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The semantics of C is described in the ANSI/ISO standard using natural language. This paper contains a brief summary, more descriptive than technical, of our research in specifying a complete and accurate formal semantics for ANSI C. We follow the denotational approach and divide the specification in three distinct phases: static, typing and dynamic semantics. Moreover, we have developed a direct implementation of the semantics, using the programming language Haskell. We argue that our formal specification results in a better understanding of the semantics of ANSI C and comment on its readability, precision, abstraction and applications.