The same letters as English, new names, and a few marks on top.
The French alphabet has 26 letters, the same as English, from A to Z. What changes is the name of each letter, the accents that sit on some of them, the cedilla under the c, and two joined letters, œ and æ.
Here is how to say every letter, which ones English speakers mix up, and how to spell a word or a name aloud in French.
The sounds below are English approximations. French vowels are shorter and purer, with no glide at the end.
Most letter names are close to English. A handful are not, and they cause most of the confusion when someone spells a word for you.
| Letter | French name | The trap |
|---|---|---|
| E | uh | never ee, which is the French I |
| I | ee | the name English gives to E |
| G | zhay | swapped with J compared with English |
| J | zhee | swapped with G compared with English |
| U | ü | say ee with your lips rounded as for oo |
| H | ash | named, but almost never heard in a word |
Two names describe the letter itself: W is double vé, a double v, and Y is i grec, a Greek i.
Twenty-six, in the same order as in English. Accented letters such as é or ç are not extra letters: they are e and c with a mark, and dictionaries file été next to ete.
K and W are rare and appear mostly in borrowed words: kilo, kiosque, wagon, week-end. In all, written French uses the 26 letters, 14 accented forms and 2 ligatures.
Knowing the letters does not tell you which ones are heard. Many final consonants stay silent, as in grand, petit or trop, which the page on French silent letters explains with a way to find them.
Five marks change a letter in French: four accents written on top, and the cedilla written under the c.
| Mark | Letters | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| accent aigu (acute) | é | été, café |
| accent grave (grave) | è, à, ù | mère, à, où |
| accent circonflexe (circumflex) | â, ê, î, ô, û | château, fête, île, hôtel, sûr |
| tréma (diaeresis) | ë, ï, ü, ÿ | Noël, maïs |
| cédille (cedilla) | ç | ça, garçon, reçu |
The acute accent only ever goes on e. The ù appears in one word, où, and the ÿ only in a few place names. The page on French accents explains what each accent does to the sound.
A ligature joins two letters into one character. French has two:
Typing oe instead of œ is common on keyboards without the key, but careful writing keeps the ligature. The guide on how to type French accents shows how to get œ on each keyboard.
To spell aloud, say each letter name and add the accent after the letter: e accent aigu for é, e accent grave for è, c cédille for ç. A few more words complete the toolkit:
Hélène is spelled H majuscule, e accent aigu, l, e accent grave, n, e. On the phone, French speakers make a letter clear with comme and a first name: M comme Marcel, N comme Nicolas. To ask someone to spell a word, say: Vous pouvez épeler, s'il vous plaît ? or, more casually, Ça s'écrit comment ?
Twenty-six letters, as in English, with new names: watch E and I, G and J, and the French u. Accents and the cedilla sit on letters you already know, and œ joins two of them. A short dictation, like the ones in Apostrophe·, is a quick way to check that you write every accent you hear.
How many letters are in the French alphabet?
Twenty-six, the same as in English and in the same order. Accented letters such as é or ç are not counted separately.
What are the accented letters in French?
Fourteen: é, è, ê, ë, à, â, î, ï, ô, ù, û, ü, ÿ and ç. Most texts use only a few of them, é above all.
Is the French alphabet the same as the English alphabet?
It has the same 26 letters in the same order. The names differ, and French adds accents, the cedilla and the ligatures œ and æ.
How do you say W and Y in French?
W is double vé, a double v. Y is i grec, a Greek i.
How do you spell a letter with an accent aloud in French?
Say the letter, then the accent: e accent aigu for é, a accent grave for à, c cédille for ç.
Apostrophe· reads you a sentence, corrects it word by word, and explains the exact rule behind each mistake.
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