Editing French language (section)

== Writing system ==

=== Alphabet ===
{{Main|French alphabet|French braille}}

French is written with the 26 letters of the basic [[Latin script]], with four diacritics appearing on vowels ([[circumflex]] accent, [[acute accent]], [[grave accent]], [[Diaeresis (diacritic)|diaeresis]]) and the [[cedilla]] appearing in "ç".

There are two [[ligature (typography)|ligatures]], "œ" and "æ", but they are often replaced in contemporary French with "oe" and "ae", because the ligatures do not appear on the [[AZERTY]] keyboard layout used in French-speaking countries. However, this{{ambiguous|date=May 2025}} is nonstandard in formal and literary texts.

=== Orthography ===
{{Main|French orthography|Reforms of French orthography}}

French spelling, like English spelling, tends to preserve obsolete pronunciation rules. This is mainly due to extreme phonetic changes since the Old French period, without a corresponding change in spelling. Moreover, some conscious changes were made to restore Latin orthography (as with some English words such as "debt"):
* Old French ''doit'' > French ''{{lang|fr|doigt}}'' "finger" (Latin ''digitus'')
* Old French ''pie'' > French ''{{lang|fr|pied}}'' "foot" [Latin ''pes'' (stem: ''ped-'')]

French orthography is [[Morphophonemic orthography|morphophonemic]]. While it contains 130 [[grapheme]]s that denote only 36 [[phoneme]]s, many of its spelling rules are likely due to a consistency in morphemic patterns such as adding suffixes and prefixes.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fejzo |first=Anila |year=2016 |title=The contribution of morphological awareness to the spelling of morphemes and morphologically complex words in French |url=http://rdcu.be/uA31 |url-status=live |journal=Reading and Writing |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=207–228 |doi=10.1007/s11145-015-9586-8 |s2cid=254991244 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230918104944/https://link.springer.com/epdf/10.1007/s11145-015-9586-8?shared_access_token=fj3EbiOoyzam8UKhuwMLtPe4RwlQNchNByi7wbcMAY6fqyfpaJaRk9LHTIT6OGlsX30X2E-ygdp9IcmNMMJ-sUHcSCP8TabLegoxOiizuZUCJYNRFSat2jXB-gmvw2Aim8kDwrBN04SUgZBOarccG3rb8CWKC79DANVZ7NhL5Gw= |archive-date=18 September 2023 |access-date=2017-07-30|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Many given spellings of common morphemes usually lead to a predictable sound. In particular, a given vowel combination or diacritic generally leads to one phoneme. However, there is not a one-to-one relation of a phoneme and a single related grapheme, which can be seen in how ''tomber'' and ''tombé'' both end with the /e/ phoneme.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Brissaud |first1=Catherine |last2=Chevrot |first2=Jean-Pierre |year=2011 |title=The late acquisition of a major difficulty of French inflectional orthography: The homophonic /E/ verbal endings |url=https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00785731/file/Brissaud_Chevrot_2011_.pdf |url-status=live |journal=Writing Systems Research |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=129–44 |doi=10.1093/wsr/wsr003 |s2cid=15072817 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190922175316/https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00785731/file/Brissaud_Chevrot_2011_.pdf |archive-date=22 September 2019 |access-date=22 September 2019}}</ref> Additionally, there are many variations in the pronunciation of consonants at the end of words, demonstrated by how the ''x'' in ''paix'' is not pronounced though at the end of ''Aix'' it is''.''

As a result, it can be difficult to predict the spelling of a word based on the sound. Final consonants are generally silent, except when the following word begins with a vowel (see [[Liaison (French)]]). For example, the following words end in a vowel sound: ''pied'', ''aller'', ''les'', ''{{lang|fr|finit}}'', ''beaux''. The same words followed by a vowel, however, may sound the consonants, as they do in these examples: ''beaux-arts'', ''les amis'', ''pied-à-terre''.

