French spelling looks chaotic at first: letters you never say, little symbols above vowels, and apostrophes in the middle of sentences. But almost all of it follows a small set of rules, and many of them exist for one reason: French likes speech to flow smoothly, without two vowel sounds bumping into each other. Once you know the rules, you can read an unfamiliar word aloud correctly and spell a word you have only heard. This lesson rebuilds the sound system from the ground up: the five accents, the silent letters, and the two ways French glues words together (liaison and elision). Everything later in the course — articles, verb endings, negation — depends on it. Start with the accents. An accent is part of the spelling, not decoration: leaving one off is a spelling error, exactly like leaving a letter out of an English word. Each accent does one of two jobs: it changes the sound of the letter, or it tells two words apart that would otherwise look identical.
| Accent | French name | Found on | What it does | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| é | l'accent aigu | e only | Makes the 'ay' sound, as in English say | le café (coffee), l'été (summer), l'école (school) |
| è | l'accent grave | e, a, u | On e: an open 'eh' sound, as in bet. On a and u: no sound change, it separates two words | la mère (mother), très (very); à (to, at) vs a (has); où (where) vs ou (or) |
| ê | l'accent circonflexe | a, e, i, o, u | Often shows where an old s disappeared; on e it gives an 'eh' sound | la forêt (forest), l'hôpital (hospital), la fête (party), l'île (island) |
| ç | la cédille | c only | Makes c a soft 's' sound in front of a, o or u, where it would otherwise sound like 'k' | ça (that), le garçon (boy), français (French), la leçon (lesson) |
| ë | le tréma | e, i (rarely u) | Tells you to pronounce this vowel separately from the vowel before it | le maïs (corn), naïf (naive), Haïti |
| Without accent | Meaning | With accent | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| a | has (il a, he has) | à | to, at, in (à Ottawa) |
| ou | or (thé ou café) | où | where (Tu habites où?) |
| la | the (feminine) | là | there (Il est là) |
| sur | on (sur la table) | sûr | sure (Je suis sûr) |
Silent letters and the CaReFuL rule
- Most final consonants are silent. petit sounds like 'puh-tee', grand like 'grahn', vous like 'voo', beaucoup like 'boh-koo'. The plural -s is silent too: le livre and les livres sound the same apart from the article.
- CaReFuL: c, r, f and l are often pronounced at the end. avec (with), le parc (park), bonjour, pour (for), neuf (nine), le chef, avril (April), il (he).
- Big exception to CaReFuL: the -er ending is usually said 'ay', with no r: parler (to speak), manger (to eat), le papier (paper), premier (first).
- A final unaccented e is silent, but it wakes up the consonant before it. petit ('puh-tee') becomes petite ('puh-teet'); grand ('grahn') becomes grande ('grahnd'). This is how you hear the difference between masculine and feminine adjectives.
- The verb ending -ent is silent. ils parlent (they speak) sounds exactly like il parle (he speaks).
- h is always silent. l'hôtel sounds like 'lo-tel', l'heure (the hour) like 'leur'.
| Letter combination | Sounds like | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| ou | 'oo' as in food | vous (you), tout (all), rouge (red) |
| u | No English match: say 'ee' with your lips rounded as if for 'oo' | tu (you), salut (hi), du (some) |
| oi | 'wa' | moi (me), trois (three), noir (black) |
| au, eau | 'oh' | chaud (hot), beau (beautiful), l'eau (water) |
| ai | 'eh' | j'aime (I like), le lait (milk), français |
| é, -er, -ez | 'ay' | le café, parler, vous parlez |
| ch | 'sh' | le chat (cat), le chocolat, chercher (to look for) |
| gn | 'ny' as in canyon | la montagne (mountain), l'Espagne (Spain) |
| qu | 'k' | qui (who), quatre (four), quand (when) |
| th | 't' | le thé (tea), le théâtre |
| an, en / on / in, ain, un | Nasal vowels: air goes through the nose and the n is not fully said | dans (in), l'enfant (child) / bon (good), mon (my) / le vin, le pain (bread), un |
Linking words: liaison and elision
In a liaison, a final consonant that is normally silent is pronounced because the next word starts with a vowel sound. The consonant slides over and begins the next syllable, so the two words are said as one: les amis sounds like 'lay-za-mee'. It exists to avoid two vowels bumping into each other. Watch the sound change: s and x become a 'z' (les amis, deux ans, chez elle), t and d become a 't' (c'est un, quand il), and n stays 'n' (un ami, mon ami, on a).
- After les, des, un, mon, ton, son, ces, deux, trois: les enfants, deux ans
- Between a subject pronoun and its verb: nous avons, vous êtes, ils ont, elles aiment, on a
- After short words like très, chez, dans, en: très intéressant, dans un parc
- After et (and): Paul et | Anne
- Before an h aspiré, a 'blocking' h: les | héros, les | haricots (beans)
- After a singular noun: un étudiant | intelligent
In an elision, a short word loses its final vowel and takes an apostrophe when the next word starts with a vowel or a silent h. Le école would force two vowel sounds together, so French writes and says l'école. Unlike liaison, elision is always shown in spelling, so writing it wrong is a spelling error.
| Short word | Becomes | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| le, la | l' | l'ami (the friend), l'école (the school), l'hôtel (the hotel) |
| je | j' | j'aime (I like), j'habite (I live) |
| ne | n' | je n'aime pas (I don't like) |
| de | d' | beaucoup d'amis (lots of friends) |
| que | qu' | qu'il (that he), qu'elle (that she) |
| me, te, se | m', t', s' | je m'appelle (my name is), il s'appelle (his name is) |
| si | s' — only before il and ils | s'il te plaît (please), but si elle (if she) |
Translation: Hi Maxime! Where are you? I'm at the library with my friends. It's really quiet here. Shall we go to the café after school? I'm hungry and I want a chocolate cake. See you soon! What to notice: the accents in où (where, not ou 'or'), à (at, not a 'has'), bibliothèque and après (è = 'eh'), gâteau and bientôt (circonflexe) and l'école (é = 'ay'); the liaison in mes amis ('may-za-mee'); the elisions C'est (ce + est), J'ai (je + ai) and l'école (la + école); and the silent final t of Salut, chocolat and bientôt.