Appendix:French spelling reforms of 1990
The French spelling reforms of 1990 were proposed by the Conseil supérieur de la langue française and approved by the Académie française on May 3, 1990. Some are now more prevalent than the still correct pre-1990 spellings, but many less. On Wiktionary, French words with revised spellings are usually treated as alternative spellings, while the traditional spelling is the main article.
The Académie française of France controls the de jure form of the French language in France, while outside of France, its strictures are not mandated. Instead local versions of that body may choose to follow or ignore its mandates, leading to different de jure forms of the French language.
Reforms
[edit]Numbers
[edit]Numbers are to be written with hyphens instead of spaces, to reduce ambiguity (particularly where fractions are involved):
| Traditional spelling | Reformed spelling |
|---|---|
| cent vingt-et-un | cent-vingt-et-un (121) |
| trois cent trente-deux mille cinq cent un | trois-cent-trente-deux-mille-cinq-cent-un (332 501) |
The nouns million, milliard etc. are not hyphenated: douze milliards trois-cent-quarante-cinq millions six-cent-cinquante-quatre-mille-trois-cent-vingt-et-un (12 345 654 321).
Words with hyphens
[edit]Many words with hyphens did not change in the plural, for example un gratte-ciel, des gratte-ciel. The reform has all compound words pluralized according to the normal French rules of pluralization; however, words that contain singular articles (such as trompe-la-mort) or capital letters (such as prie-Dieu) remain invariable.
| Traditional spelling | Reformed spelling |
|---|---|
| un après-midi, des après-midi (invariable) |
un après-midi, des après-midis |
| un ramasse-miettes, des ramasse-miettes (invariable) |
un ramasse-miette, des ramasse-miettes |
Furthermore, hyphenated words that begin with contre- or entre-, are onomatopoeic, are borrowed from foreign languages, or contain one or more words that do not occur independently lose their hyphens altogether.
| Traditional spelling | Reformed spelling |
|---|---|
| contre-pied | contrepied |
| entre-temps | entretemps |
| tic-tac | tictac |
| week-end | weekend |
| agro-alimentaire | agroalimentaire |
Plurals and diacritics of loanwords
[edit]Some French words borrowed from other languages retain their non-French plurals, such as un match, des matches, or did not have a diacritic that would be used if the word were a native French word. The reform gives all loanwords French plurals (usually a single -s) and diacritics.
| Traditional spelling | Reformed spelling |
|---|---|
| un match, des matches | un match, des matchs |
| un allegro, des allegri | un allégro, des allégros |
| un pianissimo, des pianissimi | un pianissimo, des pianissimos |
| un maximum, des maxima | un maximum, des maximums |
| un scenario, des scenarii | un scénario, des scénarios |
| un rugbyman, des rugbymen | un rugbyman, des rugbymans |
| un spaghetti, des spaghetti | un spaghetti, des spaghettis |
Acute and grave accents on an e
[edit]The spelling reforms also affect accents. When an é is pronounced /ɛ/ rather than /e/, it should be represented by è instead. Exceptions are: the prefixes dé- and pré- when they precede more than one consonant sound, and the first é in médecin and médecine.
| Traditional spelling | Reformed spelling |
|---|---|
| événement | évènement |
| je céderais | je cèderais |
| réglementaire | règlementaire |
| céleri | cèleri |
| créneler | crèneler |
Circumflexes
[edit]Circumflexes in French generally stem from Latin and Old French roots where an s has been elided. For example, goûter is from the Old French gouster. However the circumflex does not change the pronunciation of most words containing it when used on the letters i and u, making it “obsolete”, according to the reforms. Therefore it has been removed from nearly all words that contain it. It is kept in cases where it does indicate different pronunciation, as in jeûne (pronounced differently from jeune), and where it distinguishes between two homophones: that is, the masculine singular (but not the feminine or plurals) of the adjectives dû, mûr, and sûr (to distinguish them from the words du, mur, and sur), and the forms of the verb croitre that could be mistaken for parallel forms of the verb croire without a circumflex. It is also retained in the very common verb être and in the past historic (first and second persons plural) and past subjunctive (third person singular), by analogy with verbs of the first conjugation that contain â (which is still pronounced differently from a in some accents).
