Learn French 🇫🇷

Accent..

So Many Silent Letters!
Did you know that the word oiseaux (birds) is the shortest word in French for which you don't pronounce a single letter using its typical pronunciation? O and I are pronounced 'oh' and 'ee,' but OI is pronounced 'wa'; S is pronounced as in English, but when between two vowels, it's pronounced 'z'; E is 'eu,' A is 'ah,' and U is a very distinctive sound that's difficult to transcribe, but together, EAU is pronounced 'oh'; finally, the X, as with many final consonants in French, is silent.

You must be wondering: Why are French spelling and pronunciation so complicated? Will I ever be able to learn it? The short answer is YES. Of course. In fact, learning to spell better in French improves your pronunciation and vice versa, since the French pronunciation is inextricably linked with the way the language is spelled.

A Bit of History
To understand why French has such a strange way of spelling words, we need to understand its history. In the late Roman Empire, there were many different dialects of Latin, which led to the differences between today's Romance languages. French emerged from one of these variants, and by the 16th century, it barely resembled Latin. This is why Renaissance scholars formalized the spelling, devising a system to match Latin letters to the sounds of Old French and resulting in a large number of homophones and silent letters.

Ever since, there has been an official organization meant to maintain the French language and every aspect of it, protecting it from degeneration or outside influences: the Académie Française. Because of the Académie, French spelling and the corresponding pronunciations are preserved in an official way.

The Alphabet
Let's take a look at the French alphabet and how it influences spelling and pronunciation.

The Standard Letters
A (ah)

B (beh)

C (ceh)

D (deh)

E (euh)

F (ef)

G (zheh)

NOTE: This is pronounced like J but is actually the letter G. We'll have a similar problem for J.
H (ash)

I (ee)

J (zhee)

K (kah)

L (el)

M (em)

N (en)

O (oh)

P (pay)

Q (cu)

R (err)

NOTE: The French R sound is also hard to pronounce. It's like a light gargle in the back of the mouth.
S (ess)

T (teh)

U (u)

NOTE: The French U is hard to pronounce. Say 'ee' and then, keeping the shape of the inside of your mouth constant, move your lips to make the sound 'oo'. This will allow you to pronounce the French U. This also applies to the pronunciation of the letter Q.

V (veh)

W (double veh)

X (eeks)

Y (ee grec)

NOTE: Literally means Greek I.
Z (zed)

Accents
There are five main accents in French that accompany certain letters:

1.L'accent aigu (é): This is found only on the letter E and makes it sound more like 'eh.'

2. L'accent grave ('): This accent can be found on the letters A, E, and U. It doesn't change pronunciation, but is used to distinguish certain words from their homonyms.

3. L'accent circonflex (^): This accent is a funny remnant of history and indicates that there used to be an S following the vowel. For instance, the word hôpital (hospital) used to contain an S and therefore looks like its English equivalent if you imagine the S is still there!

NOTE: This is a nice trick for recognizing certain cognates with English!
4.L'accent tréma (¨): This accent is placed on an E, I, or U and indicates that there are two vowels next to each other that both need to be pronounced, as in the word Noël (Christmas). No-el

5.Cédille (ç): This accent is the little squiggle under the C. It can only be used with the letter C, and indicates that it's to be pronounced as an S instead of the hard K sound. A cédille is only necessary when the C is followed by A, O, or U but still needs a soft pronunciation. For example, the first person plural conjugation of the verb commencer (to begin) is commençons. The cédille here indicates that, even though the C is followed by an O, it should be pronounced S, as in all the other conjugations.

Strange Letters
1. œ: This is pronounced like an E (euh) and is found in many common words such as sœur (sister) and cœur (heart). It's called a ligature. Like the literal meaning of this term, a ligature binds two letters together, resulting in a printed or written character consisting of two or more letters joined together.

2. While there are others in French (like ae), they're rare.

Xx🥰