The pronunciation of the French alphabet
BlogLanguagesFrenchKnow Everything about French Grammar: The pronunciation of the French alphabet
The pronunciation of the French alphabet
How are the letters pronounced in French?
Gender and number in French
Learn the comparative and superlative in French
How to master French accents
Small difficulties we encounter when learning French
How to build French phrases
“Each language is a different way of seeing life” – Federico Fellini (1920-1993).
Learning French grammar can be very difficult. In fact, even the native French themselves sometimes have a hard time mastering certain aspects of their own language.
According to the Survey on the Participation of the Adult Population in Learning Activities of the National Institute of Statistics (INE), prepared with data from 2016, more than half of the Spanish population knows two languages. The most learned foreign language in our country is English, followed by French.
What is clear is that, given the globalized world in which we live, we need to master more than one language.
If you want to discover the magnificent language of Molière, don’t miss our article.
The pronunciation of the French alphabet
First of all, if we start from scratch, we must familiarize ourselves with the French alphabet.
Letters are the foundation of any language.
You should know that, in general, French and Spanish have a very similar alphabet and writing system. After all, both are Romance languages.
The French alphabet: a history dating back centuries
Both Spanish and French are Romance languages , derived from Latin, so they inherit their alphabet from Ancient Rome.
The French alphabet (derived from vulgar Latin that was used in the territory) is made up of a total of 26 letters (the same as ours except for the “ñ”) .
To these 26 letters that make up the basic alphabet, we can add another 16 typical of French with diacritical marks that, to a large extent, enrich the vowels:
Basic alphabet : a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x , and Z.
Proper alphabet : à, â, æ, ç, é, ê, ë, î, ï, ô, œ, ù, ü, ÿ
Has this alphabet evolved?
The French alphabet as we know it today has evolved over time. Since the invasion of the Roman Empire and the implantation of Latin in the territory currently occupied by France, the alphabet has been transformed little by little.
The last modifications were made in the 19th century in order to achieve greater orthographic transparency (that is, to increase the correspondence between the spelling and the phonology of the language).
Characteristics of the French alphabet
In addition to those 16 additional letters that we mentioned in the previous section –in which we distinguish 13 vowels accented with diacritics and the cedilla («ç»), and two ligatures («æ» and «œ») -, the French language has other peculiarities as far as his writing is concerned.
Despite the reform carried out to achieve greater “orthographic transparency”, the truth is that, compared to Spanish, French is a difficult language to pronounce from texts. In other words, for those who learn this language, it is often difficult to figure out how words are written based solely on their pronunciation.
Why? For different reasons:
In French, final consonants tend to be silent : “s”, “x”, “z”, “t” and “d” ( parlement, procès, lit, doigt, pied, les, nez …) ; With the exception of the consonants “n” and “m” ( truck, chanson …) which they do is nasalize the vowel they accompany.
Knowing French can help you travel to spectacular corners.
On the contrary, there are other vowels that are pronounced in final position: “l”, “c”, “f” and “r” (with their consequent exceptions, as always).
To this are added other complications such as the pronunciation of combined vowel sounds or specific letters that, despite also existing in our language, are pronounced in a totally different way. This is the case, for example, of one of our favorite letters when we imitate the French accent: the “r”.
Although it is difficult for Francophones to learn our voiced “r”, and the difference between voiced and unvoiced, we go crazy trying to pronounce this letter from our throats. However, if you think about it, it’s like our js.
Don’t worry, you will master these sounds perfectly with a little practice.
To follow a progressive learning of this language, we propose two solutions:
Receive private lessons with a qualified and experienced teacher from Superprof.
Take a language stay or an immersion trip to learn French in a French-speaking country: France, Canada, Belgium, etc.
Based on your goals, expectations and opportunities, you must decide yourself which is the best option for you. Learning to pronounce the sounds of French correctly will help you enrich your vocabulary and expand your knowledge of the Molière language.