The French Alphabet and Spelling Your Name Aloud

You'll be asked, sooner or later, "Comment ça s'écrit ?" — how do you spell that? Knowing how to say the French letter names, and how to describe accents and symbols, is a small skill that saves a lot of confusion, especially on the phone.

Letter names

The French alphabet has the same 26 letters as English, but they're pronounced differently.

Letter	Sounds like	Letter	Sounds like
A	ah	N	enn
B	bay	O	oh
C	say	P	pay
D	day	Q	kew
E	uh	R	air (French r)
F	eff	S	ess
G	zhay	T	tay
H	ash	U	ü (French u)
I	ee	V	vay
J	zhee	W	doo-bluh-vay
K	kah	X	eex
L	ell	Y	ee-grek
M	emm	Z	zed

Notice the tricky ones for English speakers: E is "uh", G is "zhay", J is "zhee", I is "ee", and U uses the French u sound.

Asking how to spell something

• Comment ça s'écrit ? — How is that written?
• Comment ça s'épelle ? — How is it spelled?
• Pouvez-vous épeler votre nom ? — Can you spell your name?
• Pouvez-vous répéter, s'il vous plaît ? — Can you repeat that?
• Pouvez-vous l'écrire ? — Can you write it?

Spelling your name

Say the letters one by one: Smith is "ess, emm, ee, tay, ash". For clarity, especially on the phone, you might use a phrase like "comme Marie" for M, though this is less standardised in French than in English. Many French speakers use first names, "A comme Anatole, B comme Berthe", a traditional spelling alphabet, but everyday spelling is usually just letters.

Doubled letters

• deux L or double L: Belle is "B, E, deux L, E".
• trois for three, rare.

Accents and marks

• é — e accent aigu
• è — e accent grave
• ê — e accent circonflexe
• ë — e tréma
• ç — c cédille
• à — a accent grave
• ô — o accent circonflexe
• œ — o e dans l'o (or o e liés)

Symbols for emails and addresses

• @ — arobase
• . — point
• - — tiret
• _ — tiret bas (or underscore)
• / — barre oblique
• : — deux-points
• www — trois w (or triple w)
• .com — point com
• majuscule — capital letter
• minuscule — lower-case letter

Example: "marie.dupont@exemple.fr" is said "marie point dupont arobase exemple point f-r".

Numbers in phone numbers

French phone numbers have ten digits, and are read in pairs: 06 12 34 56 78 is "zéro six, douze, trente-quatre, cinquante-six, soixante-dix-huit".

Useful phrases for spelling out

• Ça s'écrit avec un Y. — It's spelled with a Y.
• Avec un accent sur le E. — With an accent on the E.
• Avec un trait d'union. — With a hyphen.
• Tout attaché. — Written as one word.
• En deux mots. — In two words.

Practice

Spell your name and your email address aloud in French. Then spell three words with accents.

Check spellings and accents with English French Dictionary →