French language - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.

org/wiki/French_language

French language
French (français[b] or langue française[c]) is a
Romance language of the Indo-European family. Like
French
all other Romance languages, it descended from the français
Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved Pronunciation [fʁɑ̃ sɛ]
from Northern Old Gallo-Romance, a descendant of Native to France, Belgium,
the Latin spoken in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives Switzerland,
are the other langues d'oïl—languages historically Monaco,
spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, Francophone Africa,
Canada, and other
which French (Francien) largely supplanted. It was
locations in the
also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Francophonie
Roman Gaul and by the Germanic Frankish language
Speakers L1: 74 million (2020)
of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. As a result of [1]
French and Belgian colonialism from the 16th century L2: 238 million
onward, it was introduced to new territories in the (2022)[1]
Americas, Africa, and Asia, and numerous French- Total: 310 million[1]
based creole languages, most notably Haitian Creole, Language family Indo-European
were developed. A French-speaking person or nation ▪ Italic
may be referred to as Francophone in both English
▪ Latino-Faliscan
and French.
▪ Latinic
French is an official language in 26 countries, as well ▪ Romance
as one of the most geographically widespread
▪ Italo-Western
languages in the world, with about 50 countries and
territories having it as a de jure or de facto official, ▪ Western

administrative, or cultural language.[4] Most of these ▪ Gallo-

countries are members of the Organisation Iberian[2]

internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), the ▪ Gallo-

Romance
community of 54 member states which share the
official use or teaching of French. It is estimated to ▪ Gallo-
Rhaetian?
have about 310 million speakers, of which about 80 [3]

million are native speakers;[5] it is spoken as a first

▪ Arpitan–
language (in descending order of the number of Oïl
speakers) in France, Canada (provinces of Quebec, ▪ Oïl
Ontario, and New Brunswick), Belgium (Wallonia and
▪ Francien
the Brussels-Capital Region), western Switzerland zone
(Romandy region), parts of Luxembourg, parts of the
▪ French
United States (Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, and
Vermont), Monaco, the Aosta Valley region of Italy,
and various communities elsewhere.[6]

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In Francophone Africa it is spoken mainly as a second Early forms Old Latin

language or lingua franca, though it has also become a ▪ Vulgar Latin
native language in a small number of urban areas; in
▪ Proto-Romance
some North African countries, despite not having
official status, it is also a first language among some ▪ Old Gallo-
Romance
upper classes of the population alongside the
▪ Old French
indigenous ones, but only a second one among the
general population.[7] ▪ Middle French

Writing system Latin script (French

In 2015, approximately 40% of the Francophone
alphabet)
population (including L2 and partial speakers) lived in French Braille
Europe, 36% in sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian
Signed forms Signed French
Ocean, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% (français signé)
in the Americas, and 1% in Asia and Oceania.[8]
Official status
French is the second most widely spoken mother
Official language in 26 countries
tongue in the European Union.[9] Of Europeans who
speak other languages natively, approximately one- Belgium
fifth are able to speak French as a second language.[10] Benin
Many institutions of the EU use French as a working Burundi
language along with English, German and Italian; in Cameroon
some institutions, French is the sole working language Canada
(e.g. at the Court of Justice of the European Union).[11] Central African
French is also the 16th most natively spoken language Republic
in the world, the sixth most spoken language by total Chad
number of speakers, and is among the top five most Comoros
studied languages worldwide, with about 120 million Congo
learners as of 2017.[12][13] French has a long history as Democratic Republic
an international language of literature and scientific of the Congo
standards and is a primary or second language of many Djibouti
international organisations including the United Equatorial Guinea
Nations, the European Union, the North Atlantic France
Treaty Organization, the World Trade Organization, Gabon
the International Olympic Committee, the General Guinea
Conference on Weights and Measures, and the Haiti
International Committee of the Red Cross. Ivory Coast
Luxembourg
Madagascar
History Monaco
Rwanda
French is a Romance language (meaning that it is
Senegal
descended primarily from Vulgar Latin) that evolved
Seychelles
out of the Gallo-Romance dialects spoken in northern
Switzerland
France. The language's early forms include Old French
Togo
and Middle French.
Vanuatu

