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French orthography encompasses thespelling andpunctuation of theFrench language. It is based on a combination ofphonemic and historical principles. The spelling of words is largely based on the pronunciation ofOld Frenchc. 1100–1200 AD, and has stayed more or less the same since then, despite enormous changes to the pronunciation of the language in the intervening years. Even in the late 17th century, with the publication of thefirst French dictionary by theAcadémie française, there were attempts toreform French orthography.

This has resulted in a complicated relationship between spelling and sound, especially for vowels; a multitude ofsilent letters; and manyhomophones, e.g.saint/sein/sain/seing/ceins/ceint (all pronounced[sɛ̃]) andsang/sans/cent (all pronounced[sɑ̃]). This is conspicuous in verbs:parles (you speak),parle (I speak / one speaks) andparlent (they speak) all sound like[paʁl]. Later attempts to respell some words in accordance with theirLatin etymologies further increased the number of silent letters (e.g.,temps vs. oldertans – compare English "tense", which reflects the original spelling – andvingt vs. oldervint).

Nevertheless, there are rules governing French orthography which allow for a reasonable degree of accuracy when pronouncing French words from their written forms. The reverse operation, producing written forms from pronunciation, is much more ambiguous. The French alphabet uses a number ofdiacritics, including thecircumflex,diaeresis,acute, andgrave accents, as well asligatures. Asystem of braille has been developed for people who are visually impaired.

French alphabet

The letters of the French alphabet, spoken in Standard French

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The French alphabet is based on the 26 letters of theLatin alphabet, uppercase and lowercase, with fivediacritics and twoorthographicligatures.

Letter	Name	Name (IPA)	Diacritics and ligatures
A	a	/a/	Àà,Ââ,Ææ
B	bé	/be/
C	cé	/se/	Çç
D	dé	/de/
E	e	/ə/	Éé,Èè,Êê,Ëë
F	effe	/ɛf/
G	gé	/ʒe/
H	ache	/aʃ/
I	i	/i/	Îî,Ïï
J	ji	/ʒi/
K	ka	/ka/
L	elle	/ɛl/
M	emme	/ɛm/
N	enne	/ɛn/
O	o	/o/	Ôô,Œœ
P	pé	/pe/
Q	qu	/ky/
R	erre	/ɛʁ/
S	esse	/ɛs/
T	té	/te/
U	u	/y/	Ùù,Ûû,Üü
V	vé	/ve/
W	double vé	/dubləve/
X	ixe	/iks/
Y	i grec	/iɡʁɛk/	Ÿÿ
Z	zède	/zɛd/

⟨w⟩ and⟨k⟩ are rarely used except inloanwords and regional words./w/ is usually written⟨ou⟩;/k/ is usually written⟨c⟩ anywhere but before⟨e, i, y⟩,⟨qu⟩ before⟨e, i, y⟩, and sometimes⟨que⟩ at the ends of words. However,⟨k⟩ is common in the metric prefix kilo- (originally from Greekχίλιαkhilia "a thousand"), e.g.kilogramme,kilomètre,kilowatt,kilohertz.

Thediacritics used in French orthography are theacute accent (⟨◌́⟩;accent aigu), thegrave accent (⟨◌̀⟩;accent grave), thecircumflex (⟨◌̂⟩;accent circonflexe), thediaeresis (⟨◌̈⟩;tréma), and thecedilla (⟨◌̧⟩;cédille). Diacritics have no effect on the primary alphabetical order.

