ordre alphabétique
masculine
Alphabetical order in French is ordre alphabétique, a masculine noun phrase.
Use ordre alphabétique whenever you talk about sorting words, names or files by letter. The usual verbs are trier (to sort) and ranger (to arrange), as in Trier par ordre alphabétique and Ranger par ordre alphabétique.
Meaning: the sequence of a collection of items (noun)
What does it mean word for word?
ordre means order and alphabétique means alphabetical. As usual in French, the adjective comes after the noun.
How does it change in a sentence?
To say in alphabetical order, French most often uses par, giving par ordre alphabétique. Because ordre is masculine and starts with a vowel, the article le becomes l', as in l'ordre alphabétique.
When do people say it?
Accents in French do not affect alphabetical order.
Did you know?
- In French legal or professional settings, ordre does not mean a sequence, but refers to a governing body like the bar association, called l'ordre des avocats.
- The word ordre is a doublet of the regional term orne, which evolved from the same root to describe a specific agricultural practice.
- In some specialized French indexes, words starting with prefixes like anti- or hyper- are treated as separate entities rather than being sorted by their root.
Examples in context
- Rangez les mots par ordre alphabétique.Put the words in alphabetical order.This instruction uses par ordre alphabétique to ask for the words to be put in order.Tatoeba #8391333 by Aiji, translation #1435635 by enteka
- Mettez cette liste dans l'ordre alphabétique.Put this list in alphabetical order.Here the phrase appears with the article as l'ordre alphabétique.Tatoeba #5688393 by Aiji, translation #3155609 by CK
- Elle a trié les fiches par ordre alphabétique.She sorted the files in alphabetical order.The verb trié shows the common pairing of sorting with par ordre alphabétique.Tatoeba #3272609 by Micsmithel, translation #3272608 by CM
- Classer ces mots dans l'ordre alphabétiqueSort these words in alphabetical order
- Les noms sont triés par ordre alphabétiqueThe names are sorted in alphabetical order
- Merci de ranger ces documents par ordre alphabétiquePlease arrange these documents in alphabetical order
- Les résultats sont triés alphabétiquementThe results are sorted alphabetically
- J'ai rangé les noms en ordre alphabétiqueI arranged the names in alphabetical order
- Dans l'ordre alphabétique, les mots "abricot" et "banane" sont classés avant "cerise" et "fraise."In alphabetical order, the words "abricot" and "banane" come before "cerise" and "fraise."
- Je dois trier par ordre alphabétique cette liste de noms : Martin, Dubois, Dupont.I need to sort this list of names in alphabetical order: Martin, Dubois, Dupont.
- 4 more sentences on Tatoeba
Example conversation
Gabriel and Emma are organizing a contact list for their project.
- GabrielC'est mieux de classer les noms par ordre alphabétique.It's better to list the names in alphabetical order.
- EmmaJe suis d'accord, c'est plus simple pour chercher.I agree, it's easier to search.
- GabrielTu peux m'aider avec l'ordre alphabétique ?Can you help me with the alphabetical order?
- EmmaOui Gabriel, je m'en occupe tout de suite.Yes Gabriel, I'll take care of it right now.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “alphabetical order” translations, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries alphabétique, ordre, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
