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French orthography encompasses the spelling and punctuation of the French language.It is based on a combination of phonemic and historical principles. The spelling of words is largely based on the pronunciation of Old French c. 1100 –1200 AD, and has stayed more or less the same since then, despite enormous changes to the pronunciation of the language in the intervening years.
French uses the capital É, because the use of a capital letter alters the meaning of the word (État: a State, as in a country; état: a state of being). It also cannot be shortened as coup as is often the case in English- because this literally means a "hit" in French, but can be used figuratively to mean many more things.
In -e.er verbs other than most -eler and -eter verbs, the e becomes an è before endings that start with a silent e (including the future and conditional endings). For example: peler (to peel) -> je p-èle (present) / je p-èlerai (futur) / je p-èlerais (conditional).
French phrases used by English speakers; Law French; Glossary of fencing, (predominantly from French). Glossary of ballet (predominantly from French) Lists of English loanwords by country or language of origin; List of English words of Gaulish origin; List of English words of Latin origin; List of English Latinates of Germanic origin
Quebec French has retained the /ɛ/ ending for je/tu/il-elle/ils in the imperfect (the ending is written as -ais, -ait, -aient). In most other dialects, the ending is pronounced, instead, as a neutralized sound between /e/ and /ɛ/ .
Many nouns ending in -e preceded by double consonants are also masculine (e.g. un cadre, un arbre, un signe, un meuble). Nonetheless, a noun that seems masculine judging by its ending might actually be feminine e.g., la peau 'the skin', une dent 'a tooth' or vice versa e.g., le coude 'the elbow', un squelette 'a skeleton' are masculine.
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Doubling a final l and adding a silent e (e.g., gentil → gentille) adds a [j] sound if the l is preceded by the letter i. Some monosyllabic function words ending in a or e , such as je and que , drop their final vowel when placed before a word that begins with a vowel sound (thus avoiding a hiatus ).