• An acute accent over⟨e⟩ represents/e/. An⟨é⟩ in modern French is often used where a combination of⟨e⟩ and a consonant, usually⟨s⟩, would have been used formerly, e.g.écouter <escouter.
• A grave accent over⟨a⟩ or⟨u⟩ is primarily used to distinguish homophones:à ("to") vs.a ("has");ou ("or") vs.où ("where"; note that⟨ù⟩ is only used in this word). A grave accent over⟨e⟩ indicates/ɛ/ in positions where a plain⟨e⟩ would be pronounced/ə/ (schwa). Many verb conjugations contain regular alternations between⟨è⟩ and⟨e⟩; for example, the accent mark in the present tense verblève/lεv/ distinguishes the vowel's pronunciation from the schwa in the infinitive,lever/ləve/.
• A circumflex over⟨a, e, o⟩ indicates/ɑ,ɛ,o/, respectively, but the distinction between⟨a⟩/a/ vs.⟨â⟩/ɑ/ is being lost in Parisian French, merging them as[a]. In Belgian French,⟨ê⟩ is pronounced[ɛː]. Most often, it indicates the historical deletion of an adjacent letter (usually⟨s⟩ or a vowel):château <castel,fête <feste,sûr <seur,dîner <disner (in medieval manuscripts many letters were often written as diacritical marks, e.g. the circumflex for⟨/s/⟩ and the tilde for⟨/n/⟩). It has also come to be used to distinguish homophones, e.g.du ("of the") vs.dû (past participle ofdevoir "to have to do something (pertaining to an act)"); howeverdû is in fact written thus because of a dropped⟨e⟩:deu (seeCircumflex in French). Since the 1990 orthographic changes, the circumflex on⟨i⟩ and⟨u⟩ can be dropped unless it distinguishes homophones, e.g.chaîne becomeschaine butsûr (sure) does not change to avoid ambiguity with the wordsur (on).
• A diaeresis over⟨e, i, u, y⟩ indicates a hiatus between the accented vowel and the vowel preceding it, e.g.naïve/naiv/,Noël/nɔɛl/. The diaeresis may also indicate a glide/diphthong, as innaïade/najad/.
  • The combination⟨oë⟩ is pronounced in the regular way if followed by⟨n⟩ (Samoëns/samwɛ̃/. An exception to this isCitroën/sitʁoɛn/).
  • The combination⟨aë⟩ is either pronounced/aɛ/ (Raphaël,Israël) or/a/ (Staël); it represents/ɑ̃/ if it precedes⟨n⟩ (Saint-Saëns[sɛ̃sɑ̃(s)]).
  • A diaeresis on⟨y⟩ only occurs in some proper names and in modern editions of old French texts, e.g.Aÿ/ai/ (commune inMarne, nowAÿ-Champagne),Rue des Cloÿs? (alley in the18th arrondissement of Paris),Croÿ/kʁwi/ (family name and hotel on the Boulevard Raspail, Paris),Château du Feÿ/dyfei/? (nearJoigny),Ghÿs/ɡis/? (name of Flemish origin spelt⟨Ghijs⟩ where cursive⟨ij⟩ looked like⟨ÿ⟩ to French clerks),L'Haÿ-les-Roses/lajlɛʁoz/ (commune between Paris andOrly airport),Pierre Louÿs/luis/ (author),Eugène Ysaÿe/izai/ (violinist/composer),Moÿ-de-l'Aisne/mɔidəlɛn/ (commune inAisne and a family name), andLe Blanc de Nicolaÿ/nikɔlai/ (an insurance company in eastern France).
  • The diaeresis on⟨u⟩ appears in the Biblical proper namesArchélaüs/aʁʃelay/?,Capharnaüm/kafaʁnaɔm/ (with⟨üm⟩ for/ɔm/ as in words of Latin origin such asalbum, maximum, or chemical element names such assodium, aluminium),Emmaüs/ɛmays/,Ésaü/ezay/, andSaül/sayl/, as well as French names such asHaüy/aɥi/.^{[WP-fr has as 3 syllables, [ayi]]} Nevertheless, since the 1990 orthographic changes, the diaeresis in words containing⟨guë⟩ (such asaiguë/eɡy/ orciguë/siɡy/) can be moved onto the⟨u⟩:aigüe,cigüe, and by analogy may be used in verbs such asj'argüe. Without a diaeresis, the⟨ue⟩ would be silent (or a schwa in accents which retain one):Aigues-Mortes/ɛɡ(ə)mɔʁt(ə)/.
  • In addition, words of German origin retain their umlaut (⟨ä, ö, ü⟩) if applicable but often use French pronunciation, such asKärcher (/kεʁʃɛʁ/or/kaʁʃɛʁ/, trademark of a pressure washer).
• Acedilla under⟨c⟩ indicates that it is pronounced/s/ rather than/k/. Thusje lance "I throw" (with⟨c⟩ for/s/ before⟨e⟩),je lançais "I was throwing" (⟨c⟩ would represent/k/ before⟨a⟩ without the cedilla). The cedilla is only used before⟨a, o, u⟩, e.g.ça/sa/. A cedilla is not used before⟨e, i, y⟩, since they already mark the⟨c⟩ as/s/, e.g.ce,ci,cycle.

