French orthography explained

pronounced as /notice/French orthography encompasses the spelling and punctuation of the French language. It is based on a combination of phonemic and historical principles. The spelling of words is largely based on the pronunciation of Old French –1200 AD, and has stayed more or less the same since then, despite enormous changes to the pronunciation of the language in the intervening years. Even in the late 17th century, with the publication of the first French dictionary by the Académie française, there were attempts to reform French orthography.

This has resulted in a complicated relationship between spelling and sound, especially for vowels; a multitude of silent letters; and many homophones, e.g., ///// (all pronounced in French pronounced as /sɛ̃/) and // (all pronounced in French pronounced as /sɑ̃/). This is conspicuous in verbs: (you speak), (I speak / one speaks) and (they speak) all sound like in French pronounced as /paʁl/. Later attempts to respell some words in accordance with their Latin etymologies further increased the number of silent letters (e.g., vs. older – compare English "tense", which reflects the original spelling – and vs. older ).

Nevertheless, there are rules governing French orthography which allow for a reasonable degree of accuracy when pronouncing French words from their written forms. The reverse operation, producing written forms from pronunciation, is much more ambiguous. The French alphabet uses a number of diacritics, including the circumflex, diaeresis, acute, and grave accents, as well as ligatures. A system of braille has been developed for people who are visually impaired.

Alphabet

The French alphabet is based on the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, uppercase and lowercase, with five diacritics and two orthographic ligatures.

Name	Name (IPA)	Diacritics and ligatures
a	pronounced as //a//	Àà, Ââ, Ææ
bé	pronounced as //be//
cé	pronounced as //se//	Çç
dé	pronounced as //de//
e	pronounced as //ə//	Éé, Èè, Êê, Ëë
effe	pronounced as //ɛf//
gé	pronounced as //ʒe//
ache	pronounced as //aʃ//
i	pronounced as //i//	Îî, Ïï
ji	pronounced as //ʒi//
ka	pronounced as //ka//
elle	pronounced as //ɛl//
emme	pronounced as //ɛm//
enne	pronounced as //ɛn//
o	pronounced as //o//	Ôô, Œœ
pé	pronounced as //pe//
qu	pronounced as //ky//
erre	pronounced as //ɛʁ//
esse	pronounced as //ɛs//
té	pronounced as //te//
u	pronounced as //y//	Ùù, Ûû, Üü
vé	pronounced as //ve//
double vé	pronounced as //dubləve//
ixe	pronounced as //iks//
i grec	pronounced as //iɡʁɛk//	Ÿÿ
zède	pronounced as //zɛd//

and are rarely used except in loanwords and regional words. pronounced as //w// is usually written ; pronounced as //k// is usually written anywhere but before, before, and sometimes at the ends of words. However, is common in the metric prefix kilo- (originally from Greek khilia "a thousand"), e.g. French: kilogramme, French: kilomètre, French: kilowatt, French: kilohertz.

Diacritics

The diacritics used in French orthography are the acute accent (; French: accent aigu), the grave accent (; French: accent grave), the circumflex (; French: accent circonflexe), the diaeresis (; French: tréma), and the cedilla (; French: cédille). Diacritics have no effect on the primary alphabetical order.

