A to Z en Français: The French Alphabet

You already know the alphabet in English — 26 letters from A to Z. But here is a surprising thing: French uses the exact same 26 letters, yet many of them have a completely different name when you say them in French. For example, the letter H is called 'aitch' in English, but in French it is called 'ash'. How many other letters do you think sound different? Let's find out!

The French alphabet has the same 26 letters as English, but the letter names are pronounced differently. Read each group carefully and say the names out loud. **The Vowels** (A, E, I, O, U) These are the most important letters to learn first. • A — sounds like 'ah' (like when a doctor says 'open wide') • E — sounds like 'euh' (a short, flat sound, like the 'u' in 'but') • I — sounds like 'ee' (like 'ee' in 'feet') • O — sounds like 'oh' (just like English) • U — sounds like 'ew' with rounded lips (no English equivalent — say 'ee' then make your lips into a small circle) **Letters That Sound Quite Different from English** • G — sounds like 'zhay' (soft, like the 's' in 'treasure') • H — sounds like 'ash' • J — sounds like 'zhee' (same soft sound as G) • Q — sounds like 'kew' • R — sounds like 'air' (with a soft French R in the throat) • W — sounds like 'doobl-vay' (meaning 'double V') • Y — sounds like 'ee-grek' (meaning 'Greek i') **Letters That Sound Similar to English** • B → 'bay', C → 'say', D → 'day', F → 'eff', K → 'kah', L → 'ell', M → 'em', N → 'en', P → 'pay', S → 'ess', T → 'tay', V → 'vay', Z → 'zed' **A Tip for Spelling Aloud** In French, when you spell a word out loud, you say each letter name clearly. So the word 'CHAT' (which means 'cat') is spelled: say-ash-ah-tay.