The French alphabet and pronunciation

French uses the same 26 letters as English, but most of them have different names. You need the names to spell your name, an email address or a street on the phone. Click a name to hear it.

The letters English speakers mix up most are e (e), g (gé) and j (ji): the French name of g sounds like the English name of “j”, and the French name of j like the English “g”. The letter h is called hache, but it is never pronounced in a word.

q is ku, with the French u sound, w is double vé (double v) and y is i grec (Greek i). k and w appear mostly in words borrowed from other languages.

To spell a double letter, say deux (two) before it: deux elle for ll. For an accent, add its name after the letter: é is e accent aigu.

French vowels are short and pure: the sound doesn't glide into another one as in English “day” or “go”. Keep your mouth still while you say them. Several spellings often make the same sound, so learn the spelling and the sound together.

Before n or m at the end of a word or before another consonant, a vowel becomes nasal: you say it partly through your nose, and the n or m itself is not heard. There is no nasal vowel when a vowel follows or the letter is doubled: compare bon and bonne, un and une.

Most people in France today say un exactly like in: un and vin have the same vowel.

Most consonants sound as in English. These are the ones that don't. The French r is made at the back of the throat, a little like a soft gargle, and h is always silent.

Final consonants are usually silent, especially d, p, s, t, x and z: grand, trop, vous, petit, deux, nez. Final c, r, f and l are usually heard (think of the English word “careful”): avec, bonjour, neuf, avril. But -er at the end of a verb sounds like “ay”: parler. A final e is silent, but it makes you hear the consonant before it: petit, petite.

In a liaison, a silent final consonant is pronounced when the next word starts with a vowel or a silent h, and the two words are said as one. It happens after short words like les, des, un, nous, vous, très and quand, but never after et.

Accents are part of the spelling, so always write them. The acute accent (é) is only ever used on an e. On e, the grave and circumflex accents both give the open sound of è. On a and u, the grave accent doesn't change the sound, it only tells two words apart: a (has) and à (to, at), ou (or) and où (where). A circumflex often shows where an s used to be: forêt (forest), hôpital (hospital).

French has no strong stress on one syllable of a word. Say every syllable with about the same weight, and make the last syllable of a word or a group of words a little longer: restaurant, Je vais au restaurant. Written accents never show stress.

Listen to each sentence, then repeat it. Listen for the nasal vowels in un bon vin blanc, the liaisons in les enfants, nous allons and quand il, the gn of montagne, and the difference between tu and tout.