indicates a particular pronunciation, as in the word cream.
ë - It means that this letter must be pronounced apart from those that surround it, as in the word Holidays.
F
G
The sound made by g it may vary depending on the letter that follows. If it is followed by a e, i o y, will generally sound like a soft g, as in the word Orange, unlike a g strong, as in the word for boys.
H
When it comes to pronunciation, h may be the hardest letter of the alphabet in French. There are two types of "h" in French: h aspirated and h mute.
As a general rule of thumb, if a word that begins with h has Latin origins, the h is silent. For example, horloges them it is pronounced "lezorloges."
As a general rule of thumb, if a word that begins with h comes from a language other than Latin, the h is aspirated. Example: him homard.
Of course, it is not easy to know the origin of each word, and there are also exceptions. The only solution that I have personally found is simply using and memorizing the words with h, and even so now I occasionally make mistakes or have doubts, just like native French people themselves have from time to time, so no need to worry, because the alphabet in French is complicated for everyone 🙂
I
Variants:
ï - It must be pronounced separately from the letters that surround it.
î - It is hardly used today except with certain verbs, such as be born.
J
K
L
M
N
O
Variants:
ô - May indicate a change in pronunciation.
P
Q
As in English, that is always followed by the u.
R
S
In French, the s generally has a soft sound (sister ...), unless it is in the middle of a word followed by a vowel - then it is pronounced as z, as in achievement. The sound z is also used for the relationships between a s and a word that begins with a vowel (or sometimes a silent letter) - for example, the stars.
T
U
Variants:
ù - It is only used to differentiate the words ou y where.
ü - It means that this letter must be pronounced separately from those that surround it.
V
W
X
Y
As in English, the y is treated as a vowel at the pronunciation level.
Variants:
Ÿ - In most cases, this letter is used with the name of an old French town or city.
Z
Characteristics of the alphabet in French
Heart (heart) is one of several French words written with characters that do not exist in Spanish. Like many other languages, French often allows foreign words to be written in their original handwriting, which means that accents or characters that are not in the French alphabet are included anyway.
In addition, there are also two ligatures o bonds that you can find in French words. These typographically and phonetically linked letter pairs indicate a certain pronunciation. Here we recommend a video to better learn the French alphabet:
The two most common French ligatures are:
æ, a mixture of the letters a and e. It is used in some words taken directly from Latin, such as curriculum vitae.
y
œ, a mixture of the letters o and e. You've probably seen them in common words like sister and heart.
Fortunately, if your keyboard doesn't allow these symbols to be entered, the French will understand the word if you simply type the two letters separately. Of course, if you are writing a formal, official or academic document, ligature should be used. The ideal in these cases is simply to copy and paste the letter.
V that the most used letters in French are e, a, i, s and n. The least frequently used letters are x, j, k, w, and z. This information may not seem very useful, but it helps to know where to direct your learning.
How to learn the French alphabet
If you finally decide to face the French alphabet, we have prepared a series of tips to make it easier for you to learn. Here are some suggestions:
Learn the alphabet song
You may know this song in your own mother tongue, or in other languages that you have learned. Well, it also exists in French the same catchy tune. You can find different versions of the French alphabet song by doing an internet search. It is a very good idea, especially for children to learn the French alphabet.
This is my favorite, and the one my students have used to learn the French alphabet. The only downside is that what is sung at the end is not the traditional verse, but something that relates to the names of the animated characters.
Still, it is sung well and pronounced correctly, unlike some versions, which are too fast or use a non-native singer. You can check the comments below the video to see if there are any pronunciation problems. Once you've found a version that you like, try singing it several times a day.
Make a dictation
Dictations are popular in French schools for a reason, and that is that they come in handy for learning and memorizing the spelling of common words.
And this has been it, we hope you liked our course to learn how the letters of the alphabet are pronounced and written in French. If you have any questions, you can leave us a comment and we will try to answer as soon as possible.
