The French alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet. It uses the standard 26 letters:

A special combination is almost always ligatured:

Œ

However, writing 'oe' instead of a ligatured 'œ' does not present comprehension problems: few pairs of words, if any, differ only by such a ligature; and it was customary with old typewriters and old computers to write 'oe' instead of the often inexistent 'œ' character. A few words like 'moelleux' have 'oe' written without a ligature.

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.

See also

• Alphabets derived from the Latin