The French alphabet

French uses the same 26 letters as English, but g and j swap names: g is zhé and j is zhee.

French has a reputation for spelling that nobody can read. The reputation is half true. Writing French from sound is hard, because one sound can be spelled in several ways. Reading French aloud is far easier than it looks, because a given group of letters is read the same way almost every time. Once you know the rules in this course you can say most words on a menu or a metro map correctly on the first try. This first unit covers the alphabet, the names of the letters and how to spell a word out loud.

26 letters and a few extras

French is written with the same 26 letters as English, in the same order: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z. On top of these come accent marks (é, è, ê, ë and others, covered in the next unit), the cedilla under ç, and two joined letters, œ as in sœur (sister) and æ in a few learned words. None of these count as separate letters. A dictionary files é under e and ç under c, so the alphabet stays at 26.

Names that trip people up

Most consonant names follow two patterns. Some add the sound of é after the letter: bé, cé, dé, pé, té, vé. Others put an e sound in front: effe, elle, emme, enne, erre, esse. The traps are the vowels and a handful of consonants. French e is named with a short, relaxed sound close to the vowel of English the, not like English ee. French i is named ee, not eye. So when a French speaker spells out i, e, you hear something like ee, uh, which is the reverse of what an English ear expects.

The second trap is the pair g and j. In French, g is named zhé, with the soft sound of the s in measure followed by é, and j is named zhee. English speakers tend to say them the other way round, so it helps to remember one fixed word for each: gé as in général, ji as in the start of the name Gilles. The letter u is named with rounded lips, a sound covered in unit 3. The letter y is i grec, the Greek i; w is double vé, a double v rather than a double u; and h is hache, a letter that is never pronounced inside a word.

Spelling out loud

To ask how a word is spelled, say Comment ça s’écrit ? (How is that written?) or, more casually, Ça s’écrit comment ? The answer goes letter by letter, and accents are named as you go: é is e accent aigu, è is e accent grave, ç is c cédille. Doubled letters are given as deux l or double l. So the name Hélène is spelled hache, e accent aigu, elle, e accent grave, enne, e. You will need this at a hotel desk, on the phone and whenever someone types your name or email address.