La cédille
The little hook ¸ added under the letter c in French is a diacritical mark known as a cedilla, une cédille. The letter c with the hook ç is called c cédille.
The sole purpose of the cedilla is to change a hard c, pronounced [k], to a soft c, pronounced [s]. In French, the pronunciation of the letter c is determined by the letter that immediately follows it, as explained in the "hard vs soft" section of the vowels lesson. So when c is followed by a hard vowel but needs a soft pronunciation, add the cedilla and voilà ! the c is soft.
On the other hand, since c is already soft in front of e, i, and y, it cannot and must not take a cedilla there – even if a related word has one.
Never. No exceptions.
Par exemple…
Soft vowels | Hard vowels | |
Besançon | ||
bicyclette | ||
ceci, cela | ça | |
cédille | ||
comme ci | comme ça | |
commencer, commencé* | commençant | |
commercial | commerçant | |
concevoir | conçu | |
décevant, décevoir | déçu | |
douceâtre | douçâtre | |
effacer, effacé* | effaçable | |
façon | ||
fiancé | fiançailles | |
France | français | |
Francis, Francine | François | |
glace | glaçon | |
hameçon | ||
ici | ||
lancer, lancez* | lançant, lançons | |
leçon | ||
maçon | ||
merci | ||
Provence | provençal | |
rançon | ||
recevoir | reçois, reçu | |
soupçon |
*These are spelling change verbs.
Related lessons
- Letters: C | K | S
- Vowels
- Consonants
- Accents
- How to type French accents
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