French Alphabet

In this lesson you’ll learn the French alphabet (l’alphabet français). Actually, you’ll find that it’s quite easy as almost all the letters are the same as English and easy to pronounce.

A ah	B Bay	C Say
D Day	E Euh	F Ehf
G Zheh	H Ahsh	I yee
J Zhee	K Kah	L Ell
M Ehm	N Ehn	O Oh
P Peh	Q Koo	R Ehr
S Ehs	T Tay	U Euw
V Vay	W Doo-blah-vay	X eeks
Y Ee-grehk	Z Zayd

You’ll find that being able to spell words is very useful for learning new vocabulary and spelling your name. Below you’ll also find some practice phrases where you can learn to spell words aloud. This is an audio lesson. Click on any letter and enjoy listening!

French Accents

The French language also has a number of accents (les accents français). These are little symbols that you put above certain letters that change the sound a bit. Don’t get too worked up about the accents. Just make sure you recognize them.

The most important accent to recognize is the “e accent egu” which appears like this: “é”. This makes the sound of the e sound like “ay” and it’s used a lot in French. The other important one is the “c cedille” which looks like this: ç. It makes the sound of the French letter “c” sound like and English S. For example, the word for French is “Français” and is pronounced “frahn-say”. If you wrote it with out the c cedille you’d get “Frahn-kay” – which is wrong.

é E accent egu - ay	è E accent grave - Eih
ç C cedille - see	ë E trema - eu
ò O accent grave - oh	ô O accent circonflexe
ö O trema - oh	ù U accent grave - Euh
à A accent grave - ah	â A accent circonflexe

Practice Spelling – Common First Names

Here you can practice your pronunciation by spelling out some common French first names. Listen to the audio and repeat. In each of these examples you’re saying, “Je m’appele” (my name is), then adding a name and spelling it out. Now try spelling out your name!

Girls Names

Je m'appelle Marie, M-A-R-I-E	Je m'appelle Camille, C-A-M-I-L-L-E
Je m'appelle Laura, L-A-U-R-A	Je m'appelle Juliette, J-U-L-I-E-T-T-E
Je m'appelle Claire, C-L-A-I-R-E	Je m'appelle Sarah, S-A-R-A-H
Je m'appelle Michèlle, M-I-C-H-È-L-L-E	Je m'appelle Charlotte, C-H-A-R-L-O-T-T-E
Je m'appelle Chloé, C-H-L-O-É	Je m'appelle Sylvie, S-Y-L-V-I-E
Je m'appelle Pauline, P-A-U-L-I-N-E	Je m'appelle Caroline, C-A-R-O-L-I-N-E
Je m'appelle Céline, C-É-L-I-N-E	Je m'appelle Sophie, S-O-P-H-I-E
Je m'appelle Fanny, F-A-N-N-Y	Je m'appelle Ingrid, I-N-G-R-I-D

Boys Names

Je m'appelle Jean, J-E-A-N	Je m'appelle David, D-A-V-I-D
Je m'appelle Martin, M-A-R-T-I-N	Je m'appelle claude, C-L-A-U-D-E
Je m'appelle François, F-R-A-N-Ç-O-I-S	Je m'appelle Marc, M-A-R-C
Je m'appelle Julien, J-U-L-I-E-N	Je m'appelle Nicolas, N-I-C-O-L-A-S
Je m'appelle Thomas, T-H-O-M-A-S	Je m'appelle Guillaume, G-U-I-L-L-A-U-M-E
Je m'appelle Pierre, P-I-E-R-R-E	Je m'appelle Vincent, V-I-N-C-E-N-T
Je m'appelle Matthieu, M-A-T-T-H-I-E-U	Je m'appelle Rémi, R-É-M-I
Je m'appelle Arnaud, A-R-N-A-U-D	Je m'appelle Jacques, J-A-C-Q-U-E-S

Félicitations – Congratulations!

You’ve reached the end of this lesson. Now you should be very familiar with the French alphabet and know how to pronounce the letters very easily!

More French Lessons:

1. French Alphabet Song
2. French Pronunciation