An acute accent over represents pronounced as //e//. An in modern French is often used where a combination of and a consonant, usually, would have been used formerly, e.g. French: écouter < French, Old (842-ca.1400);: escouter.
A grave accent over or is primarily used to distinguish homophones: French: à ("to") vs. French: a ("has"); French: ou ("or") vs. French: où ("where"; note that is only used in this word). A grave accent over indicates pronounced as //ɛ// in positions where a plain would be pronounced pronounced as //ə// (schwa). Many verb conjugations contain regular alternations between and ; for example, the accent mark in the present tense verb French: lève pronounced as //lεv// distinguishes the vowel's pronunciation from the schwa in the infinitive, French: lever pronounced as //ləve//.
A circumflex over indicates pronounced as //ɑ, ɛ, o//, respectively, but the distinction between pronounced as //a// vs. pronounced as //ɑ// is being lost in Parisian French, merging them as pronounced as /[a]/. In Belgian French, is pronounced pronounced as /[ɛː]/. Most often, it indicates the historical deletion of an adjacent letter (usually or a vowel): French: château < French, Old (842-ca.1400);: castel, French: fête < French, Old (842-ca.1400);: feste, French: sûr < French, Old (842-ca.1400);: seur, French: dîner < French, Old (842-ca.1400);: disner (in medieval manuscripts many letters were often written as diacritical marks, e.g. the circumflex for and the tilde for). It has also come to be used to distinguish homophones, e.g. French: du ("of the") vs. French: dû (past participle of French: devoir "to have to do something (pertaining to an act)"); however French: dû is in fact written thus because of a dropped : deu (see Circumflex in French). Since the 1990 orthographic changes, the circumflex on and can be dropped unless it distinguishes homophones, e.g. French: chaîne becomes French: chaine but French: sûr (sure) does not change to avoid ambiguity with the word French: sur (on).
A diaeresis over indicates a hiatus between the accented vowel and the vowel preceding it, e.g. French: naïve pronounced as //naiv//, French: Noël pronounced as //nɔɛl//. The diaeresis may also indicate a glide/diphthong, as in French: naïade pronounced as //najad//.
- The combination is pronounced in the regular way if followed by (French: [[Samoëns]] pronounced as //samwɛ̃//, an exception to this is French: [[Citroën]] pronounced as //sitʁoɛn//).
- The combination is either pronounced pronounced as //aɛ// (French: Raph'''aë'''l, French: Isr'''aë'''l) or pronounced as //a// (French: [[Madame de Staël|St'''aë'''l]]); it represents pronounced as //ɑ̃// if it precedes (French: [[Saint-Saëns|Saint-S'''aë'''ns]] in French pronounced as /sɛ̃sɑ̃(s)/).
- A diaeresis on only occurs in some proper names and in modern editions of old French texts, e.g. French: [[Aÿ]] pronounced as //ai// (commune in Marne, now French: [[Aÿ-Champagne]]), French: Rue des Cloÿs pronounced as /?/ (alley in the 18th arrondissement of Paris), French: Croÿ pronounced as //kʁwi// (family name and hotel on the Boulevard Raspail, Paris), French: Château du Feÿ pronounced as //dyfei//? (near Joigny), French: Ghÿs pronounced as //ɡis//? (name of Flemish origin spelt where cursive looked like to French clerks), French: [[L'Haÿ-les-Roses]] pronounced as //laj lɛ ʁoz// (commune between Paris and Orly airport), Pierre Louÿs pronounced as //luis// (author), Eugène Ysaÿe pronounced as //izai// (violinist/composer), Moÿ-de-l'Aisne pronounced as //mɔidəlɛn// (commune in Aisne and a family name), and French: Le Blanc de Nicolaÿ pronounced as //nikɔlai// (an insurance company in eastern France).
- The diaeresis on appears in the Biblical proper names French: Archélaüs pronounced as //aʁʃelay//?, French: Capharnaüm pronounced as //kafaʁnaɔm// (with for pronounced as //ɔm// as in words of Latin origin such as French: album, maximum, or chemical element names such as French: sodium, aluminium), French: Emmaüs pronounced as //ɛmays//, French: Ésaü pronounced as //ezay//, and French: Saül pronounced as //sayl//, as well as French names such as Haüy pronounced as //aɥi//. Nevertheless, since the 1990 orthographic changes, the diaeresis in words containing (such as French: aiguë pronounced as //eɡy// or French: ciguë pronounced as //siɡy//) can be moved onto the : French: aigüe, French: cigüe, and by analogy may be used in verbs such as French: j'argüe. Without a diaeresis, the would be silent (or a schwa in accents which retain one): French: Aigues-Mortes pronounced as //ɛɡ(ə)mɔʁt(ə)//.
- In addition, words of German origin retain their umlaut if applicable but often use French pronunciation, such as French: Kärcher (pronounced as //kεʁʃɛʁ/ or /kaʁʃɛʁ//, trademark of a pressure washer).
A cedilla under indicates that it is pronounced pronounced as //s// rather than pronounced as //k//. Thus French: je lance "I throw" (with for pronounced as //s// before), French: je lan'''ç'''ais "I was throwing" (would represent pronounced as //k// before without the cedilla). The cedilla is only used before, e.g. French: ça pronounced as //sa//. A cedilla is not used before, since they already mark the as pronounced as //s//, e.g. French: ce, French: ci, French: cycle.

A tilde above is occasionally used in French for words and names of Spanish origin that have been incorporated into the language (e.g., French: El Ni'''ñ'''o, French: pi'''ñ'''ata). Like the other diacritics, the tilde has no impact on the primary alphabetical order.

Diacritics are often omitted on capital letters, mainly for technical reasons (not present on AZERTY keyboards). However both the Académie française and the Office québécois de la langue française reject this usage and confirm that "in French, the accent has full orthographic value",^[1] except for acronyms but not for abbreviations (e.g., French: CEE, French: ALENA, but French: É.-U.).^[2] Nevertheless, diacritics are often ignored in word games, including crosswords, Scrabble, and French: [[Des chiffres et des lettres]].

Ligatures

The ligatures and are part of French orthography. For collation, these ligatures are treated like the sequences and respectively.

Æ

(French: e dans l'a, French: a-e entrelacé or French: a, e collés/liés) is rare, appearing only in some words of Latin and Greek origin like French: tænia, French: ex æquo, French: cæcum, French: æthuse (as named dog’s parsley).^[3] It generally represents the vowel pronounced as //e//, like .

The sequence appears in loanwords where both sounds are heard, as in French: maestro and French: paella.^[4]

Œ

(French: e dans l'o, French: o-e entrelacé or French: o et e collés/liés) is a mandatory contraction of in certain words. Some of these are native French words, with the pronunciation pronounced as //œ// or pronounced as //ø//, e.g. French: chœur "choir" pronounced as //kœʁ//, French: cœur "heart" pronounced as //kœʁ//, French: mœurs "moods (related to moral)" pronounced as //mœʁ, mœʁs//, French: nœud "knot" pronounced as //nø//, French: sœur "sister" pronounced as //sœʁ//, French: œuf "egg" pronounced as //œf//, French: œuvre "work (of art)" pronounced as //œvʁ//, French: vœu "vow" pronounced as //vø//. It usually appears in the combination ; French: œil pronounced as //œj// "eye" is an exception. Many of these words were originally written with the digraph ; the in the ligature represents a sometimes artificial attempt to imitate the Latin spelling: Latin: bovem > Old French French: buef/French: beuf > Modern French French: bœuf.

is also used in words of Greek origin, as the Latin rendering of the Greek diphthong, e.g. French: cœlacanthe "coelacanth". These words used to be pronounced with pronounced as //e//, but in recent years a spelling pronunciation with pronounced as //ø// has taken hold, e.g. French: œsophage pronounced as //ezɔfaʒ// or pronounced as //øzɔfaʒ//, French: Œdipe pronounced as //edip// or pronounced as //ødip// etc. The pronunciation with pronounced as //e// is often seen to be more correct.

