Ms. Mahowald
French 1
Unit 1
Name: ____________________________
Date: ____________
Block and Period: _________
The French Alphabet and Accents
Directions: Read the following information about the French alphabet and accents and
answer the questions that follow. (Practice, 5 PP)
French is based on the Latin alphabet (also called the Roman alphabet), and there are twentysix (26) letters. Originally there were twenty-five (25) letters, with 'W' being added by the midnineteenth century. Unlike the English, who call it a "double-u," the French use "double-v" and
pronounce it (doo-bluh-vay) after the 'V' which is pronounced (vay). During the period from Old
French to Modern French, the letter 'K' was added. These two letters are used mostly with
adopted foreign words. The French alphabet used today is less than 200 years old.
The twenty-six letters are parted into :
20 Consonants (Consonnes): B C D F G H J K L M N P Q R S T V W X Z
6 Vowels (Voyelles): A E I O U Y
French uses several accent marks to guide pronunciation. These are the most commons ones.
1. L’accent aigu: The aigu accent points to the right and upward. Only appearing above the
letter e, it changes the letter’s pronunciation to ay—for example,
● médecin (may-deh-sehn, meaning doctor),
● étouffer, (ay-too-fay, meaning to stifle),
● marché (mar-shay, meaning market).
2. L’accent grave: The grave accent points to the left and upward. It can appear over any
vowel, but it only alters pronunciation when over the letter e. While, depending on context,
unaccented e‘s may be pronounced several different ways, e‘s with grave accents are always
pronounced ehh, like the e in the English word set. Examples:
●
●
très (treh, meaning very)
deuxième (doo-zee-ehm, meaning second, as in second place).
3. Le circonflexe: The circonflexe looks like a little pointed hat over vowels. It doesn’t change
pronunciation, but it must be included in written French.
● forêt (for-ay, meaning forest)
● hôtel (owe-tel, meaning hotel)
4. La cédille: In French, the cedilla is a little tail under the letter c: ç. It’s used to give the c an s
sound instead of a hard k sound—for example:
●
●
garçon (gahr-sohn, meaning boy)
français (frahn-say, meaning the French language)
5. Le tréma: The tréma looks like two dots above a letter. It’s usually placed above the second
of two consecutive vowels when both vowels are to be pronounced separately.
●
●
Jamaïque (jam-eh-eek, meaning Jamaica)
coïncidence (ko-ehn-see-dahns, meaning coincidence)
Two combined letters (called orthographic ligatures) are used: æ and œ.
Questions:
1. What is the name (in French) of the accent that looks like two dots on top of a letter?
___________________________
2. Which accent(s) affect(s) pronunciation?
____________________________________________________________________
3. Fill in the chart:
English
Français
an accent
un accent
consonants
vowels
une lettre