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Vulgar Latin in Gaul

10 subnational
Due to Roman rule, Latin was gradually adopted by the
Aosta Valley (Italy)
inhabitants of Gaul. As the language was learned by
French Polynesia
the common people, it developed a distinct local
Louisiana (United
character, with grammatical differences from Latin as
States)
spoken elsewhere, some of which is attested in graffiti.
[14] This local variety evolved into the Gallo-Romance Maine (United States)
New Caledonia
tongues, which include French and its closest relatives,
Puducherry (India)
such as Franco-Provençal.
Saint Barthélemy
The evolution of Latin in Gaul was shaped by its Saint Martin
coexistence for over half a millennium beside the Saint Pierre and
native Celtic Gaulish language, which did not go Miquelon
extinct until the late sixth century, long after the fall of Wallis and Futuna
the Western Roman Empire.[15] Because few Latin
speakers settled in rural areas during Roman times, Non-official but
Latin there held little or no social value for the administrative/
peasantry; as a result, 90% of the total population of cultural
Gaul remained indigenous in origin. The urban Algeria
aristocracy, who used Latin for trade, education or Burkina Faso
official uses, would send their children to Roman Cambodia
schools and administered lands for Rome. In the fifth Laos
century, at the time of the collapse of the Western Lebanon
Roman Empire, the vast majority of the Mali
(predominantly rural) population remained Gaulish Mauritania
speakers. They shifted to Latin as their native speech
Mauritius
only one century after the Frankish conquest of Gaul,
Morocco
adopting the prestige language of their urban literate
New Hampshire
elite. This eventual spread of Latin can be attributed to (United States)
the social migration from the focus of urban power to
Niger
village-centred economies and legal serfdom.[16][17][18]
Tunisia
The Gaulish language likely survived into the sixth Vietnam
century in France despite considerable Romanization.
[15] Coexisting with Latin, Gaulish helped shape the Intergovernmental

Vulgar Latin dialects that developed into French[18][15] organizations

contributing loanwords and calques (including oui,[19] Organisation
internationale de la
the word for "yes"),[20] sound changes shaped by
Francophonie
Gaulish influence,[21][22][23] and influences in
United Nations
conjugation and word order.[20][24][14] Recent
International
computational studies suggest that early gender shifts
Olympic Committee
may have been motivated by the gender of the
General Conference
corresponding word in Gaulish.[25] on Weights and
Measures
The estimated number of French words that can be

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attributed to Gaulish is placed at 154 by the Petit International

Robert,[26] which is often viewed as representing Committee of the
Red Cross
standardized French, while if non-standard dialects are
European Union
included, the number increases to 240.[27] Known
Gaulish loans are skewed toward certain semantic African Union

fields, such as plant life (chêne, bille, etc.), animals North Atlantic Treaty
Organization
(mouton, cheval, etc.), nature (boue, etc.), domestic
World Trade
activities (ex. berceau), farming and rural units of
Organization
measure (arpent, lieue, borne, boisseau), weapons,[28]
Council of Europe
and products traded regionally rather than further
Regulated by Académie Française
afield.[29] This semantic distribution has been
(French Academy,
attributed to peasants being the last to hold onto France)
Gaulish.[29][28] Office québécois de
la langue française
(Quebec Board of
Old French the French
Language, Quebec)
The beginning of French in Gaul was greatly
Direction de la
influenced by Germanic invasions into the country. langue française
These invasions had the greatest impact on the (Belgium)
northern part of the country and on the language there. Language codes
[30] A language divide began to grow across the
ISO 639-1 fr (https://www.l
country. The population in the north spoke langue d'oïl
oc.gov/standards/
while the population in the south spoke langue d'oc.[30] iso639-2/php/lang
Langue d'oïl grew into what is known as Old French. codes_name.php?is
The period of Old French spanned between the late o_639_1=fr)
8th[31] and mid-14th centuries. Old French shared ISO 639-2 fre (https://ww
many characteristics with Latin. For example, Old w.loc.gov/standar
French made use of different possible word orders just ds/iso639-2/php/l
angcodes_name.ph
as Latin did because it had a case system that retained
p?code_ID=145)
the difference between nominative subjects and (B)
oblique non-subjects.[32] The period is marked by a fra (https://ww
heavy superstrate influence from the Germanic w.loc.gov/standar
Frankish language, which non-exhaustively included ds/iso639-2/php/l
the use in upper-class speech and higher registers of angcodes_name.ph
p?code_ID=145)
V2 word order,[33] a large percentage of the
(T)
vocabulary (now at around 15% of modern French
ISO 639-3 fra
vocabulary[34]) including the impersonal singular
pronoun on (a calque of Germanic man), and the name Glottolog stan1290 (http
s://glottolog.or
of the language itself.
g/resource/languo
id/id/stan1290)
Up until its later stages, Old French, alongside Old
Linguasphere 51-AAA-i (http://
Occitan, maintained a relic of the old nominal case
www.hortensj-gard
system of Latin longer than most other Romance en.org/index.php?
languages (with the notable exception of Romanian tnc=1&tr=lsr&nid=