When is found after, the can be pronounced pronounced as //k// in some cases (French: cœur), or pronounced as //s// in others (French: cœlacanthe).

is not used when both letters contribute different sounds. For example, when is part of a prefix (French: coexister), or when is part of a suffix (French: minoen), or in the word French: moelle and its derivatives.^[5]

Digraphs and trigraphs

French digraphs and trigraphs have both historical and phonological origins. In the first case, it is a vestige of the spelling in the word's original language (usually Latin or Greek) maintained in modern French, e.g. the use of in French: téléphone, in French: théorème, or in French: chaotique. In the second case, a digraph is due to an archaic pronunciation, such as,,,, and, or is merely a convenient way to expand the twenty-six-letter alphabet to cover all relevant phonemes, as in,,,,, and . Some cases are a mixture of these or are used for purely pragmatic reasons, such as for pronounced as //ʒ// in French: il mangeait ('he ate'), where the serves to indicate a "soft" inherent in the verb's root, similar to the significance of a cedilla to .

Spelling to sound correspondences

Some exceptions apply to the rules governing the pronunciation of word-final consonants. See Liaison (French) for details.

Consonants

Spelling
Major value (IPA)	Examples of major value	Minor values (IPA)	Examples of minor values	Exceptions	Foreign words
-bs, -cs (in the plural of words ending in silent or), -ds, -fs (in œufs, bœufs, and plurals of words ending in a silent), ‑gs, -ps, -ts		Ø	,,,,,,,
b, bb	elsewhere	pronounced as /link/	, abbé
	before a voiceless consonant	pronounced as /link/	, observer, subtile
	finally	Ø	plomb, Colomb	pronounced as /link/
ç		pronounced as /link/	, garçon, reçu
c	before	pronounced as /link/	, loquace, douce, ciel, ceux	Ø (after s or x)	scene, exception
	initially/medially elsewhere	pronounced as /link/	, crasse, cœur, sacré	pronounced as /link/ (before æ and œ in scientific terms of Latin and Greek origin) Ø	cæcum, cœlacanthe bifteck, knickerbockers, knickers (before k) (see also -ct, cqu, -cte	pronounced as /link/ second
	finally	pronounced as /link/	, donc, parc	Ø	, blanc, caoutchouc	pronounced as /link/ zinc
cc	before	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	, accent			pronounced as /link/ succion
cc	elsewhere	pronounced as /link/
ch		pronounced as /link/	, douche	pronounced as /link/ (often in words of Greek origin^[6])	chaotique, chlore, varech		Ø yacht, almanach pronounced as /link/ check-list, strech, coach
-ct		/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	, correct	Ø	respect, suspect, instinct, succinct
d, dd	elsewhere	pronounced as /link/	, adresse, addition
d, dd	finally	Ø	, accord	pronounced as /link/	David, sud
f, ff		pronounced as /link/	, affoler, soif			Ø clef, cerf, nerf
g	before	pronounced as /link/	, manger				pronounced as /link/ gin, adagio, management
	initially/medially elsewhere	pronounced as /link/	, glacier
	finally	Ø	, long, sang	pronounced as /link/	erg, zigzag
gg	before	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//
gg	elsewhere	pronounced as /link/
gn		pronounced as /link/	, agneau, gnôle			/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link// gnose, gnou
h		Ø	, hiver	pronounced as /link/ (intervocalic, to some speakers, but Ø for most speakers)	Sahara	pronounced as /link/ ahaner (also Ø or /j/), hit
j		pronounced as /link/	, jeter	pronounced as /link/	jean, jazz		pronounced as /link/ fjord pronounced as /link/ jota, marijuana
k		pronounced as /link/	, kilomètre, bifteck
l, ll		pronounced as /link/	, allier, il, royal, matériel	Ø (occasionally finally)	cul, fusil, saoul	Ø fils, aulne, aulx (see also -il)
m, mm		pronounced as /link/	, pomme			Ø automne, condamner
n, nn		pronounced as /link/	, panne
ng							pronounced as /link/, camping
p, pp	elsewhere	pronounced as /link/	, appel
p, pp	finally	Ø	coup, trop	pronounced as /link/	, cep
ph		pronounced as /link/	, photo
pt		pronounced as //pt//	,, excepter, ptôse,	pronounced as /link/	baptême, compter, sept	pronounced as /Ø/ prompt (also pronounced as /pt/)
q (see qu)		pronounced as /link/	, cinq, piqûre (in new orthography, piqure), Qatar
r, rr		pronounced as /link/	, barre			Ø monsieur, gars (see also -er)
s	initially medially next to a consonant or after a nasal vowel	pronounced as /link/	, estime, penser, instituer	pronounced as /link/	Alsace, transat, transiter	Ø, mesdames, mesdemoiselles, Descartes (also pronounced as /link/), messieurs (not considered double s), messeigneurs (not considered double s), Debusclin (see also -sch)
	elsewhere between two vowels	pronounced as /link/	, paysage	pronounced as /link/	antisèche, parasol, vraisemblable
	finally	Ø	, repas	pronounced as /link/	fils, sens (noun), os (singular), ours
sc	before	pronounced as /link/				pronounced as /link/ fasciste (also pronounced as /link/)
sc	elsewhere	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//
sch		pronounced as /link/	, haschisch, esche	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	schizoïde, ischion, æschne
ss		pronounced as /link/	, passer
-st		/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	est (direction), ouest, podcast	Ø	est (verb), Jésus-Christ (also /pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//)
t, tt	elsewhere	pronounced as /link/	, attente	pronounced as /link/	nation (see ti + vowel)
t, tt	finally	Ø	, raffut	pronounced as /link/	dot, brut, yaourt
tch		pronounced as /link/	, match, Tchad
th		pronounced as /link/	, thermique, aneth			Ø asthme, bizuth, goth pronounced as /link/ thread
v		pronounced as /link/	, vanne
w							pronounced as /link/, week-end (in new orthography, weekend), whisky pronounced as /link/ wagon, schwa, interviewer (see also aw, ew, ow)
x	initially next to a voiceless consonant phonologically finally	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	, expansion, connexe	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	xénophobie, Xavier	pronounced as /link/ xhosa, xérès (also /pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//) Ø auxquels, auxquelles
	medially elsewhere	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	galaxie, maximum	pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ /pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	soixante, Bruxelles deuxième exigence
	finally	Ø	, deux	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	index, pharynx	pronounced as /link/ six, dix, coccyx
xc	before	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//
xc	elsewhere	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//
z	elsewhere	pronounced as /link/	, gazette
z	finally	Ø				pronounced as /link/ gaz, fez, merguez	pronounced as /link/ quartz

