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The French alphabet is based on the Latin Alphabet . It uses the standard 26 letters. The words in the column "Letter name in French" are sometimes used when discussing the letters (compare English words such as "aitch").

Special ligatures exist for some words:
  • Œ (œil, fœtus, bœuf...)

  • æ (et cætera, tænia, ex æquo...)


Notes:
  • 'W' is rarely used except in Loan Words or regional words, 'ou' is used to represent the /w/ sound;

  • vowels are A, E, I, O, U, sometimes Y;

  • semi-vowels are Y, rarely W (except regionally, for instance in Belgium );

  • usual Diacritic Marks are Acute ( ´ ), Grave ( ` ), Circumflex ( ˆ ), Diaeresis (called ''tréma'' in French ) ( ¨ ), and the Cedilla ( ¸ ). The most frequent combinations are: à â ç é è ê ë î ï ô û ù ü. Diacritics have no impact on alphabetical order.



TWO SYSTEMS OF LETTER NAMES

Many 19th-century French dictionaries mention a second system of naming the consonant letters, called "la nouvelle épellation" as opposed to the "épellation traditionelle" mentioned above. In this system, the consonant letters were read as follows: be, ke, de, fe, gue, he, je, ke, le, me, ne, pe, ke, re, se, te, ve, we, kse, ze. Although it is more phonetically based than the traditional system, "la nouvelle épellation" never took hold .


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