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which still currently maintains a case distinction), 51-AAA-i)

differentiating between an oblique case and a
nominative case. The phonology was characterized by
heavy syllabic stress, which led to the emergence of
various complicated diphthongs such as -eau which
would later be leveled to monophthongs.

The earliest evidence of what became Old French can

be seen in the Oaths of Strasbourg and the Sequence of Countries and regions where French is
Saint Eulalia, while Old French literature began to be the native language of the majority[a]
produced in the eleventh century, with major early Countries and regions where French is an
works often focusing on the lives of saints (such as the official or de facto official language, not a
Vie de Saint Alexis), or wars and royal courts, notably majority native language
Countries, regions, and territories where
including the Chanson de Roland, epic cycles focused
French is an administrative or cultural
on King Arthur and his court, as well as a cycle language but with no official status
focused on William of Orange.

During the period of the Crusades French became so dominant in the Mediterranean Sea that it became a
lingua franca ("Frankish language"), and because of increased contact with the Arabs during the Crusades,
who referred to them as Franj, numerous Arabic loanwords entered French, such as amiral (admiral), alcool
(alcohol), coton (cotton) and sirop (syrop), as well as scientific terms such as algébre (algebra), alchimie
(alchemy) and zéro (zero).[35]

Middle French
Within Old French many dialects emerged but the Francien dialect is one that not only continued but also
thrived during the Middle French period (14th–17th centuries).[30] Modern French grew out of this Francien
dialect.[30] Grammatically, during the period of Middle French, noun declensions were lost and there began
to be standardized rules. Robert Estienne published the first Latin-French dictionary, which included
information about phonetics, etymology, and grammar.[36] Politically, the first government authority to
adopt Modern French as official was the Aosta Valley in 1536, while the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts
(1539) named French the language of law in the Kingdom of France.

Modern French
During the 17th century, French replaced Latin as the most important language of diplomacy and
international relations (lingua franca). It retained this role until approximately the middle of the 20th century,
when it was replaced by English as the United States became the dominant global power following the
Second World War.[37][38] Stanley Meisler of the Los Angeles Times said that the fact that the Treaty of
Versailles was written in English as well as French was the "first diplomatic blow" against the language.[39]

During the Grand Siècle (17th century), France, under the rule of powerful leaders such as Cardinal
Richelieu and Louis XIV, enjoyed a period of prosperity and prominence among European nations.
Richelieu established the Académie française to protect the French language. By the early 1800s, Parisian
French had become the primary language of the aristocracy in France.

