Pronunciation and Alphabet Guide
FRENCH
The French alphabet has the same 26 letters as the English alphabet,
but of course many of the letters are pronounced differently in the two
languages.
You should have no problem in learning and memorising the letters
expect for E and I, G and J, W and Y:
1. The French "e" sounds like the English "e" of "Earth"
2. The French "i" sounds like the English "e" of "Equal"
3. The "g" is similar to the English "j"
4. The "j" is similar to the English "g"
5. For “w’ the French say "double V" and not "double U". ‹w› and ‹k›
are rarely used except in loan words or regional words, ‹ou› is
used to represent /w/ sound; while ‹q› appears more frequently
than in English.
6. “Y” is pronounced “I grec”
The vowels are ‹a e i o u y›.
There are four French accents for vowels and one accent for a
consonant. French accents have a purpose. While some accents just
signify that an S used to follow that vowel in Old French (e.g., étudiant
used to be spelled estudiant), most French accents indicate the correct
pronunciation of the letter they modify. In addition, there are dozens
of French word pairs (homographs) which are spelled (though not always
pronounced) the same other than accents. To avoid confusion, you
should always distinguish between these words by using the correct
accents.
The accent aigu ´ (acute accent) can only be on an E. Examples: étudiant (student), été
(summer), déjà (already). It makes the E sound lighter.
The accent grave ` (grave accent) can be found on an A, E, or U. On the A and U, it usually
serves to distinguish between words that would otherwise be homographs; e.g., ou (or) vs où
(where).
The accent circonflexe ˆ (circumflex) can be on an A, E, I, O, or U. The circumflex usually
indicates that an S used to follow that vowel, e.g., forêt (forest). It also serves to
distinguish between homographs; e.g., êtes (second person plural of être, to be) vs étés
(plural of summer).
The accent tréma ¨ (dieresis or umlaut) can be on an E, I, or U. It is used when two vowels
are next to each other and both must be pronounced, e.g., naïve, Zoë
The cédille ¸ (cedilla) is found only on the letter C. It changes a hard C sound (like K) into a
soft C sound (like S), e.g. ça (this), garçon (boy). The cedilla is never placed in front of E or
I, because C always sounds like an S in front of these vowels.
The ligature has an orthographic importance in French: œ: e.g. œil (eye), bœuf (beef)
http://french.about.com/od/pronunciation/a/accents.htm
LEARN TO WRITE THE ACCENTS:
ACCENT
accent aigu
accent grave
accent circonflexe
accent tréma
cédille
ligature
EXAMPLE YOUR PRACTICE
é
à
ê
ë
ç
œ
été
à
êtes
Zoë
ça
œil