Vowels

Spelling
Major value (IPA)	Examples of major value	Minor values (IPA)	Examples of minor value	Exceptions	Foreign words
a, à		pronounced as /link/	patte, arable, là, déjà	pronounced as /link/	araser, base, condamner		pronounced as /link/ yacht (also pronounced as /link/) pronounced as /link/ football pronounced as /link/ lady
â		pronounced as /link/	château, pâté	pronounced as /link/	dégât (also pronounced as /link/), parlâmes, liâtes, menât (simple past and imperfect subjunctive verb endings -âmes, -âtes, and -ât)
aa		pronounced as /link/	graal, Baal, maastrichtois	/pronounced as /link/.pronounced as /link//	aa
æ		pronounced as /link/	ex-æquo, cæcum
ae		pronounced as /link/	reggae	/pronounced as /link//	groenendael, maelstrom, Portaels	/pronounced as /link/.pronounced as /link// maestro /pronounced as /link/.pronounced as /link// paella
aë		/pronounced as /link/.pronounced as /link//	Raphaël, Israël			/pronounced as /link// Staël
ai		pronounced as /link/ (pronounced as /link/)	vrai, faite ai, aiguille, baisser, gai, quai	pronounced as /link/	lançai, mangerai (future and simple past verb forms ending in -ai or -rai)	pronounced as /link/ faisan, faisons,^[7] (and all other conjugated forms of faire which are spelt fais- and followed by a pronounced vowel)
aî (in new orthography)		pronounced as /link/	maître, chaîne (in new orthography, maitre, chaine)
aï	before a consonant	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	naïf, haïr
aï	before a vowel	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	aïe, aïeul, haïe, païen
aie		pronounced as /link/	baie, monnaie	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	paie (also paye)
ao, aô	phonologically closed syllable	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	aorte, extraordinaire (also pronounced as /link/)			pronounced as /link/ faonne pronounced as /link/ Saône
ao, aô	phonologically open syllable	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	cacao, chaos, baobab			pronounced as /link/ paonneaupronounced as /link/ curaçao
aou, aoû		/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	caoutchouc, aoûtien (in new orthography, aoutien), yaourt	pronounced as /link/	saoul, août (in new orthography, aout)
au	elsewhere	pronounced as /link/	haut, augure
au	before	pronounced as /link/	dinosaure, Aurélie, Laurent (also pronounced as /link/)
ay	elsewhere	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	ayons, essayer (also /pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//)	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	mayonnaise, papaye, ayoye	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link// pays (also /pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//)
ay	finally	pronounced as /link/	Gamay, margay, railway				pronounced as /link/ okay
-aye		/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	abbaye	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	paye	pronounced as /link/ La Haye /pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link// baye
e	elsewhere	pronounced as /link/	repeser, genoux			pronounced as /link/ revolver (in new orthography, révolver)
	before multiple consonants,, or a final spoken (or silent if) consonant		pronounced as /link/	est, estival, voyelle, examiner, exécuter, quel, chalet	/pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link//(before double consonant) pronounced as /link/	essence, effet, henné recherche, secrète, repli (before +vowel or a consonant (except) followed by)	pronounced as /link/ et pronounced as /link/ femme, solennel, fréquemment, (and other adverbs ending in -emment)^[8] pronounced as /link/ Gennevilliers (see also -er)
	before a silent consonant other than or cons.+	pronounced as /link/	les, nez, clef, mangez, (and any form of a verb in the second person plural that ends in -ez), assez (see also -er, -es), mesdames, mesdemoiselles (also pronounced as /link/), Descartes (also pronounced as /link/)			(see also -es)
	finally or in a position where it can be easily elided	∅	caisse, unique, acheter (also pronounced as /link/), franchement (also pronounced as /link/)	pronounced as /link/ (finally)	que, de, je (in monosyllables), quatre, parle, chambre, répondre, hymne, indemne, syntagme (after two or more consonants of which the last is r, l, m or n)	pronounced as /link/ presque, puisque, quelque (the compound adjective pronouns ending in -que)
é, ée		pronounced as /link/	clé, échapper, idée			pronounced as /link/ (in closed syllables) événement, céderai, vénerie (in new orthography, évènement, cèderai, vènerie)
è		pronounced as /link/	relève, zèle
ê	phonologically finally or in closed syllables	pronounced as /link/	tête, crêpe, forêt, prêt
ê	in open syllables	/pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link//	bêtise
ea (except after)		pronounced as /link/	dealer, leader, speaker (in new orthography, dealeur, leadeur, speakeur)
ee		pronounced as /link/	week-end (in new orthography, weekend), spleen			pronounced as /link/ pedigree (also pédigré(e))
eau		pronounced as /link/	eau, oiseaux
ei		pronounced as /link/	neige (also pronounced as /link/), reine (also pronounced as /link/), geisha (also /pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//)
eî		pronounced as /link/	reître (in new orthography, reitre)
eoi		/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	asseoir (in new orthography, assoir)
