How to pronounce the French alphabet

If you have never learned the French alphabet, you are not alone. It is the case for many of my students when they first start learning with me, and today is the day that you get to catch up!

In this video I’ll first go over the whole alphabet once, and if it’s hard for you to remember it all and use it, don’t worry, I got you covered. In the second half I’ll go over the patterns that can help you remember.

A banner offering to download the French fluency worksheet for free, with a visual of the 2-page worksheet on the left and a red button.

Now for the patterns

First the vowels: A E I O U Y

Why Y? Because the letter was borrowed from Greek by the Romans to denote the sound “Ü” which did not exist in Latin. However, because the sound was so rare, lower class people, which make up the bulk of the speakers, couldn’t pronounce it and ended up pronouncing it as “I”, hence why it’s “I grec”. So if you’re lower class, remember that we’ll win in the end, even if it might take a long time.

Then we have two patterns for consonants

B C D G P T V - more or less correspond to English ‘ee’ pronunciation
and
F L M N R S - also similar to English sounds

Finally outliers
H J K Q W X Z
What they have in common is that they’re either rare or silent

What should you learn to spell first?

If you’re just starting with learning the alphabet, I recommend you start by learning to spell your last name out loud, because it is by far the word you’ll have to spell the most for the French.

And if you like this way of learning with patterns, rules and shortcuts to make it easier, definitely subscribe to my YouTube channel and my Telegram channel so you don’t miss anything!

Your next steps

If you like this way of learning French, you will love to learn with me as a student or client. Please check out:

My 1-1 coaching program, The French Transformation, if you need to improve your French fast.
My group program, The French Fluency Accelerator, if you’d like to join a community of students from all over the world. We have weekly practice calls together and the best online video library to learn French.

Pro tip: you don’t need to choose!

All my 1-1 clients are invited to join the French Accelerator free of charge.

Feel free to book a call with me now to discuss options.

If you liked this, here's some more:

French pronunciation guide for beginners - greetings and honorifics

Angel Pretot looks at the camera, a cartoon balloon containing the words Bonjour Monsieur in red at right

10 French Phrases you need to know before your first trip to France

A cartoon balloon contains the word Bonjour in red, the words French Phrases You Need to Know at top right in red outlined in white

About the Author

A portrait of Angel Pretot, sitting in nature with his laptop, looking at the camera and using a pen and notebook with his right hand.

Angel Pretot is a French learning coach. He helps English speakers from all over the world learn French fast and become fluent. You can work with him one-on-one (online via zoom or a similar software) or join a global community of French learners in his group program the French Fluency Accelerator.