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French Alphabet (A-Z) With Pronunciation

French Alphabet (A-Z) With Pronunciation

Knowing the French alphabet is essential for living in France. Having a grasp of the alphabet will help you pronounce and spell words correclty. In addition to the pronunciation of each individual letter, this post offers audio practice for how to spell both difficult words and common names.

French Alphabet (A-Z) With Pronunciation

French Alphabet pronunciation

As you listen to the French alphabet, you’ll find that some letters sound almost identical to those in English, like the letter F. The most confusing pair is J and G because their pronunciations are reversed in French compared to English.

Listen to the entire alphabet.

Use the following table to listen to the pronunciation of individual letters (if using phone view table in landscape).

LetterSymboleSounds
A[a]
B[be]
C[se]
D[de]
E[ə]
F[ɛf]
G[ʒe]
H[aʃ]
I[i]
J[ʒi]
K[kɑ]
L[ɛl]
M[ɛm]
N[ɛn]
O[o]
P[pe]
Q[ky]
R[ɛʀ]]
S[ɛs]
T[te]
U[y]
V[ve]
W[dubləve]
X[iks]
Y[igʀɛk]
Z[zɛd]
French alphabet letters
Letters of the French alphabet

French alphabet practice: Difficult words

Here is a list of some of the hardest French words to pronounce and how to spell them.

Un écureuil – squirrel

E-C-U-R-E-U-I-L

Une quincaillerie – hardware store

Q-U-I-N-C-A-I-L-L-E-R-I-E

Un yaourt – yogurt

Y-A-O-U-R-T

Trois – three

T-R-O-I-S

Une serrurerie – locksmithing

S-E-R-R-U-R-E-R-I-E

Reims – city in the region of La Marne

R-E-I-M-S

Une heure – hour

H-E-U-R-E

Une fourrure – fur

F-O-U-R-R-U-R-E

Caoutchouc – rubber

C-A-O-U-T-C-H-O-U-C

Practice spelling common names

Now that you’ve gone through the entire French alphabet , here are the spellings for some common girl and boy names in the United States and in France.

American Girl Names in French

Olivia
O-L-I-V-I-A

Emma
E-M-M-A

Charlotte
C-H-A-R-L-O-T-T-E

Amelia
A-M-E-L-I-A

Ava
A-V-A

American Boy Names in French

James
J-A-M-E-S

Robert
R-O-B-E-R-T

John
J-O-H-N

David
D-A-V-I-D

Popular French Girl Names and Spelling

Jade
J-A-D-E

Louise
L-O-U-I-S-E

Laura
L-A-U-R-A

Alice
A-L-I-C-E

Ambre
A-M-B-R-E

Popular French Boy Names and Spelling

Léo
L-E-O

Gabriel
G-A-B-R-I-E-L

Raphaël
R-A-P-H-A-Ë-L

Louis
L-O-U-I-S

Jules
J-U-L-E-S

Now give it a try with your own name! You’ll be spelling like the French in no time.

French alphabet – conclusion

Congratulations! You now know the French alphabet! Now check out our posts covering the French reading rules (including nasal sounds) and French accent marks. We also suggest Frenchtoday.com’s Secrets Of French Pronunciation course.

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Calli Zarpas

Calli Zarpas, blogger, producer, and content creator, is a lover of all things travel, wellness, and French. Having begun traveling in her teens, Calli visited 30 countries before settling down in France post-college. When she's not writing French-language content for French Learner or traveling the world, you can find Calli creating content for herself and others on InstagramTiktok, and her blog, Wooish.

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