eu	initially or phonologically finally or before pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	Europe, heureux, peu, chanteuse			pronounced as /link/ eu, eussions, (verb forms of French: avoir with initial -), gageure (in new orthography, gageüre)
eu	elsewhere	pronounced as /link/	beurre, jeune	pronounced as /link/ (in closed syllables)	feutre, neutre, pleuvoir
eû		pronounced as /link/	jeûne			pronounced as /link/ eûmes, eût, (and any conjugated forms of avoir spelt with eû-)
ey	before vowel	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	gouleyant, volleyer
ey	finally	pronounced as /link/	hockey, trolley
i	elsewhere	pronounced as /link/	ici, proscrire				Ø business
i	before vowel	pronounced as /link/	fief, ionique, rien	/pronounced as /ink/.pronounced as /ink// cabriolet pronounced as /link/ (in compound words)	antioxydant
î		pronounced as /link/	gîte, épître (in new orthography, gitre, epitre)
ï (initially or between vowels)		pronounced as /link/	ïambe (also iambe), aïeul, païen			pronounced as /link/ ouïe
-ie		pronounced as /link/	régie, vie
o	phonologically finally or before pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pro, mot, chose, déposes			pronounced as /link/ sosie
o	elsewhere	pronounced as /link/	carotte, offre	pronounced as /link/	cyclone, fosse, tome
ô		pronounced as /link/	tôt, cône			pronounced as /link/ hôpital (also pronounced as /link/)
œ		pronounced as /link/	œil	pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/	œsophage, fœtus œstrogène	pronounced as /link/ lœss
oe		/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	coefficient			/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link// moelle, moellon, moelleux (also moëlle, moëllon, moëlleux) pronounced as /link/ foehn
oê		/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	poêle
oë		/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	Noël			/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link// canoë, goëmon (also canoé, goémon) /pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link// foëne, Plancoët /pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link// Voëvre
œu	phonologically finally	pronounced as /link/	nœud, œufs, bœufs, vœu
œu	elsewhere	pronounced as /link/	sœur, cœur, œuf, bœuf
oi, oie		/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	roi, oiseau, foie, quoi (also /pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link// for these latter words)	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	bois, noix, poids, trois	pronounced as /link/ oignon (in new orthography, ognon) /pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link// séquoia /pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link// autoimmuniser
oî		/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	croîs, Benoît
oï		/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	coït, astéroïde	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	troïka
oo		/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	coopération, oocyte, zoologie				pronounced as /link/ bazooka, cool, football pronounced as /link/ alcool, Boskoop, rooibos pronounced as /link/ spéculoos, mooré, zoo pronounced as /link/ shampooing
ou, où	elsewhere	pronounced as /link/	ouvrir, sous, où			/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link// pseudouridimycine	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link// out, knock-out
ou, où	before vowel or h+vowel	pronounced as /link/	ouest, couiner, oui, souhait (also /pronounced as /link//)
oû (in new orthography)		pronounced as /link/	coût, goût (in new orthography, cout, gout)
-oue		pronounced as /link/	roue
oy		/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	moyen, royaume	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	Fourcroy	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link// oyez (and any conjugated form of ouïr spelt with oy-), goyave, cow-boy (in new orthography cowboy), ayoy /pronounced as /link/.pronounced as /link// Moyse
u	elsewhere	pronounced as /link/	tu, juge				pronounced as /link/ tofu, pudding pronounced as /link/ club, puzzle pronounced as /link/ business pronounced as /link/ rhumerie (see also um)
u	before vowel	pronounced as /link/	huit, tuer	pronounced as /link/	pollueur	pronounced as /link/ cacahuète (also pronounced as /link/)
û (in new orthography)		pronounced as /link/	sûr, flûte (in new orthography, flute)
ue, uë	elsewhere	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	actuel, ruelle	pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ (see below)	gué guerre que orgueil, cueillir
	finally	pronounced as /link/	rue
	finally, after q or g	Ø	clique	pronounced as /link/	aiguë (in new orthography, aigüe)
üe	finally	pronounced as /link/	aigüe
-ui, uï		/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	linguistique, équilateral ambiguïté (in new orthography, ambigüité)	/pronounced as /link//	équilibre
uy		/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	bruyant, ennuyé, fuyons, Guyenne	/pronounced as /link/.pronounced as /link//	gruyère, thuya	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link// puy
y	elsewhere	pronounced as /link/	cyclone, style
y	before vowel	pronounced as /link/	yeux, yole	pronounced as /link/	polyester, Libye
ÿ	(used only in proper nouns)	pronounced as /link/	L'Haÿ-les-Roses, Freÿr

