Alphabet and pronunciation

French Alphabet and Pronunciation

French Alphabet & Pronunciation


French Alphabet

• a = ahh • b = bay • c = say• d = day• e = ur• f = eff• g = jay• h = ash• i = eeeee• j = jee• k = kar• l = ell• m = em

• n = en• o = oh• p = pay• q = kuh• r = air• s = ess• t = tay• u = ew• v = vay• w = dooble vay• x = eeks• y = eeee grec• Z = zed


French Pronunciation

• French can be a challenge to pronounce but not impossible! Persevere and keep coming back to this practice. Also remember people tend to like it when people have an accent so don’t worry if you have one… it’s cute… unless you’re being rude!! Following are a few pointers but irritatingly there are a lot of exceptions (as there are in the English language) but most of the time the following rules apply:


• Final consonants are often silent: Paris (pa-ree), Londres (loñdr).

• However, sometimes the ending is pronounced if it is followed by a word which begins with a vowel: avez-vous (avay voo) but vous avez (vooz avay).


Common exceptions where the last letter can be heard include:

• Août (August)• Avec (with)• Cinq (five)• Sept (seven) (can hear ‘t’ but not the

‘p’!!)• Huit (eight)• Neuf (nine)


Accents

• Some but not all accents can change the sound of the letter and or the meaning of a word. The main ones are é è ç. You will come across these later. For example:

• ‘manger’ (manjay) = ‘to eat’• ‘je mange’ = ‘I eat’ • j’ai mangé (manjay) = ‘I ate.’

• Have a practice….(‘mange-tout’ means eat-everything!)


‘a’ table (pronounced taaaable – think of the sound you make for the dentist!)

• Confortable (comfortable)• Argent (money)• Adresse (address)• Abbaye (abbey)• Parents (parents)


‘ç’ (called a cedilla) changes the ‘c’ into an ‘s’ sound the same for ‘c’ followed by ‘e’ or ‘i’

• Français (French)• Garçon (boy)• Leçon (lesson)• Ciel (sky)• C’est (it’s)• Ce n’est pas (it’s not)• Glace (icecream)• Citron (lemon)


‘ch’ = sh e.g. chat (sha) (cat)

• Chambre (bedroom)• Cher (dear both in the meaning of

expensive and ‘my dear’)• Chips (crisps!!)• Prochain (next)


‘é’ (ay) e.g. été (aytay) (summer)

• Bébé (baby)• Écosse (Scotland)• Marché (market)• Enchanté (literally ‘enchanted’ but used to mean ‘delighted

to meet you)• Café (coffee or a café)• Bon appétit (enjoy your meal)• Église (church)• La télé(vison) (telly/television)• Cinéma (cinema)• École (school)• Musée (museum)• Bonne journée (good day – not to be confused with journey

this would be ‘voyage’ in French so when people are leaving you can say ‘bon voyage’)


‘È/è’ (eh) e.g. très (treh) (very)

• Près (near)• Frère (brother)• Père (father)• Bière (beer)• Après (after)• Première (first – like the premier league)• Derrière (behind)• La gare routière (literally the road station –

we call it coach station)


‘eau’ (oh) e.g. beau (boh) (beautiful/handsome)

• Eau (water)• Agneau (lamb)• Bateau (boat)• Château (castle)• Bureau (office)


‘eu’ (uh) e.g. neuf (nuhf) (nine) (like the end of enough with a

French accent!)• Je veux (I want)• Deux (two)• Oeuf (egg) (becomes oeux in plural)• Boeuf (beef)

• Je veux deux oeux = I want 2 eggs


‘g’ + e, i = (jay, jee) e.g. gel, gîte (jayl, jeet)

• Genoux (knees)• Gémeaux (twins/Gemini)• Gérard (Gerard)• Fromage (cheese)• Étranger (foreigner)• Étrange (strange)


‘gn’ = (ny) e.g. saignant (say-nyoñ) (rare as in cooking meat)

• Oignon (onion)• Baignoire (bath)• Peigne (comb)• Saigner (to bleed)• Signaler ( to indicate)


‘h’ is not pronounced hôtel (ohtel), homard (omar) (lobster).

• Horrible (horrible)• Hor d’oeuvre (starter)• Horaire (timetable)• Henri (Henry)• Hôpital (hospital) (ô – replaces os)


‘i’ (ee) ville (veel) (town)

• Il (he/it)• Irlandais(e) Irish)• Village (village)• Cinéma (cinema)• Historique (historical)• Sandwich (sandwich)


‘eille’ = ay e.g. Marseille (marsay)

• Oreille (ear)

• Oreiller (pillow)

• Réveiller (to awaken)


‘o’ (oh) disco (discoh)

• Coca (Coca Cola)• La poste (post office)• Horloge (clock)• Non (no)• Pommes (apples)


‘oi’ (wa) e.g. roi (rwa) (king)

• Oie (goose)• Soit (either)• Bois (wood)• Croire (to believe)• Soir (evening)• Toit (roof)


‘ou’ (ooh) e.g. route (rooooht) (road)

• Fou (mad)• Où (where) without accent means or

(ou)• Rouge (red) Feux rouge (red light on

traffic lights)• Tout (all)


‘q’ or ‘qu’ has a hard ‘k’ sound e.g. quinze (sounds like ‘cans’)

(fifteen)• Quatre (four)• Quatorze (fourteen) ‘cat oars’ • Quatre – quatre (four wheel drive)• Qui (who)• Quitter (to leave – can also say

‘partir’)• Cinq (five – one of the exceptions

when the last letter is pronounced)


‘r’ is said at the back of the throat with the tongue at the bottom of the mouth (in English the ‘r’ makes the tongue go up). It sounds like a softer version of a

cat trying to get rid of a furball.

• Travaille (work)• Garage (garage)• Carottes rapées (grated carrots)• Tranche (slice)• Hiver (winter)• Printemps (spring)• Réserver (to reserve)


‘th’ is pronounced just ‘t’ which is why French native speakers have a lot of problems with

our th and you may hear them say ‘zat was ze zeory on zursday ze forz’ instead of ‘that was the theory on Thursday the fourth’ although I

haven’t heard this sentence too often!

• Thé (tea)• Thierry (Terry or Thierry as in the

footballer Thierry Henri)• Cathédrale (cathedral) • Théâtre (theatre)• Thon (tuna)


‘u’ = oo e.g. sur (soor) (on)

• Jus (juice)• Université (university)• Rugby (rugby)• Jupe (skirt)• Musique (music)


‘ui’ (wee) e.g. huit (weet)

Huître (oyster)• Huile (oil)• Cuire (to cook)• Suivre (to follow)• Lui (him)• Nuit (night)• Puis-je? (may I?)• Puis-je cuire les huîtres avec l’huile pour

lui cette nuit? = May I cook the oysters with oil for him this night?!


Mixtures Try these ones!

• Théière (teapot)

• Grenouille (frog)

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