The Alphabet, Vowels, and Consonants (L'alphabet, les voyelles et les consonnes)

Level A1

Objective: Spell names or codes aloud using correct French letter names and recognise the pronunciation of final consonants.

What you’ll learn

Name the 26 letters of the French alphabet aloud.
Distinguish between vowels and consonants in French.
Recognise the difference between French and English letter names.
Apply the rule that most final consonants are silent.

Orthography

The French Alphabet

French uses the same 26 letters as English, but the names of the letters are different. Some letter names sound similar to their English counterparts, while others are pronounced in a distinctly French way.

A, B, C, D, E, F, G
a, bé, cé, dé, e, effe, gé
H, I, J, K, L, M, N
ache, i, ji, ka, elle, emme, enne

The two most distinctive letters are y and u. The French u has no direct English equivalent, and the letter y is called i grec in French.

Selected Letter Names

Letter	French Name	Pronunciation Guide
A	a	ah
B	bé	bay
C	cé	say
D	dé	day
E	e	euh
G	gé	zhay
I	i	ee
J	ji	zhee
O	o	oh
R	erre	air
S

Common mistakes

Watch out for these

G — pronounced jee.
G — pronounced zhay.
French G sounds like the s in measure, not like the English j, and the letter name reflects that sound.
J — pronounced jay.
J — pronounced zhee.
The French J sounds like the s in measure, close to the English zh sound, unlike the English j.
E — pronounced ee.

Examples

Comment ça s'écrit ?
The standard question for asking how something is spelled. The reflexive verb s'écrire means to be written.
Ça s'écrit M-A-R-I-E.
Each letter is pronounced individually. Hyphens separate the letters in writing when spelling aloud.
Pouvez-vous épeler votre nom ?
The verb épeler means to spell. The formal vous matches the polite request.
Le chat dort.
The final t in chat is silent, so the word sounds like shah rather than chat.
Vous parlez français.
The final s in vous and français is silent. The -ez ending of parlez is pronounced ay.
Mon numéro est le 06 12 34 56 78.