French spelling patterns

Ch as /ʃ/, -que for /k/, -ette, and a silent final consonant in ballet and buffet. Later borrowings that kept French pronunciation.

Word origin patterns

ch=/ʃ/ / -que / -ette / ou / silent final consonant ORIGIN_FRENCH_01

Useful pattern · Medium reliability · Occasional · Advanced · Reading

• /ʃ/ ch: chef, machine
• /k/ -que: unique, antique
• /eɪ/ silent final t: ballet, buffet

Where Wiggler teaches it: Skill 11: Advanced Patterns & Silent Letters · Skill 14: Prefixes & Final Mastery

Child explanation

Some words came from French and still sound French: chef, ballet, unique. They do not follow English rules because they are not really English spellings.

The rule

Words borrowed from French after the Middle Ages keep French habits: ch is /ʃ/, final -que is /k/, final t and s are often silent, and -ette and -eau appear as units.

What is really going on

The distinction that matters is timing. Early Norman French borrowings were fully anglicised and behave like English words — chair, change, table. Later borrowings, from the seventeenth century on, kept French pronunciation and spelling. This is why ch has two values in the same language.

Examples

Easy examples

chef, machine, unique, ballet

More examples

chalet, brochure, parachute, antique, boutique, plaque, buffet, bouquet, crochet, gourmet

Advanced examples

chandelier, silhouette, rendezvous, camouflage, entrepreneur

Contrast pairs

• chef versus chair — Late French borrowing versus early one.
• machine versus match
• unique versus quick — French -que versus English qu.

Teacher note

Introduce late, and mainly as reassurance rather than as a decoding tool: these words do not follow English rules because they are not English spellings. Knowing that is more useful to a child than any attempt to decode ballet.

Related rules

• CH and its three sounds — ch — /tʃ/ in chip, /k/ in school, /ʃ/ in chef. Each group has a cause — and the cause is where the word came from.
• QU — qu — Q never travels alone in English. Qu is one unit representing /kw/ — two sounds from two letters that must be read together.
• Greek spelling patterns — ph / ch=/k/ / y=/ɪ/ / rh / ps / mn — Ph, ch as /k/, y as a vowel, rh, ps and mn all travel together. A word with one of them is Greek, and usually has another.
• OU — ou — /aʊ/ in cloud is the main value, but ou also gives /ʌ/, /uː/, /ʊ/ and /ɔː/. One of the most variable teams in English.

• Previous in Word origin patterns: Greek spelling patterns — ph / ch=/k/ / y=/ɪ/ / rh / ps / mn — Ph, ch as /k/, y as a vowel, rh, ps and mn all travel together. A word with one of them is Greek, and usually has another.
• Next in Word origin patterns: Latin spelling patterns — -tion / -sion / prefixes / silent scholarly letters — The -tion and -sion endings, the common prefixes, and the letters Renaissance scholars inserted into debt and doubt to show a Latin root.
• All reading rules

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