Here's the breakdown:
* Same letters: Both French and English use the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet (A-Z).
* Diacritics: French uses diacritics on some letters to indicate different pronunciations:
* Acute accent (é): Like the "e" in "bed" (e.g., café)
* Grave accent (à, è, ù): Like the "a" in "father" (e.g., à bientôt)
* Circumflex accent (â, ê, î, ô, û): A slightly longer vowel sound (e.g., château)
* Cedilla (ç): Represents a soft "c" sound, like "s" (e.g., garçon)
* Tilde (ñ): Represents a slightly nasal "n" sound (e.g., señor)
* Additional letters: French also uses the letter "œ", which is pronounced like "eu" in "seur" (though it's often written as "oe" in English words).
So, while the basic alphabet is the same, the diacritics make French writing unique and help differentiate different vowel sounds.