French writing, as with any language, is affected by the spoken language. In Old French, the plural for ''animal'' was ''animals''. The {{IPA|/als/}} sequence was unstable{{explain|date=March 2025}} and was turned into a diphthong {{IPA|/aus/}}. This change was then reflected in the orthography: ''animaus''. The ''us'' ending, very common in Latin, was then abbreviated by copyists (monks) to the letter ''x'', resulting in a written form ''animax''. As the French language further evolved, the pronunciation of ''au'' turned into {{IPA|/o/}} so that the ''u'' was reestablished in orthography for consistency, resulting in modern French ''animaux'' (pronounced first {{IPA|/animos/}} before the final {{IPA|/s/}} was dropped in contemporary French). The same is true for ''cheval'' pluralized as ''chevaux'' and many others. In addition, ''castel'' pl. ''castels'' became ''château'' pl. ''châteaux''.
* [[Nasal vowel|Nasal]]: ''[[n]]'' and ''m''. When ''n'' or ''m'' follows a vowel or diphthong, the ''n'' or ''m'' becomes silent and causes the preceding vowel to become nasalized (i.e., pronounced with the soft palate extended downward so as to allow part of the air to leave through the nostrils). Exceptions are when the ''n'' or ''m'' is doubled, or immediately followed by a vowel. The prefixes ''en-'' and ''em-'' are always nasalized. The rules are more complex than this but may vary between dialects.
* [[digraph (orthography)|Digraphs]]: French uses not only [[diacritic]]s to specify its large range of vowel sounds and [[diphthongs]], but also specific combinations of vowels, sometimes with following consonants, to show which sound is intended.
* [[Consonant length|Gemination]]: Within words, double consonants are generally not pronounced as geminates in modern French (but geminates can be heard in the cinema or TV news from as recently as the 1970s, and in very refined elocution they may still occur). For example, ''illusion'' is pronounced {{IPA|[ilyzjɔ̃]}} and not {{IPA|[ilːyzjɔ̃]}}. However, gemination does occur between words; for example, ''une info'' ("a news item" or "a piece of information") is pronounced {{IPA|[ynɛ̃fo]}}, whereas ''une nympho'' ("a nymphomaniac") is pronounced {{IPA|[ynːɛ̃fo]}}.
* [[Diacritic|Accents]] are used sometimes for pronunciation, sometimes to distinguish similar words, and sometimes based on etymology alone.
** Accents that affect pronunciation
*** The [[acute accent]] (''{{lang|fr|l'accent aigu}}'') ''é'' (e.g., '''''é'''cole''—school) means that the vowel is pronounced {{IPA|/e/}} instead of the default {{IPA|/ə/}}.
*** The [[grave accent]] (''{{lang|fr|l'accent grave}}'') ''è'' (e.g., ''él'''è'''ve''—pupil) means that the vowel is pronounced {{IPA|/ɛ/}} instead of the default {{IPA|/ə/}}.
*** The [[circumflex]] (''{{lang|fr|l'accent circonflexe}}'') ''ê'' (e.g. ''for'''ê'''t''—forest) shows that an ''e'' is pronounced {{IPA|/ɛ/}} and that an ''ô'' is pronounced {{IPA|/o/}}. In standard French, it also signifies a pronunciation of {{IPA|/ɑ/}} for the letter ''â'', but this differentiation is disappearing. In the mid-18th century, the circumflex was used in place of ''s'' after a vowel, where that letter ''s'' was not pronounced. Thus, ''forest'' became ''forêt'', ''hospital'' became ''hôpital'', and ''hostel'' became ''hôtel''.
*** [[Diaeresis (diacritic)|Diaeresis]] or ''{{lang|fr|tréma}}'' (''ë'', ''ï'', ''ü'', ''ÿ''): over ''e'', ''i'', ''u'' or ''y'', indicates that a vowel is to be pronounced separately from the preceding one: ''naïve'', ''Noël''.
**** ö {{clarify|reason=Description of "ö" needed, e.g. as in "alcoöl''.|date=March 2025}}
**** The combination of ''e'' with diaeresis following ''o'' (''N'''oë'''l'' {{IPA|fr|ɔɛ|}}) is nasalized in the regular way if followed by ''n'' (''[[Samoëns|Sam'''oë'''ns]]'' {{IPA|fr|wɛ̃|}})
**** The combination of ''e'' with diaeresis following ''a'' is either pronounced {{IPA|fr|ɛ|}} (''Raph'''aë'''l'', ''Isr'''aë'''l'' {{IPA|fr|aɛ|}}) or not pronounced, leaving only the ''a'' (''[[Madame de Staël|St'''aë'''l]]'' {{IPA|fr|a|}}) and the ''a'' is nasalized in the regular way if ''aë'' is followed by ''n'' (''[[Saint-Saëns|Saint-S'''aë'''ns]]'' {{IPA|fr|ɑ̃|}})
**** A diaeresis on ''y'' only occurs in some proper names and in modern editions of old French texts. Some proper names in which ''ÿ'' appears include ''[[Aÿ]]'' (a commune in [[Marne (department)|Marne]], formerly ''Aÿ-Champagne''), ''{{lang|fr|Rue des Cloÿs}}'' (an alley in Paris), ''Croÿ'' (family name and hotel on the Boulevard Raspail, Paris), ''{{ill|Château du Faÿ|fr}}'' (near [[Pontoise]]), ''Ghÿs'' (name of Flemish origin spelt ''Ghĳs'' where ''ĳ'' in handwriting looked like ''ÿ'' to French clerks), ''[[L'Haÿ-les-Roses]]'' (commune near Paris), [[Pierre Louÿs]] (author), [[Moÿ-de-l'Aisne]] (commune in [[Aisne (department)|Aisne]] and a family name), and ''Le Blanc de Nicolaÿ'' (an insurance company in eastern France).
**** The diaeresis on ''u'' appears in the Biblical proper names ''Archélaüs'', ''Capharnaüm'', ''Emmaüs'', ''Ésaü'', and ''Saül'', as well as French names such as [[René Just Haüy|Haüy]]. Nevertheless, since the 1990 orthographic changes, the diaeresis in words containing ''guë'' (such as ''aiguë'' or ''ciguë'') may be moved onto the ''u'': ''aigüe'', ''cigüe'', and by analogy may be used in verbs such as ''j'argüe''.
**** In addition, words coming from German retain their [[Diaeresis (diacritic)#Umlaut|umlaut]] (''ä'', ''ö'' and ''ü'') if applicable but use often French pronunciation, such as ''Kärcher'' (trademark of a pressure washer).
*** The [[cedilla]] (''{{lang|fr|la cédille}}'') ''ç'' (e.g., ''gar'''ç'''on''—boy) means that the letter ''ç'' is pronounced {{IPA|/s/}} in front of the back vowels ''a'', ''o'' and ''u'' (''c'' is otherwise {{IPA|/k/}} before a back vowel). ''C'' is always pronounced {{IPA|/s/}} in front of the front vowels ''e'', ''i'', and ''y'', thus ''ç'' is never found in front of front vowels. This letter is used when a front vowel after ⟨c⟩, such as in ''France'' or ''placer'', is replaced with a back vowel. To retain the pronunciation of the ⟨c⟩, it is given a cedilla, as in ''français'' or ''plaçons''.
** Accents with no pronunciation effect
*** The circumflex does not affect the pronunciation of the letters ''i'' or ''u'', nor, in most dialects, ''a''. It usually indicates that an ''s'' came after it long ago, as in ''île'' (from former ''isle'', compare with English word "isle")<!-- [http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Rapport_du_Conseil_sup%C3%A9rieur_de_la_langue_fran%C3%A7aise_sur_les_rectifications_orthographiques_de_1990#Accent_circonflexe_.28II.4.29] -->. The explanation is that some words share the same orthography, so the circumflex is put here to mark the difference between the two words. For example, ''dites'' (you say) / ''dîtes'' (you said), or even ''du'' (of the) / ''dû'' (past participle for the verb ''devoir'' = must, have to, owe; in this case, the circumflex disappears in the plural and the feminine).
*** All other accents are used only to distinguish similar words, as in the case of distinguishing the adverbs ''{{lang|fr|là}}'' and ''{{lang|fr|où}}'' ("there", "where") from the article ''{{lang|fr|la}}'' ("the" feminine singular) and the conjunction ''{{lang|fr|ou}}'' ("or"), respectively.

