French alphabet

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The French alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet. It uses the standard 26 letters:

Letter Letter name (IPA)
A Template:IPA
B Template:IPA
C Template:IPA
D Template:IPA
E Template:IPA
F Template:IPA
G Template:IPA
H Template:IPA
I Template:IPA
J Template:IPA
K Template:IPA
L Template:IPA
M Template:IPA
N Template:IPA
O Template:IPA
P Template:IPA
Q Template:IPA
R Template:IPA
S Template:IPA
T Template:IPA
U Template:IPA
V Template:IPA
W Template:IPA (double-V)
X Template:IPA
Y Template:IPA (I-grec)
Z Template:IPA (zède)

Special ligatures exist for some words:

  • Œ (œil, fœtus, bœuf...)
  • Æ (et cætera, tænia, ex æquo...)

Notes:

  • 'W' is rarely used except in loan words or regional words, 'ou' is used to represent the /w/ sound;
  • 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. Diacritics have no impact on alphabetical order.

See also