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What's the French alphabet like?

The French alphabet has 26 letters.
You may well have to spell out your name and perhaps your address in French. Here is the alphabet and how to pronounce it

- right click and choose 'save target as'

What's significant about the French alphabet?

• Vowels

  Interestingly, there are six vowels: Ìýa, e, i, o, u, y

  The most challenging vowel to pronounce is probably u as this sound doesn’t exist in English. Try saying Ìýmenu, déjà vu, bus

  It’s also very common for French vowels to be combined to create specific sounds. Here are a few that are worth remembering:
  Ìýau, eau as in Ìýrestaurant, gâteau
  Ìýou as in Ìýrouge, red, beaucoup, a lot
  Ìýai as in Ìýaimer, to like, ´Ú°ù²¹²Ôç²¹¾±²õ, French
  Ìýoi as in Ìýcroissant, toilettes
  Ìýeu and ²Õ³Ü as in Ìýbleu, blue, ²Õ³Üfs, eggs

  Ìý

• Nasal sounds

  French is well-known for its nasal sounds and they don't have any equivalent in English.
  Want to give it a go? Try this sentence, which sums up all of the nasal sounds:
  Ìýun bon vin blanc - a nice white wine

  Ìý

• Consonants

  Unlike in English, h is generally silent, e.g
  Ìýhôtel, hôpital, habiter, to live

  You might be familiar with the r sound, which comes from the throat:
  Ìýadresse, dormir, to sleep

  You may have also come across ll in the unusual Ìýouille sound, as in Ìýgrenouille, frog and Ìýratatouille

  And a typical aspect of the language is that not all letters are pronounced at the end of a word, e.g.
  Ìýrestaurant, Paris, dessert, canard, duck

  Ìý

• Accents and cedilla

  What are they all about? There are four accents:
  acute (é), grave (è), circumflex (ê) and trema (ë)

  The accents on the vowel e indicate different sounds:
  Ìýé as in Ìýcinéma, été, summer
  Ìýè, ê, ë as in Ìýcrème, fête, Noël, Christmas

  Accents are often used in writing to differentiate meaning, even when the pronunciation is the same:
  Ìýa / à - has / at
  Ìýou / où - or / where
  Ìýla / là - the (fem. form)/ there
  Ìýsur / sûr - on / sure

  The cedilla, ç, is used before a, o, u and sounds the same as ‘s’, e.g. Ìý´Ú°ù²¹²Ôç²¹¾±²õ, French, ±ô±ðç´Ç²Ô, lesson, un reçu, a receipt

  Ìý

• Email and website conventions

  When giving an email or website address the conventions are:
  Ìý@Ìýarobase
  Ìý.Ìýpoint, dot
  Ìý/Ìýbarre oblique, forward slash
  Ìý-Ìýtiret, hyphen

  Ìý