Some proposals exist to simplify the existing writing system, but they still fail to gather interest.<ref>{{in lang|fr}} [http://fonetik.fr/index-en.html Fonétik.fr writing system proposal] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120513070255/http://fonetik.fr/index-en.html |date=13 May 2012 }}.</ref><ref>{{in lang|fr}} [http://sites.google.com/site/ortofasil/ Ortofasil writing system proposal] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090414052201/http://sites.google.com/site/ortofasil/ |date=14 April 2009 }}.</ref><ref>{{in lang|fr}} [http://www.alfograf.net/ Alfograf writing system proposal] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100112135144/http://www.alfograf.net/ |date=12 January 2010 }}.</ref><ref>{{in lang|fr}} [http://ortograf.net/ Ortograf.net writing system proposal] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090929182843/http://www.ortograf.net/ |date=29 September 2009 }}.</ref>

In 1990, a [[Reforms of French orthography|reform]] accepted some changes to French orthography. At the time the proposed changes were considered to be suggestions. In 2016, schoolbooks in France began to use the newer recommended spellings, with instruction to teachers that both old and new spellings be deemed correct.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2016-02-05 |title=End of the circumflex? Changes in French spelling cause uproar |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35496893 |url-status=live |access-date=2017-07-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180531103153/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35496893 |archive-date=31 May 2018}}</ref>