French Letters

French Vowel Letters

The French alphabet has 6 basic vowel letters: a, e, i, o, u, y. The letter y can function as both a vowel and consonant depending on its position in the word ^[1].

French Accented Vowel Letters

French has 13 accented vowel letters: à, â, é, è, ê, ë, î, ï, ô, ù, û, ü, ÿ (and their uppercase forms). These accents are crucial for correct pronunciation and often change the meaning of words entirely ^[1].

French Cedilla (ç)

The cedilla (ç, Ç) is used with the letter c to produce the soft /s/ sound before a, o, or u. Examples include "français" (French), "garçon" (boy), and "leçon" (lesson) ^[1].

Without the cedilla, the c would be pronounced as /k/ in these contexts.

French Ligatures

French uses ligatures œ and æ (and their uppercase forms Œ and Æ). The œ appears in words like "cœur" (heart) and "sœur" (sister). The æ is less common in modern French ^[1].

These ligatures represent the historical combination of two vowels.

French Consonant Letters

French has 20 consonant letters ^[1]. Many French consonants have pronunciation rules that differ from English, such as silent final consonants and the French "r" sound.

Understanding French consonant pronunciation is key to speaking French correctly.

Special Characters in French

French writing uses punctuation marks and symbols including period (.), comma (,), question mark (?), exclamation (!), and French-specific quotation marks (« ») and (" ") ^[1].

French typography also uses non-breaking spaces before certain punctuation marks.

Digits in French

French uses the standard Arabic numerals 0–9, with French number names: zéro, un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf ^[1].

Like German, French uses comma (,) as the decimal separator ^[1].

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)