French

Français – /fʁɑ̃sɛ/

French is a Western Romance language in the Indo-European family. It originated in Europe, where you will find the largest number of native French speakers. In the namesake country of France alone, there are over 60 million native speakers. In the countries bordering France, there are another 6 million native speakers. You will also find over 7 million native speakers in the Canada (mostly in the province of Quebec).

French is a very popular world language spoken by 77 million people as a native language and another 202 million as a second language. Thus, an estimated 280 million speak the French language. Nearly half of the total speakers are in Africa.

Quick Facts

*The following territories also recognize French officially. These are in alphabetical order by territory with country that it belongs to in parenthesis. Aosta Valley (Italy), French Guiana (France), French Polynesia (France), Guadeloupe (France), Jersey (Britain), Martinique (France), New Caledonia (France), Saint-Barthélemy (France), Saint-Martin (France), Saint-Pierre and Miquelon (France), and Wallis and Futuna (France).

**These countries to not officially recognize French but have more than two million speakers (mostly as a second language).

Writing System

The French alphabet has 26 letters and is based on the Latin script. It has all the same letters as the English alphabet. The table below shows each letter of the alphabet, the letter’s name, the sounds it makes, and the related letters that are not part of the official alphabet but are used in writing. The table is listed in alphabetic order and shows the uppercase and lowercase versions of each letter as well. 

1. The following letters are often silent when word final: {b, d, e, g, p, s, t, x, z}. Keep in mind, there are many exceptions to this rule.
2. These letters are more likely to be pronounced at the end of a word {c, r, f, l}. The pneumonic “CaReFuL” is often put forth to remember these letters. Again, there are plenty of exceptions to this rule.
3. When there is a final letter of one word is silent, it can often link the final letter to the next word if it begins with a vowel or {h}. This is called a “liaison”. The following letters can make the following sounds in liaison: {d} = /t/, {f} = /v/, {g} = /k/, {m} = /m/, {n} = /n/, {p} = /p/, {q} = /k/, {t} = /t/, {x} = /z/.
4. The letter {h} is always silent, but when word initial it can be classified as “mute” or “aspirate”. When mute, the previous word can link to it. When aspirate, the previous word does not link.
5. The letters {k} and {w} are typically only used in foreign and regional words.

Digraphs

The following digraphs and ligatures are not official letters of the French alphabet. Digraphs are multiple letters that make a unique sound when used together in a word. These are all listed in the “Related” column in the alphabet table above.

• {cc} – /ks, k/
• {ch} – /ʃ, k/
• {gg} – /gʒ, g/
• {gn} – /ɲ/
• {gu} – /g/
• {ll} – /j, l/
• {ph} – /f/
• {qu} – /k/
• {sc} – /s, sk/
• {sch} – /ʃ/
• {th} – /t/
• {ti} – /sj/ (in certain suffixes like ~tion, ~tience)

Diacritics

There are five different diacritic marks use on French letters and they server various purposes. The list below explains each diacritic. The letters shown as examples of each diacritic mark are listed in the “Related” column in the alphabet table above.

1) The acute accent mark is used to for one purpose. That is to indicate that {é} makes the /e/ sound. Pay close attention, because the grave accent (explained below) can also be over the {e}, and it looks very similar.

• {é} – /e/ (indicates “closed” {e} sound)

2) The grave accent mark is only used with letters {à, è, ù} and has two purposes. The first is to distinguish the word from other matching words that do not have the grave accent mark. The second purpose is to define the exact pronunciation of the letter {e}.

• {è} – /ɛ/ (indicates “open” {e} sound)
• {à} – /a/
• {ù} – /u/

3) The circumflex mark is used to indicate that letters {â, ê, î, ô, û} are to distinguish the word from another matching words that do not have the circumflex mark. In the case of {â, ê, ô}, it also gives a hint that has been a deletion of an adjacent letter (usually {s} or a vowel). Since orthographic changes of 1990, the circumflex on {i, u} can dropped unless it distinguishes a homophone. Thus, they are less common.

• {â} – /ɑ/
• {ê} – /ɛ/
• {ô} – /o/

4) The diaresis mark separates two vowel sounds so that they are pronounced separately instead of as a single sound. The French spelling of “Noël” (/no.ɛl/) is a good example of this. The letters {ü} and {ÿ} are rarely used.

• {ë} – /ɛ/
• {ï} – /i/

5) The cedilla is only used with letter {c} and essentially makes it a separate letter. The cedilla is placed before {a, o, u} to produce the /s/ sound, effectively making it a “soft c” where it would typically cause it to be a “hard c”.

• {ç} – /s/ (same as {s} sound)

Ligatures

Ligatures are single written letters that combine two letters into one sound. Both {æ} and {œ} ligatures exist in French orthography. Generally {ae, oe} make different sounds from {æ, œ}. Although {æ} is rarely used, both ligatures are listed in the “Related” column in the alphabet table above for completeness.

• {œ} – /œ, ø/