| Traditional spelling | Reformed spelling |
|---|---|
| boîte | boite |
| brûler | bruler |
| bûche | buche |
| goûter | gouter |
| paraître | paraitre |
| connaître | connaitre |
| piqûre | piqure |
Use of diaereses
[edit]In sequences such as -gue- and -gui-, a diaeresis is placed on the u and not on any other letter. This is to indicate the correct pronunciation in a more intuitive fashion:
| Traditional spelling | Reformed spelling | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| aiguë | aigüe | IPA(key): /ɛ.ɡy/ ~ /e.ɡy/ |
| ambiguïté | ambigüité | IPA(key): /ɑ̃.bi.ɡɥi.te/ |
| arguer | argüer | IPA(key): /aʁ.ɡɥe/ |
As eu in French normally represents /ø/ or /œ/, a diaeresis is added to the following words, to indicate the pronunciation:
| Traditional spelling | Reformed spelling | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| bringeure | bringeüre | IPA(key): /bʁɛ̃.ʒyʁ/ |
| chargeure | chargeüre | IPA(key): /ʃaʁ.ʒyʁ/ |
| égrugeure | égrugeüre | IPA(key): /e.ɡʁy.ʒyʁ/ |
| gageure | gageüre | IPA(key): /ɡa.ʒyʁ/ |
| mangeure | mangeüre | IPA(key): /mɑ̃.ʒyʁ/ |
| plingeure | plingeüre | IPA(key): /plɛ̃.ʒyʁ/ |
| rongeure | rongeüre | IPA(key): /ʁɔ̃.ʒyʁ/ |
| vergeure | vergeüre | IPA(key): /vɛʁ.ʒyʁ/ |
Verbs ending with -eler and -eter
[edit]Except for appeler, jeter, and their compounds and derivatives, verbs with infinitives in -eler and -eter take a grave accent on the e (è) instead of doubling the consonant before a mute e. The same rules apply to terms derived from these verbs:
| Traditional spelling | Reformed spelling |
|---|---|
| j’amoncelle tu amoncelles il amoncelle nous amoncelons vous amoncelez ils amoncellent |
j’amoncèle tu amoncèles il amoncèle nous amoncelons vous amoncelez ils amoncèlent |
| j’amoncellerai (etc.) | j’amoncèlerai (etc.) |
| amoncellement | amoncèlement |
The verb créneler is complicated by the new rules regarding é and è:
| Traditional spelling | Reformed spelling |
|---|---|
| créneler | crèneler |
| je crénelle nous crénelons ils crénellent |
je crénèle nous crènelons ils crénèlent |
| je crénelais (etc.) | je crènelais (etc.) |
| je crénellerai (etc.) | je crénèlerai (etc.) |
Words ending with -illier and -illière
[edit]The last i is dropped as it is not pronounced. The exceptions are names of plants, such as groseillier, so as to preserve the suffix -ier.
| Traditional spelling | Reformed spelling |
|---|---|
| joaillier | joailler |
| marguillier | marguiller |
| quincaillier | quincailler |
| serpillière | serpillère |
Words ending in -olle and -otter
[edit]Words ending in -olle and verbs ending in -otter now only require one consonant, as dropping the l or the t does not change the pronunciation. Exceptions are colle, folle, molle, and terms derived from nouns ending in -otte, such as botte (“boot”) and botter, botterie, bottière.
| Traditional spelling | Reformed spelling |
|---|---|
| corolle | corole |
| frisotter | frisoter |
| mangeotter | mangeoter |
Past participle of laisser
[edit]The past participle of laisser (“to let, to permit, to allow”) becomes invariable (no feminine or plural forms) when followed by an infinitive.
- Tu les as laissées sur la table ? ― Did you leave them on the table?
- Je les ai laissé partir. ― I let them leave.
| Traditional spelling | Reformed spelling |
|---|---|
| je les ai laissés partir | je les ai laissé partir |
| elle m'a laissée mourir | elle m'a laissé mourir |
Miscellaneous reforms
[edit]To prevent anomalies between related words, and to align spelling more closely with actual pronunciation, the following additional changes have been made. The new spellings also apply to the derivatives of these words. In many cases the "new" spellings were already in use as alternatives before the reforms legitimized them.
| Traditional spelling | Reformed spelling | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| absous, dissous (masculine past participle of absoudre, dissoudre, etc.) |
absout, dissout | To match the feminine absoute, dissoute |
| appas pl | appâts | To match the singular appât |
| asseoir, messeoir, rasseoir, surseoir | assoir, messoir, rassoir, sursoir | Simpler spelling |
| besicles | bésicles | To match pronunciation /be.zikl/ |
| bizuth | bizut | To match pronunciation /bi.zy/ (word-final -th is not normally silent: cf. aneth, zénith etc.) |
| bonhomie, prudhomie | bonhommie, prudhommie | After homme |
| boursoufler | boursouffler | After souffler |
| cahute | cahutte | After hutte |
| chariot | charriot | After charrue |
| chausse-trape | chaussetrappe | After trappe (also new hyphenation rules) |
| combatif | combattif | After combattre |
| cuissot | cuisseau | Changed to use the more common suffix -eau |
| dessiller | déciller | After cil, ciller |
| dentellier | dentelier | To match pronunciation /dɑ̃.tə.lje/ |
| douceâtre | douçâtre | Simpler spelling |
| embatre | embattre | After battre |
| eczéma | exéma | After other words beginning ex- /ɛɡz-/ |
| ghilde, gilde | guilde | Gallicized spelling |
| imbécillité | imbécilité | After imbécile; pronounced with /l/ not /j/ |
| innomé | innommé | After nommer |
| interpeller | interpeler | After appeler etc.; to match pronunciation /ɛ̃.tɛʁ.pə.le/ |
| levraut | levreau | Changed to use the more common suffix -eau |
| lunettier | lunetier | To match pronunciation /ly.nə.tje/ |
| nénuphar | nénufar | Simpler spelling |
| oignon | ognon | To match pronunciation /ɔ.ɲɔ̃/ |
| pagaïe, pagaye | pagaille | To match pronunciation /pa.ɡaj/ (-aïe and -aye are ambiguous renderings; cf. haïe /a.i/ and abbaye /a.bɛ.i/) |
| persifler | persiffler | After siffler |
| punch | ponch | Gallicized spelling |
| prunellier | prunelier | To match pronunciation /pʁy.nə.lje/ |
| relais sg or pl | relai sg, relais pl | Older spelling, to distinguish singular and plural |
| saccharine | saccarine | Gallicized spelling |
| skunks | sconse | Gallicized spelling |
| sorgho | sorgo | Gallicized spelling |
| sotie | sottie | After sotte |
| toquade | tocade | Simpler spelling |
| vantail | ventail | After vent, éventail |