Atilde (⟨◌̃⟩) above⟨n⟩ is occasionally used in French for words and names ofSpanish origin that have been incorporated into the language (e.g.,El Niño,piñata). Like the other diacritics, the tilde has no impact on the primary alphabetical order.

Diacritics are often omitted on capital letters, mainly for technical reasons (not present onAZERTY keyboards). However both theAcadémie française and theOffice québécois de la langue française reject this usage and confirm that "in French, the accent has full orthographic value",^[1] except for acronyms but not for abbreviations (e.g.,CEE,ALENA, butÉ.-U.).^[2] Nevertheless, diacritics are often ignored in word games, includingcrosswords,Scrabble, andDes chiffres et des lettres.

Theligatures⟨æ⟩ and⟨œ⟩ are part of French orthography. Forcollation, these ligatures are treated like the sequences⟨ae⟩ and⟨oe⟩ respectively.

⟨æ⟩ (French:e dans l'a,a-e entrelacé ora, e collés/liés) is rare, appearing only in some words of Latin and Greek origin liketænia,ex æquo,cæcum,æthuse (as nameddog’s parsley).^[3] It generally represents the vowel/e/, like⟨é⟩.

The sequence⟨ae⟩ appears in loanwords where both sounds are heard, as inmaestro andpaella.^[4]

⟨œ⟩ (French:e dans l'o,o-e entrelacé oro et e collés/liés) is a mandatory contraction of⟨oe⟩ in certain words. Some of these are native French words, with the pronunciation/œ/ or/ø/, e.g.chœur "choir"/kœʁ/,cœur "heart"/kœʁ/,mœurs "moods (related to moral)"/mœʁ,mœʁs/,nœud "knot"/nø/,sœur "sister"/sœʁ/,œuf "egg"/œf/,œuvre "work (of art)"/œvʁ/,vœu "vow"/vø/. It usually appears in the combination⟨œu⟩;œil/œj/ "eye" is an exception. Many of these words were originally written with thedigraph⟨eu⟩; the⟨o⟩ in the ligature represents a sometimes artificial attempt to imitate the Latin spelling:Latin:bovem > Old Frenchbuef/beuf > Modern Frenchbœuf.

⟨œ⟩ is also used in words of Greek origin, as the Latin rendering of the Greek diphthong⟨οι⟩, e.g.cœlacanthe "coelacanth". These words used to be pronounced with/e/, but in recent years a spelling pronunciation with/ø/ has taken hold, e.g.œsophage/ezɔfaʒ/ or/øzɔfaʒ/,Œdipe/edip/ or/ødip/ etc. The pronunciation with/e/ is often seen to be more correct.

When⟨œ⟩ is found after⟨c⟩, the⟨c⟩ can be pronounced/k/ in some cases (cœur), or/s/ in others (cœlacanthe).

⟨œ⟩ is not used when both letters contribute different sounds. For example, when⟨o⟩ is part of a prefix (coexister), or when⟨e⟩ is part of a suffix (minoen), or in the wordmoelle and its derivatives.^[5]

French digraphs and trigraphs have both historical and phonological origins. In the first case, it is a vestige of the spelling in the word's original language (usually Latin or Greek) maintained in modern French, e.g. the use of⟨ph⟩ intéléphone,⟨th⟩ inthéorème, or⟨ch⟩ inchaotique. In the second case, a digraph is due to an archaic pronunciation, such as⟨eu⟩,⟨au⟩,⟨oi⟩,⟨ai⟩, and⟨œu⟩, or is merely a convenient way to expand the twenty-six-letter alphabet to cover all relevant phonemes, as in⟨ch⟩,⟨on⟩,⟨an⟩,⟨ou⟩,⟨un⟩, and⟨in⟩. Some cases are a mixture of these or are used for purely pragmatic reasons, such as⟨ge⟩ for/ʒ/ inil mangeait ('he ate'), where the⟨e⟩ serves to indicate a "soft"⟨g⟩ inherent in the verb's root, similar to the significance of a cedilla to⟨c⟩.

Some exceptions apply to the rules governing the pronunciation of word-final consonants. SeeLiaison (French) for details.

