January 16, 2011

Information about the French spelling reform

The site's French grammar tutorial section contains some new information about the French spelling reform (rectifications de l'orthographe, 1990).

What may be of particular interest to learners and writers is that, as well as explaining the main reforms proposed, this section also reports on some partial results from a survey conducted last year on French speakers' opinions about the reforms. The survey revealed just how unpopular some of the proposals are: for example, the proposal to re-spell j'appellerai as j'appèlerai received the approval of only 20% of respondents. Some proposals that more clearly rectify an anomaly were more popular: just over half of respondents reported that they prefer the form cèderai over the traditional spelling céderai.

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