L’Alphabet français

La Prononciation des lettres A (ahh) B (bay) C (say) D (day) E (euh) F (eff) G (jzay) H (osh) I (ee) J (gzee) K (kaw) L (ell) M (emm) N (enn) O (oh) P (pay) Q (koo) R (air) S (es) T (tay) U (ooh) V (vay) W (doobleh-vay) X (eeks) Y (ee-grek) Z (zed)

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

La Pratique d’Orthographe (Spelling Practice) Alphabet Excellent Intelligent Restaurant Photo Conversation Summit Academy

Les Accents l'accent aigu (Stéphanie, répétition) Pronouced “ay” l'accent grave (Michèle) When used with letters other than e, the accent grave does not indicate a sound difference but serves to distinguish different words which have the same spelling but different meanings.  ou (or) vs. où (where); la (the) vs. là (there) l'accent circonflexe (forêt, hôtel, honnête) arose historically as a marker for vowels which were followed by another letter (usually s) in an earlier state of the language. le tréma (Noël) used with vowels to indicate that they are pronounced separately from a preceding vowel. la cédille (Ça va? ) used only with the letter c to indicate the sound /s/ when it is followed by the letters a, o, or u (“k”: c + a, o, u), (“s”: ç + a, o, u). not used with the letters e and i (“s”: c + e, i) (c'est, merci).

La Prononciation Française Many letters in French are not pronounced The ‘e’ at the end of a word is silent Ex. Monique, Anne The ‘s’ at the end of a word is silent Ex. Denis, Jacques The letter ‘h’ is silent Ex. Thomas, Nathalie Usually a consonant at the end of a word is not pronounced. (Exeptions: c, f, l, and sometimes r (the consonants of careful) SILENT: PRONOUNCED: Bernard Marc, Luc Robert Madame Restif Vincent Michel, Daniel Roger Bonjour, Victor

Au bureau des réservations (At the reservation desk) Imagine that you are an employee at the reservation desk of Air France, the French national airline. As you confirm the reservations of the following passengers, pronounce and then spell their last names in French. 1. Mademoiselle Lucas 2. Monsieur Thomas 3. Mademoiselle Duval 4. Monsieur Marty 5. Madame Maubrey 6. Mademoiselle Aziza

Common French Names Many French names have English equivalents: Jean John Hélène Helen Jacques James Suzanne Susan Hyphenated names are very common first names. Jean-Pierre Jean-Marc Jean-Philippe Marie-Claire Marie-Laure Marie-Louise Many names are spelled exactly the same in English and in French, but are pronounced differently in the two languages. Paul Richard Thomas Robert Alice Diane Annette Christine