French alphabet
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The French alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet. It uses the standard 26 letters:
| Letter | Letter name (IPA) |
| A | |
| B | |
| C | |
| D | |
| E | |
| F | |
| G | |
| H | |
| I | |
| J | |
| K | |
| L | |
| M | |
| N | |
| O | |
| P | |
| Q | |
| R | |
| S | |
| T | |
| U | |
| V | |
| W | (double-V) |
| X | |
| Y | (I-grec) |
| Z | (zède) |
Special ligatures exist for some words:
Œ (œil, fœtus, bœuf...)
Æ (et cætera, tænia, ex æquo...)
Notes:
- 'W' is rarely used except in loan words or regional words, 'ou' is used to represent the /w/ sound;
- vowels are A, E, I, O, U, sometimes Y;
- semi-vowels are Y, rarely W (except regionally, for instance in Belgium);
- usual diacritic marks are acute ( ´ ), grave ( ` ), circumflex ( ˆ ), diaeresis (called tréma in French) ( ¨ ), and the cedilla ( ¸ ). The most frequent combinations are: à â ç é è ê ë î ï ô û ù ü. Diacritics have no impact on alphabetical order.