Vowels and consonants

Spelling
Major value (IPA)	Examples of major value	Minor values (IPA)	Examples of minor value	Exceptions	Foreign words
am	before consonant	pronounced as /link/	ambiance, lampe			pronounced as /link/ damné
am	finally	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	Vietnam, tam-tam, macadam			pronounced as /link/ Adam
an, aan	before consonant or finally	pronounced as /link/	France, an, bilan, plan, afrikaans				/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link// brahman, chaman, dan, gentleman, tennisman, naan
aen, aën	before consonant or finally	pronounced as /link/	Caen, Saint-Saëns
aim, ain	before consonant or finally	pronounced as /link/	faim, saint, bains
aon	before consonant or finally	pronounced as /link/	paon, faon	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	pharaon
aw		pronounced as /link/	crawl, yawl			/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link// in the 18th century and still traditional French approximation of Laws, the colloquial Scottish form of the economist John Law's name.^[9] ^[10]
cqu		pronounced as /link/	acquit, acquéreur
-cte	finally as feminine form of adjectives ending in silent (see above)	pronounced as /link/	succincte
em, en	before consonant or finally elsewhere	pronounced as /link/	embaucher, vent	pronounced as /link/	examen, ben, pensum, pentagone	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link// week-end (in new orthography, weekend), lichen /pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link// indemne, totem
em, en	before consonant or finally after	pronounced as /link/	européen, bien, doyen	pronounced as /link/ (before t or soft c)	patient, quotient, science, audience
eim, ein	before consonant or finally	pronounced as /link/	plein, sein, Reims
-ent	3rd person plural verb ending	Ø	parlent, finissaient
-er		pronounced as /link/	aller, transporter, premier	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	hiver, super, éther, fier, mer, enfer, Niger	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link// leader (also pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/), speaker
-es		Ø	Nantes, faites	pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/	les, des, ces, es
eun	before consonant or finally	pronounced as /link/	jeun
ew		/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	newton, steward (also /pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//)			pronounced as /link/ chewing-gum
ge	before	pronounced as /link/	geai, mangea
gu	before	pronounced as /link/	guerre, dingue	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	arguër (in new orthography, argüer), aiguille, linguistique, ambiguïté (in new orthography, ambigüité)
-il	after some vowels	pronounced as /link/	ail, conseil
-il	not after vowel	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	il, fil	pronounced as /link/	outil, fils, fusil
-ilh-	after ^[11]	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	Guilhem
-ilh-	after other vowels	/pronounced as /link//	Meilhac, Devieilhe			/pronounced as /link// Devieilhe (some families don't use the traditional pronunciation /j/ of ilh)
-ill-	after some vowels	pronounced as /link/	paille, nouille
-ill-	not after vowel	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	mille, million, billion, ville, villa, village, tranquille^[12]	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	grillage, bille
im, in, în	before consonant or finally	pronounced as /link/	importer, vin, vînt			/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link// sprint
oin, oën	before consonant or finally	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	besoin, point, Samoëns
om, on	before consonant or finally	pronounced as /link/	ombre, bon			/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link// canyon pronounced as /link/ monsieur pronounced as /link/ automne
ow		pronounced as /link/	cow-boy (also [aw]. In new orthography, cowboy), show			pronounced as /link/ clown /pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link// Koweït
qu		pronounced as /link/	quand, pourquoi, loquace	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link// /pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	équilatéral aquarium, loquace, quatuor	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link// piqûre (in new orthography, piqure), qu
ti + vowel	initially or after pronounced as //s//	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	bastion, gestionnaire, tiens, aquae-sextien
ti + vowel	elsewhere	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//, /pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	fonctionnaire, initiation, Croatie, haïtien	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//, /pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	the suffix -tié, all conjugated forms of verbs with a radical ending in -t (augmentions, partiez, etc.) or derived from tenir, and all nouns and past participles derived from such verbs and ending in -ie (sortie, divertie, etc.)
um, un	before consonant or finally	pronounced as /link/	parfum, brun	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	album, maximum	pronounced as /link/ nuncupation, punch (in new orthography, ponch), secundo
ym, yn	before consonant or finally	pronounced as /link/	sympa, syndrome	/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link//	gymnase, hymne