^1 These combinations are pronounced/j/ after⟨a, e, eu, œ, ou, ue⟩, all but the last of which are pronounced normally and are not influenced by the⟨i⟩. For example, inrail,⟨a⟩ is pronounced/a/; inmouiller,⟨ou⟩ is pronounced/u/.⟨ue⟩, however, which only occurs in such combinations after⟨c⟩ and⟨g⟩, is pronounced/œ/ as opposed to/ɥɛ/, e.g.orgueil/ɔʁɡœj/,cueillir/kœjiʁ/,accueil/akœj/, etc. These combinations are never pronounced/j/ after⟨o, u⟩, except -⟨uill⟩- (/ɥij/), e.g.aiguille/egɥij/,juillet/ʒɥijɛ/, where the vowel +⟨i⟩ +⟨ll⟩ sequence is pronounced normally, although as usual, the pronunciation of⟨u⟩ after⟨g⟩ and⟨q⟩ is somewhat unpredictable:poil,huile,équilibre[ekilibʁə] butéquilatéral[ekɥilateʁal], etc.

The spelling of French words of Greek origin is complicated by a number of digraphs which originated in theLatin transcriptions. The digraphs⟨ph, th, ch⟩ normally represent/f,t,k/, respectively, in Greek loanwords; and the ligatures⟨æ⟩ and⟨œ⟩ in Greek loanwords represent the same vowel as⟨é⟩ (/e/). Further, many words in theinternational scientific vocabulary were constructed in French from Greek roots and have kept their digraphs (e.g.stratosphère,photographie).

This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(June 2008)

TheOaths of Strasbourg from 842 is the earliest text written in the early form of French called Romance or Gallo-Romance.

The CelticGaulish language of the inhabitants ofGaul disappeared progressively over the course of Roman rule as the Latin language began to replace it.Vulgar Latin, a generally lower register ofClassical Latin spoken by the Roman soldiers, merchants and even by patricians in quotidian speech, was adopted by the natives and evolved slowly, taking the forms of different spoken Roman vernaculars according to the region of the empire.

Eventually the different forms of Vulgar Latin in what is now France evolved into three branches in theGallo-Romance language sub-family, thelangues d'oïl north of theLoire, thelangues d'oc in the south, and theFranco-Provençal languages in part of the east.^[13]

In the 9th century, the Romance vernaculars were already quite far from Latin. For example, to understand theBible, written in Latin, footnotes were necessary. The languages found in themanuscripts dating from the 9th century to the 13th century form what is known asOld French (ancien français). With consolidation of royal power, beginning in the 13th century, theFrancien vernacular, thelangue d'oil variety then in usage in theÎle-de-France (region around Paris), took, little by little, over the other languages and evolved toward Classic French. These languages continued to evolve until Middle French (moyen français) emerged, in the 14th century to the 16th century.^[13]

During theMiddle French period (c. 1300–1600), modern spelling practices were largely established. This happened especially during the 16th century, under the influence of printers. The overall trend was towards continuity with Old French spelling, although some changes were made under the influence of changed pronunciation habits; for example, the Old French distinction between the diphthongs⟨eu⟩ and⟨ue⟩ was eliminated in favor of consistent⟨eu⟩,[a] as both diphthongs had come to be pronounced/ø/ or/œ/ (depending on the surrounding sounds). However, many other distinctions that had become equally superfluous were maintained, e.g. between⟨s⟩ and soft⟨c⟩ or between⟨ai⟩ and⟨ei⟩. It is likely that etymology was the guiding factor here: the distinctions⟨s/c⟩ and⟨ai/ei⟩ reflect corresponding distinctions in the spelling of the underlying Latin words, whereas no such distinction exists in the case of⟨eu/ue⟩.

This period also saw the development of some explicitly etymological spellings, e.g.temps ("time"),vingt ("twenty") andpoids ("weight") (note that in many cases, the etymologizing was sloppy or occasionally completely incorrect;vingt reflects Latinviginti, with the⟨g⟩ in the wrong place, andpoids actually comes from Latinpensum, with no⟨d⟩ at all; the spellingpoids is due to an incorrect derivation from Latinpondus). The trend towards etymologizing sometimes produced absurd (and generally rejected) spellings such assçapvoir for normalsavoir ("to know"), which attempted to combine Latinsapere ("to be wise", the correct origin ofsavoir) withscire ("to know").

