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Alphabets

L'alphabet


The letters in French language are the same as the English language. However, the letters "k" and "w" are not used often. 

Now you must have noticed letters with marks such as à, á, é, è, ê, ñ, û.. They are called "Les Accents" and are placed on vowels.
There are 3 accents:
  1. L'accent aigu (´): It's an acute accent used only on e.
  2. L'accent grave (`): This accent usually appears on e, a and u.
  3. L'accent circonflexe (ˆ): The circumflex is an accent that can occur on any vowel except "y". The use of this accent shows the omission of "s" in most words as compared to English words. Ex: forest; forêt.
Orthographic signs

  • L'cedille (ç) : It's that little s placed below the letter "c" (before a, o, u) and sounds like s instead of k.
  • Le tréma (ï) :  The letter with tréma is pronounced separately from the one before it.
  • L'apostrophe ('): This indicates omission of a vowel. In grammar, you'll be learning about "le" and "la". The ending letters in le and la are vowels e and a. When le and la are placed before words beginning with a vowel, the e and a in le and la are omitted. Ex: L'été, l'heure, l'étudiant etc
Watch this video which helps you to learn the pronunciations as well!

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