These combinations are pronounced pronounced as //j// after, all but the last of which are pronounced normally and are not influenced by the . For example, in French: rail, is pronounced pronounced as //a//; in French: mouiller, is pronounced pronounced as //u//., however, which only occurs in such combinations after and, is pronounced pronounced as //œ// as opposed to pronounced as //ɥɛ//, e.g. French: org'''ueil''' pronounced as //ɔʁɡœj//, French: c'''ueill'''ir pronounced as //kœjiʁ//, French: acc'''ueil''' pronounced as //akœj//, etc. These combinations are never pronounced pronounced as //j// after, except -- (pronounced as //ɥij//), e.g. French: aig'''uill'''e pronounced as //egɥij//, French: j'''uill'''et pronounced as //ʒɥijɛ//, where the vowel + + sequence is pronounced normally, although as usual, the pronunciation of after and is somewhat unpredictable: French: p'''oil''', French: h'''uil'''e, French: éq'''uil'''ibre pronounced as /[ekilibʁ]/ but French: éq'''uil'''atéral pronounced as /[ekɥilateʁal]/, etc.

Words from Greek

The spelling of French words of Greek origin is complicated by a number of digraphs which originated in the Latin transcriptions. The digraphs normally represent pronounced as //f, t, k//, respectively, in Greek loanwords; and the ligatures and in Greek loanwords represent the same vowel as (pronounced as /link/). Further, many words in the international scientific vocabulary were constructed in French from Greek roots and have kept their digraphs (e.g. French: stratosphère, French: photographie).

History

The Oaths of Strasbourg from 842 is the earliest text written in the early form of French called Romance or Gallo-Romance.

Roman

The Celtic Gaulish language of the inhabitants of Gaul disappeared progressively over the course of Roman rule as the Latin language began to replace it. Vulgar Latin, a generally lower register of Classical Latin spoken by the Roman soldiers, merchants and even by patricians in quotidian speech, was adopted by the natives and evolved slowly, taking the forms of different spoken Roman vernaculars according to the region of the empire.

Eventually the different forms of Vulgar Latin in what is now France evolved into three branches in the Gallo-Romance language sub-family, the French: [[langues d'oïl]] north of the Loire, the French: [[langues d'oc]] in the south, and the Franco-Provençal languages in part of the east.^[13]

Old French

In the 9th century, the Romance vernaculars were already quite far from Latin. For example, to understand the Bible, written in Latin, footnotes were necessary. The languages found in the manuscripts dating from the 9th century to the 13th century form what is known as Old French (French: ancien français). With consolidation of royal power, beginning in the 13th century, the French: Francien vernacular, the French: langue d'oil variety then in usage in the Île-de-France (region around Paris), took, little by little, over the other languages and evolved toward Classic French. These languages continued to evolve until Middle French (French: moyen français) emerged, in the 14th century to the 16th century.

Middle French

During the Middle French period (–1600), modern spelling practices were largely established. This happened especially during the 16th century, under the influence of printers. The overall trend was towards continuity with Old French spelling, although some changes were made under the influence of changed pronunciation habits; for example, the Old French distinction between the diphthongs and was eliminated in favor of consistent, as both diphthongs had come to be pronounced pronounced as //ø// or pronounced as //œ// (depending on the surrounding sounds). However, many other distinctions that had become equally superfluous were maintained, e.g. between and soft or between and . It is likely that etymology was the guiding factor here: the distinctions and reflect corresponding distinctions in the spelling of the underlying Latin words, whereas no such distinction exists in the case of .

This period also saw the development of some explicitly etymological spellings, e.g. French: temps ("time"), French: vingt ("twenty") and French: poids ("weight") (note that in many cases, the etymologizing was sloppy or occasionally completely incorrect; French: vingt reflects Latin Latin: viginti, with the in the wrong place, and French: poids actually comes from Latin Latin: pensum, with no at all; the spelling French: poids is due to an incorrect derivation from Latin Latin: pondus). The trend towards etymologizing sometimes produced absurd (and generally rejected) spellings such as French: sçapvoir for normal French: savoir ("to know"), which attempted to combine Latin Latin: sapere ("to be wise", the correct origin of French: savoir) with Latin: scire ("to know").

Classical French

See main article: Reforms of French orthography.

Modern French spelling was codified in the late 17th century by the Académie française, based largely on previously established spelling conventions. Some reforms have occurred since then, but most have been fairly minor. The most significant changes have been:

Adoption of and to represent consonants, in place of former and .
Addition of a circumflex accent to reflect historical vowel length. During the Middle French period, a distinction developed between long and short vowels, with long vowels largely stemming from a lost pronounced as //s// before a consonant, as in French: même (cf. Spanish Spanish; Castilian: mismo), but sometimes from the coalescence of similar vowels, as in French: âge from earlier French, Middle (ca.1400-1600);: aage, eage (early Old French French, Old (842-ca.1400);: *edage < Vulgar Latin Latin: *aetaticum, cf. Spanish Spanish; Castilian: edad < Latin: aetate(m)). Prior to this, such words continued to be spelled historically (e.g. French: mesme and French: age). Ironically, by the time this convention was adopted in the 19th century, the former distinction between short and long vowels had largely disappeared in all but the most conservative pronunciations, with vowels automatically pronounced long or short depending on the phonological context (see French phonology).
Use of in place of where pronounced pronounced as //ɛ// rather than pronounced as //wa//. The most significant effect of this was to change the spelling of all imperfect verbs (formerly spelled -, -, - rather than -, -, -), as well as the name of the language, from French: françois to French: français.

