French alphabet

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The French alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet. It uses the standard 26 letters. The words in the column "Letter name in French" are sometimes used when discussing the letters (compare English words such as "aich").

Contents

[edit] Letter names

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French language
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Letter Letter name
Pronunciation Spelling
A /ɑ/ a
B /be/ bé
C /se/ cé
D /de/ dé
E /ə/ e
F /ɛf/ effe
G /ʒe/ gé
H /aʃ/ ache
I /i/ i
J /ʒi/ ji
K /ka/ ka
L /ɛl/ elle
M /ɛm/ emme
N /ɛn/ enne
O /o/ o
P /pe/ pé
Q /ky/ cu
R /ɛʁ/ erre
S /ɛs/ esse
T /te/ té
U /y/ u
V /ve/ vé
W /dublə ve/ double vé
X /iks/ ixe
Y /igʁɛk/ i grec
Z /zɛd/ zède

[edit] La nouvelle épellation

In la nouvelle épellation system, the consonant letters were read as follows: be, ke, de, fe, gue, he, je, ke, le, me, ne, pe, ke, re, se, te, ve, we, kse, ze. Though more phonetically based than the traditional system, it never took hold.[1]

[edit] Ligatures

Special ligatures exist for some words:

  • œ (œil, fœtus, bœuf...)
  • æ (et cætera, tænia, ex æquo...)

[edit] Notes

  • 'W' and 'K' are rarely used except in loan words or regional words, 'ou' is used to represent the /w/ sound; while 'Q' appears more frequently than in English.
  • vowels are A, E, I, O, U, sometimes Y;
  • semi-vowels are Y, rarely W (except regionally, for instance in Belgium);
  • usual diacritic marks are acute ( ´ ), grave ( ` ), circumflex ( ˆ ), diaeresis (called tréma in French) ( ¨ ), and the cedilla ( ¸ ). The most frequent combinations are: à â ç é è ê ë î ï ô û ù ü ÿ.[citation needed] Diacritics have no impact on the primary alphabetical order.
  • the tilde diacritical mark ( ˜ ), used only above n, is occasionally used with the French alphabet, for well-known words or terms of Spanish origin that have been incorporated in the language (El Niño, cañon, ...) even though they also have an alternate orthography (with "gn" or "ny" instead of "-ñ-"). Like the other diacritics, the tilde has no impact on the primary alphabetical order.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Grevisse, Maurice (1980). Le Bon Usage: Grammaire française avec des Remarques sur la langue française d'aujourd'hui, 11th ed., Paris-Gembloux: Duculot. ISBN 2-8011-0242-3. 

[edit] External links