HTML Codes for French Language Characters

How to insert those characters not found on your keyboard

Wood block letters spelling 'Français'

JannHuizenga / Getty Images

By
Jeremy Girard
Jeremy Girard
Writer
  • New England Institute of Technology

Jeremy Girard is an author, educator, and director of marketing/head of web design and development at Envision Technology Advisors.

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Updated on February 27, 2020

The French language includes characters that aren't found on the standard English keyboard. That means you must use HTML codes to produce them when entering French text on a website.

Some French characters are part of the Unicode character set, so you need to declare UTF-8 in the head element of your page so they display properly:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8"/>
...

HTML Codes for French Characters

Here are the HTML codes for some of the most often used French-language characters.

Display Friendly Code Numerical Code Hex Code Description
À &Agrave; &#192; &#xC0; Capital A-grave
à &agrave; &#224; &#xE0; Lowercase a-grave
 &Acirc; &#194; &#xC2; Capital A-circumflex
â &acirc; &#226; &#xE2; Lowercase a-circumflex
Æ &AElig; &#198; &#xC6; Capital AE ligature
æ &aelig; &#230; &#xE6; Lowercase AE ligature
Ç &Ccedil; &#199; &#xC7; Capital C-cedilla
ç &ccedil; &#231; &#xE7; Lowercase c-cedilla
È &Egrave; &#200; &#xC8; Capital E-grave
è &egrave; &#232; &#xE8; Lowercase e-grave
É &Eacute; &#201; &#xC9; Capital E-acute
é &eacute; &#233; &#xE9; Lowercase e-acute
Ê &Ecirc; &#202; &#xCA; Capital E-circumflex
ê &ecirc; &#234; &#xEA; Lowercase e-circumflex
Ë &Euml; &#203; &#xCB; Capital E-umlaut
ë &euml; &#235; &#xEB; Lowercase e-umlaut
Î &Icirc; &#206; &#xCE; Capital I-circumflex
î &icirc; &#238; &#xEE; Lowercase i-circumflex
Ï &Iuml; &#207; &#xCF; Capital I-umlaut
ï &iuml; &#239; &#xEF; Lowercase i-umlaut
Ô &Ocirc; &#212; &#xD4; Capital O-circumflex
ô &ocirc; &#244; &#xF4; Lowercase o-circumflex
Π&OElig; &#140; &#x152; Capital OE ligature
œ &oelig; &#156; &#x153; Lowercase oe ligature
Ù &Ugrave; &#217; &#xD9; Capital U-grave
ù &ugrave; &#249; &#xF9; Lowercase u-grave
Û &Ucirc; &#219; &#xDB; Capital U-circumflex
û &ucirc; &#251; &#xFB; Lowercase U-circumflex
Ü &Uuml; &#220; &#xDC; Capital U-umlaut
ü &uuml; &#252; &#xFC; Lowercase U-umlaut
« &laquo; &#171; &#xAB; Left angle quotes
» &raquo; &#187; &#xBB; Right angle quotes
€ &euro; &#128; &#x80; Euro
₣   &#8355; &#x20A3; Franc

How and Where to Insert the Codes

Using these characters is simple: Just place any character code in your page's HTML markup where you want the French character to appear. This is the same way you'd use other HTML special character codes.

Lifewire.com translated to French

Always preview your web page in a browser to make sure the characters display properly.

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Your Citation
Girard, Jeremy. "HTML Codes for French Language Characters." ThoughtCo, Jul. 31, 2021, thoughtco.com/html-codes-french-characters-4062211. Girard, Jeremy. (2021, July 31). HTML Codes for French Language Characters. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/html-codes-french-characters-4062211 Girard, Jeremy. "HTML Codes for French Language Characters." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/html-codes-french-characters-4062211 (accessed March 29, 2023).