Goals
What you'll be able to doBy the end of this lesson, you'll be able to:
- Recite the 26 letters of the French alphabet
- Understand the concepts of phoneme, syllable, vowel / consonant / semi-vowel
- Read the first oral vowels ([a], [e], [ɛ], [i], [u], [y]) and consonants ([p], [t], [k], [f], [s], [ʃ], [l], [m], [n], [ʁ])
- Spell your name aloud and read common acronyms (AFP, ONU, RER…)
The French alphabet
Same letters as English, different namesFrench uses the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet — same letters as English, but the names of the letters are different. On the left: the letter; on the right: how the name is pronounced […] (IPA).
💡 Watch out: W is called « double-V » (literally "double V") — never "double-U" like in English. Y is called « i grec » ("Greek i") — never "why".
Concepts to know
A bit of phonetics vocabulary① Phoneme & phonetic transcription
A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a language. To write down a phoneme, we use the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) symbol between square brackets [ ].
French has 35 phonemes: 15 vowels, 17 consonants, and 3 semi-vowels (also called semi-consonants).
② The syllable
A vowel alone is enough to form a syllable. A word can have one or several syllables. ami = a-mi (2 syllables), café = ca-fé (2 syllables).
③ Open vs closed syllables
Open syllable: ends in a vowel sound. Ex.: ma, tu, fou.
Closed syllable: ends in a consonant sound. Ex.: mal, fort, bus.
④ Reading rules
In French, certain combinations of letters always make the same sound. Once you've learned these rules, you can read an unknown word out loud without a dictionary — unlike English, where spelling is much less predictable. We'll introduce the rules step by step in the next lessons.
Reading rules
First sounds: vowels & consonantsVowels
| Sound | Letters / combinations | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| [a] | a · â · a (before mm) | la, âne, femme |
| [e] | é · word-final -er, -ez, -es · ai, ei | étudiant, aller, chez, mes, mai |
| [ɛ] | è · ê · e + 2 consonants · ai, ei | mère, fête, merci, paix |
| [i] | i · î · y | si, île, lycée |
| [y] | u · û | une, vue, sûr |
| [u] | ou · oû · où | nous, coût, où |
⚠️ The trickiest sound for English speakers: [y]
The letter u in tu, une, sur is not the English "oo" sound. It's a sound English doesn't have at all. Trick: say "ee" (as in see), keep your tongue exactly where it is, and round your lips tightly as if to whistle. That's [y].
Don't confuse it with ou [u], which is the English "oo": tu ≠ tout, vu ≠ vous.
Consonants
| Sound | Letters / combinations | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| [p] | p · pp | pâle, appel |
| [t] | t · tt | tête, attaque |
| [k] | c (before a, o, u) · k · qu · ch (in some learned words) | café, kaki, quel, archéologie |
| [f] | f · ff · ph | faire, effet, phare |
| [s] | s · ss · ç · c (before e, i, y) · x (sometimes) | sept, mission, ça, ciel, six |
| [ʃ] | ch · sch | chat, schéma |
| [l] | l · ll | les, elle |
| [m] | m · mm | masse, immaculé |
| [n] | n · nn | nul, année |
| [ʁ] | r · rr | rare, terrible |
⚠️ The French r is [ʁ] — produced at the back of the throat, near the uvula. It's nothing like the English r (which is made with the tongue raised toward the front of the mouth). A useful image: it's the same place where you'd gargle, but much softer. Listen for it in rare, terre, Paris — and don't worry, getting close is good enough at first.
Practice
Try it outExercise 1 — Spell your first name Épelez votre prénom
Pair work: spell your first name to your partner in French. They write down what they hear.
Ex.: Olivier → O – L – I – V – I – E – R
Exercise 2 — Read the acronyms Lisez les sigles
Read out loud, letter by letter.
- AFP — Agence France-Presse · French news agency
- CGT — Confédération Générale du Travail · major French trade union
- ENS — École Normale Supérieure · elite teachers' college
- HLM — Habitation à Loyer Modéré · public housing
- JO — Jeux Olympiques · Olympic Games
- OMC — Org. Mondiale du Commerce · World Trade Org.
- OGM — Organisme Génétiquement Modifié · GMO
- ONG — Org. Non Gouvernementale · NGO
- ONU — Organisation des Nations Unies · United Nations
- PCC — Parti communiste chinois · Chinese Communist Party
- RER — Réseau Express Régional · Paris commuter rail
- RFI — Radio France International
- TVA — Taxe sur la Valeur Ajoutée · VAT
Exercise 3 — I'm speaking French Je parle français
Read and repeat these simple sentences.
- C'est une clé. — It's a key.
- C'est une clé USB. — It's a USB stick.
- C'est la Tour Eiffel. — It's the Eiffel Tower.
- Merci, madame. — Thank you, ma'am.
- La nuit, tous les chats sont gris. — Proverb: "At night, all cats are grey." (Things that look different in daylight all blur together in the dark.)