Most of them come from English habits, or from words that sound the same.
Most common French spelling mistakes have one of two sources. Some are English habits carried over: a capital on lundi, a double d in adresse, a missing accent. Others come from French itself, where words that sound the same are spelled differently: a and à, et and est, ces and ses.
Here are the mistakes that come up again and again with English speakers, each with a quick test that fixes it and a link to the full rule.
The English-habit mistakes are the easiest to fix, because they follow patterns: once you know French does not capitalize days of the week, the mistake is gone for good. The homophones take longer, since your ear cannot help you. For those, the only reliable tool is a substitution test, done in your head before you write.
French uses far fewer capitals than English. Days, months and languages take a lowercase letter, and so do nationality adjectives:
Nationality words take a capital only when they name people: les Français, une Italienne. The guide to capitalization in French covers titles and the other cases.
Many French words look like their English cousins, with one consonant more or one less. The English spelling is the trap.
| English | French | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| address | adresse | one d, final e |
| apartment | appartement | two p |
| personal | personnel | two n, ending -el |
| literature | littérature | two t, accent |
| comfortable | confortable | n instead of m |
| responsible | responsable | ending -able |
The page on French double consonants lists the patterns behind these.
An accent is part of the spelling, not decoration, and some words change meaning without it: ou (or) and où (where), sur (on) and sûr (sure), du (some) and dû (owed), la (the) and là (there).
Capital letters keep their accents too: État, À bientôt, Élise. The rules for é, è and ê, and for the circumflex, are on the page about French accents.
These pairs sound the same and play different roles in the sentence. A substitution test settles each one.
| Pair | The test | Example |
|---|---|---|
| a or à | if avait fits, write a | Il a faim. Il va à Paris. |
| et or est | if était fits, write est | Elle est grande et blonde. |
| on or ont | if il fits, write on | On part. Ils ont fini. |
| ces or ses | if les siens fits, write ses | Il range ses livres. Ces livres sont à moi. |
| ou or où | if ou bien fits, write ou | Thé ou café ? Où vas-tu ? |
Each pair has its own page: a or à and et or est go through the exceptions.
French writes many letters it does not pronounce, and agreement adds more: the plural -s, the feminine -e, the endings of the past participle. Parle, parles and parlent sound the same. So do fini, finie and finis.
The only check is grammatical: find the word the ending agrees with, then write what it needs.
Before you send a message in French, reread it once for capitals and accents, then once for the homophones, using the tests above. Apostrophe· trains the second part in dictation: you hear the sentence, you write it, and every mistake comes with the rule behind it.
What French spelling mistakes do English speakers make most?
The ones in this guide come up again and again: capitals on days and languages, double consonants copied from English, missing accents, and homophones such as a and à.
Do capital letters keep their accents in French?
Yes. Accents are part of the spelling, so the Académie française recommends keeping them on capitals: État, Élise, À bientôt.
Is it address or adresse in French?
Adresse, with one d and a final e. The double d of the English word does not exist in French.
How do I know whether to write a or à?
Replace it with avait. If the sentence still makes sense, write a, the verb avoir. If not, write à.
When do I write est instead of et?
When you can replace it with était: elle est grande, elle était grande. Et joins two words or ideas and cannot be replaced that way.
Apostrophe· reads you a sentence, corrects it word by word, and explains the exact rule behind each mistake.
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