stonefruit | French - Learn French in a friendly community! | Page 1

dry oakBOT Jan 22, 2026, 5:38 PM

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restive solstice Jan 22, 2026, 5:39 PM

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It's always supposed to be œ

lunar gull Jan 22, 2026, 5:39 PM

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œ is just oe but as one letter

restive solstice Jan 22, 2026, 5:39 PM

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People write oe because the French keyboard is trash and doesn't have œ

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Among many other characters we need

lunar gull Jan 22, 2026, 5:39 PM

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accented capitals

restive solstice Jan 22, 2026, 5:39 PM

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So it doesn't make any difference in meaning, but in a formal context you should use œ

iron falcon Jan 22, 2026, 5:40 PM

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So that's it?

restive solstice Jan 22, 2026, 5:40 PM

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It's kinda like I and i in English

lunar gull Jan 22, 2026, 5:40 PM

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Yep

restive solstice Jan 22, 2026, 5:40 PM

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It's supposed to be I but if you can't it's whatever

iron falcon Jan 22, 2026, 5:42 PM

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So they just keep the œ due to a sentiment to it I guess

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I is for being egocentric but œ is for reminding us that o and e are engaged

lunar gull Jan 22, 2026, 5:44 PM

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iron falcon So they just keep the œ due to a sentiment to it I guess

oe together does make a separate vowel sound than just o and e separately

restive solstice Jan 22, 2026, 5:44 PM

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I mean it's kept for the same reason as the rest of orthography

iron falcon Jan 22, 2026, 5:44 PM

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lunar gull oe together does make a separate vowel sound than just o and e separately

oh ok

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but in a french context where you skip letters is it really the case?

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is there a word with o and e next to each other and not being œ?

lunar gull Jan 22, 2026, 5:45 PM

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French doesn't 'skip' letters

iron falcon Jan 22, 2026, 5:45 PM

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lunar gull French doesn't 'skip' letters

Ik it was a simplification from my side

lunar gull Jan 22, 2026, 5:45 PM

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It's got a lot of spelling that has merged as French orthography was fixed like six or seven centuries ago

iron falcon Jan 22, 2026, 5:46 PM

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What I meant to say is french is not spoken like it's written

iron falcon Jan 22, 2026, 5:46 PM

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lunar gull It's got a lot of spelling that has merged as French orthography was fixed like ...

I think that this happened in every language at some point

lunar gull Jan 22, 2026, 5:47 PM

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iron falcon What I meant to say is french is not spoken like it's written

Sorta

lunar gull Jan 22, 2026, 5:48 PM

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iron falcon is there a word with o and e next to each other and not being œ?

Not really, usually there'll be other clues like one letter will be accented like in Chloé

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but for capitals for example

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Œuf

tribal veldt Jan 22, 2026, 5:48 PM

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there are quite a few

prisma aspen Jan 22, 2026, 5:48 PM

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iron falcon is there a word with o and e next to each other and not being œ?

coefficient

iron falcon Jan 22, 2026, 5:48 PM

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prisma aspen coefficient

Thank you!

tribal veldt Jan 22, 2026, 5:48 PM

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moelle

sonic stone Jan 22, 2026, 5:49 PM

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Groenland

tribal veldt Jan 22, 2026, 5:49 PM

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plus all the words made of different roots such as incoercible or autoentrepreneur

lunar gull Jan 22, 2026, 5:49 PM

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I forgot those

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woops

tribal veldt Jan 22, 2026, 5:50 PM

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sonic stone Groenland

funfact it was originally written with œ in old icelandic

iron falcon Jan 22, 2026, 5:51 PM

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https://tenor.com/view/thank-you-thanks-ty-dog-cute-gif-15049115

Tenor

sonic stone Jan 22, 2026, 5:51 PM

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tribal veldt funfact it was originally written with œ in old icelandic

huh
wonder why they didn't keep it

tribal veldt Jan 22, 2026, 5:52 PM

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I don't think modern nordic languages have that letter anymore

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