Modern French spelling was codified in the late 17th century by the Académie française, based largely on previously established spelling conventions. Some reforms have occurred since then, but most have been fairly minor. The most significant changes have been:

• Adoption of⟨j⟩ and⟨v⟩ to represent consonants, in place of former⟨i⟩ and⟨u⟩.
• Addition of a circumflex accent to reflect historicalvowel length. During theMiddle French period, a distinction developed between long and short vowels, with long vowels largely stemming from a lost/s/ before a consonant, as inmême (cf. Spanishmismo), but sometimes from the coalescence of similar vowels, as inâge from earlieraage, eage (earlyOld French*edage <Vulgar Latin*aetaticum, cf. Spanishedad <aetate(m)). Prior to this, such words continued to be spelled historically (e.g.mesme andage). Ironically, by the time this convention was adopted in the 19th century, the former distinction between short and long vowels had largely disappeared in all but the most conservative pronunciations, with vowels automatically pronounced long or short depending on the phonological context (seeFrench phonology).
• Use of⟨ai⟩ in place of⟨oi⟩ where pronounced/ɛ/ rather than/wa/. The most significant effect of this was to change the spelling of all imperfect verbs (formerly spelled -⟨ois⟩, -⟨oit⟩, -⟨oient⟩ rather than -⟨ais⟩, -⟨ait⟩, -⟨aient⟩), as well as the name of the language, fromfrançois tofrançais.

In October 1989, Michel Rocard, then-Prime Minister of France, established the High Council of the French Language (Conseil supérieur de la langue française) in Paris. He designated experts – among them linguists, representatives of the Académie française and lexicographers – to propose standardizing several points, a few of those points being:

• The uniting hyphen in all compound numerals

e.g.trente-et-un

• The plural of compound words, the second element of which always takes the plural s

e.g.un après-midi,des après-midis

• The circumflex⟨ˆ⟩ disappears on⟨u⟩ and⟨i⟩ except for when it is needed to differentiate homophones

e.g.coût (cost) →cout,abîme (abyss) →abime butsûr (sure) because ofsur (on)

• The past participle oflaisser followed by an infinitive verb is invariable (now works the same way as the verbfaire)

elle s'est laissée mourir → elle s'est laissé mourir

Quickly, the experts set to work. Their conclusions were submitted to Belgian and Québécois linguistic political organizations. They were likewise submitted to the Académie française, which endorsed them unanimously, saying: "Current orthography remains that of usage, and the 'recommendations' of the High Council of the French language only enter into play with words that may be written in a different manner without being considered as incorrect or as faults."^{[citation needed]}

The changes were published in theJournal officiel de la République française in December 1990. At the time the proposed changes were considered to be suggestions. In 2016, schoolbooks in France began to use the newer recommended spellings, with instruction to teachers that both old and new spellings be deemed correct.^[14]

In France and Belgium, theexclamation mark,question mark,semicolon,colon, percentage mark, currency symbols,hash, andguillemet all require a thin space between the punctuation mark and the material it adjoins. Outside of France and Belgium, this rule is often ignored. Computer software may aid or hinder the application of this rule, depending on the degree oflocalisation, as it is marked differently from most other Western punctuation.

The hyphen in French has a particular use in geographic names that is not found in English.Traditionally, the "specific" part of placenames, street names, and organization names are hyphenated (usuallynamesakes).^[15][16] For instance,laplace de la Bataille-de-Stalingrad (Square of theBattle of Stalingrad [la bataille de Stalingrad]); andl’université Blaise-Pascal (named afterBlaise Pascal). Likewise,Pas-de-Calais is a French department; the eponymouspas (strait) islepas de Calais.

This rule is not uniformly observed in official names, e.g., eitherlaCôte-d'Ivoire orla Côte d'Ivoire, and usuallylaCôte d'Azur has no hyphens. The names ofMontreal Metro stations are consistently hyphenated when suitable, but those ofParis Métro stations mostly ignore this rule. (For more examples, seeTrait d'union.)

• Elision (French)
• French phonology
• French braille
• French manual alphabet
• Circumflex in French
• French heteronyms, words spelled the same but pronounced differently

• Dictionnaire de l'Académie française
• Fouché, Pierre (1956).Traité de prononciation française. Paris: Klincksieck.
• Tranel, Bernard (1987).The Sounds of French: An Introduction. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.ISBN 0-521-31510-7.

• Alternate French spelling(in French)
• Recording of 3 different voices pronouncing the French alphabet
• French alphabet pronounced by a native speaker (Youtube)

• French language
• Indo-European Latin-script orthographies

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