Modern French

In October 1989, Michel Rocard, then-Prime Minister of France, established the High Council of the French Language (French: Conseil supérieur de la langue française) in Paris. He designated experts among them linguists, representatives of the Académie française and lexicographers to propose standardizing several points, a few of those points being:

The uniting hyphen in all compound numerals

e.g. French: trente-et-un

The plural of compound words, the second element of which always takes the plural s

e.g. French: un après-midi, French: des après-midis

The circumflex disappears on and except for when it is needed to differentiate homophones

e.g. French: coût (cost) → French: cout, French: abîme (abyss) → French: abime but French: sûr (sure) because of French: sur (on)

The past participle of French: laisser followed by an infinitive verb is invariable (now works the same way as the verb French: faire)

French: elle s'est laissée mourir → elle s'est laissé mourir

Quickly, the experts set to work. Their conclusions were submitted to Belgian and Québécois linguistic political organizations. They were likewise submitted to the Académie française, which endorsed them unanimously, saying: "Current orthography remains that of usage, and the 'recommendations' of the High Council of the French language only enter into play with words that may be written in a different manner without being considered as incorrect or as faults."

The changes were published in the French: [[Journal officiel de la République française]] in December 1990. At the time the proposed changes were considered to be suggestions. In 2016, schoolbooks in France began to use the newer recommended spellings, with instruction to teachers that both old and new spellings be deemed correct.^[14]

Punctuation

In France and Belgium, the exclamation mark, question mark, semicolon, colon, percentage mark, currency symbols, hash, and guillemet all require a non-breaking space before and after the punctuation mark. Outside of France and Belgium, this rule is often ignored. Computer software may aid or hinder the application of this rule, depending on the degree of localisation, as it is marked differently from most other Western punctuation.

Hyphens

The hyphen in French has a particular use in geographic names that is not found in English.Traditionally, the "specific" part of placenames, street names, and organization names are hyphenated (usually namesakes).^[15] ^[16] For instance, French: la [[place de la Bataille-de-Stalingrad]] (Square of the Battle of Stalingrad [{{lang|fr|la bataille de Stalingrad}}]); and French: l’[[université Blaise-Pascal]] (named after Blaise Pascal). Likewise, Pas-de-Calais is actually a place on land; the real (“strait”) is French: le [[Strait of Dover|pas de Calais]].

However, this rule is not uniformly observed in official names, e.g., either French: la [[Côte-d'Ivoire]] or French: la Côte d'Ivoire, but normally French: la [[Côte d'Azur]] has no hyphens. The names of Montreal Metro stations are consistently hyphenated when suitable, but those of Paris Métro stations mostly ignore this rule. (For more examples, see Trait d'union.)

Bibliography

Book: Fouché , Pierre . Traité de prononciation française. Paris. Klincksieck. 1956.
Book: Tranel , Bernard . The Sounds of French: An Introduction. 0-521-31510-7. Cambridge, New York. Cambridge University Press. 1987. registration.

External links

Notes and References

http://www.academie-francaise.fr/langue/questions.html#accentuation Académie française, accentuation
Web site: Banque de dépannage linguistique - Accents sur les majuscules. 66.46.185.79. 10 October 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20141106063313/http://66.46.185.79/bdl/gabarit_bdl.asp?t1=1&id=1438. 6 November 2014. dead.
Web site: La ligature æ. Dominique. Didier. Monsu.desiderio.free.fr. 10 October 2017.
[wikt:fr:Catégorie:ae non ligaturé en français]
See
See Ch (digraph)#French
Web site: French Pronuncation: Vowel Sounds I -LanguageGuide. Languageguide.org. 10 October 2017.
Web site: French Pronuncation: Vowel Sounds II -LanguageGuide. Languageguide.org. 10 October 2017.
Law, John (1671-1729) . 32 . Espinasse . Francis . Francis Espinasse . 230-234 . 1.
https://books.google.com/books?id=vAFA8x953OMC Etudes romanes dédiées a Gaston Paris
Web site: Dictionnaire de l'Académie française .
Web site: Is LL Pronounced Like an L or like a Y in French?. French.about.com. 10 October 2017. 23 November 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161123205230/http://french.about.com/od/pronunciation/a/ll.htm. dead.
Translation of Évolution de la langue française du Ve au XVe siècle. See also Langue romane (French) and Romance languages (English).
News: End of the circumflex? Changes in French spelling cause uproar. 2016-02-05. BBC News. 2017-07-30. en-GB.
Web site: Charte ortho-typographique du Journal officiel [Orthotypography Style Guide for the ''Journal Officiel''] ]. . 2016 . 19 . fr . On le met dans le nom donné à des voies (rue, place, pont...), une agglomération, un département... Exemples : boulevard Victor-Hugo, rue du Général-de-Gaulle, ville de Nogent-le-Rotrou.. Summary ranslation: "Hyphenate name in roadways (streets, squares, bridges), towns, French: [[départements]]". See also "orthotypography".
Web site: Établissements d'enseignement ou organismes scolaires [Educational institutes or school-related bodies] ]. Banque de dépannage linguistique . fr . Les parties d’un spécifique qui comporte plus d’un élément sont liées par un trait d’union [...] Exemples : l’école Calixa-Lavallée, l’école John-F.-Kennedy. . Summary ranslation: "Multi-word "specifics" are hyphenated.".