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Alphabet & Pronunciation

Accents, silent letters, liaison

The Latin alphabet with accents

Accents (é, è, ê, ç, ë) change a letter's sound or meaning.

📊 Accents
Accent Letter Example Effect
aigu é café closed e
grave è mère open e
circonflexe ê tête often a lost s
cédille ç garçon soft s
tréma ë Noël split vowels
💬 Examples
café
ka-FAY
coffee
📝 é = a closed 'ay' sound
français
fron-SEH
French
📝 ç = soft 's' before a/o/u
Many final consonants are silent

Final -s, -t, -d, -x are usually not pronounced.

💬 Examples
petit
puh-TEE
small
📝 Final -t is silent
vous
voo
you (pl/formal)
📝 Final -s is silent
Liaison links words

A normally silent final consonant is pronounced before a vowel.

💬 Examples
les amis
lay-za-MEE
the friends
📝 The s of 'les' links onto 'amis'
un homme
uhn-NOM
a man
📝 n links to the following vowel