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Near the beginning of the 19th century, the French government began to pursue policies with the end goal of
eradicating the many minorities and regional languages (patois) spoken in France. This began in 1794 with
Henri Grégoire's "Report on the necessity and means to annihilate the patois and to universalize the use of
the French language".[40] When public education was made compulsory, only French was taught and the use
of any other (patois) language was punished. The goals of the public school system were made especially
clear to the French-speaking teachers sent to teach students in regions such as Occitania and Brittany.
Instructions given by a French official to teachers in the department of Finistère, in western Brittany,
included the following: "And remember, Gents: you were given your position in order to kill the Breton
language".[41] The prefect of Basses-Pyrénées in the French Basque Country wrote in 1846: "Our schools in
the Basque Country are particularly meant to replace the Basque language with French..."[41] Students were
taught that their ancestral languages were inferior and they should be ashamed of them; this process was
known in the Occitan-speaking region as Vergonha.[42]

Geographic distribution

Europe
Spoken by 19.71% of the European Union's population, French
is the third most widely spoken language in the EU, after English
and German and the second-most-widely taught language after Distribution of native French
English.[9][44] speakers in 6 countries in 2023

Under the Constitution of France, French has been the official

language of the Republic since 1992,[45] although the Ordinance
of Villers-Cotterêts made it mandatory for legal documents in
1539. France mandates the use of French in official government
publications, public education except in specific cases, and legal
contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign
words.

In Belgium, French is an official language at the federal level

along with Dutch and German. At the regional level, French is
the sole official language of Wallonia (excluding a part of the
East Cantons, which are German-speaking) and one of the two
official languages—along with Dutch—of the Brussels-Capital
Region, where it is spoken by the majority of the population
Knowledge of French in the
(approx. 80%), often as their primary language.[46]
European Union and candidate
countries[43]
French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland, along
with German, Italian, and Romansh, and is spoken in the western
part of Switzerland, called Romandy, of which Geneva is the largest city. The language divisions in
Switzerland do not coincide with political subdivisions, and some cantons have bilingual status: for example,
cities such as Biel/Bienne and cantons such as Valais, Fribourg and Bern. French is the native language of
about 23% of the Swiss population, and is spoken by 50%[47] of the population.

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Along with Luxembourgish and German, French is one of the three official languages of Luxembourg,
where it is generally the preferred language of business as well as of the different public administrations. It is
also the official language of Monaco.

At a regional level, French is acknowledged as an official language in the Aosta Valley region of Italy (the
first government authority to adopt Modern French as the official language in 1536, three years before
France itself),[48] in which is spoken as a first language by 1.25% of the population and as a second one by
approximately 50%.[49] French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands; it is also
spoken in Andorra and is the main language after Catalan in El Pas de la Casa. The language is taught as the
primary second language in the German state of Saarland, with French being taught from pre-school and
over 43% of citizens being able to speak French.[50][51]

Africa
The majority of the world's French-speaking population lives in
Africa; while it is an official language in 18 countries, it is not
spoken as a first language by the majority, acting mainly as a
second one or a lingua franca due to the many indigenous
languages spoken in the territories.[52] According to a 2023
estimate from the Organisation internationale de la
Francophonie, an estimated 167 million African people spread
across 35 countries and territories[d] can speak French as either a
first or a second language;[53][54] only 1,2 million of these spoke
it as a first language according to Ethnologue.[55] This number
does not include the people living in non-Francophone African
countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to
Official status of French in Africa as
the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population
of 2025:
worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050.[56]
Countries in which it is an official
[57][58] French was the fastest growing language on the continent
de jure language
(in terms of either official or foreign languages).[59][60] Regions in which is spoken as a
native language
While spoken mainly as a second language, French is
increasingly being spoken as a native language in Francophone
Africa among some communities in urban areas or the elite class. This is especially true in the cities of
Abidjan,[61][62] Kinshasa, and Lubumbashi,[63][64][65][66] Douala,[67][68] Libreville,[69][70] Antananarivo,[71]
Cotonou,[72] and Brazzaville.[73] However, some African countries such as Algeria intermittently attempted
to remove the use of French in favor of native languages, and it was removed as an official language in Mali,
Burkina Faso, and Niger in 2023, 2024, and 2025, respectively.[74][75][76]

There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various
indigenous African languages.[77] Language and slang from francophone Africa, particularly as popularized
through music, are playing a growing role in influencing French across the francophone world.[78]

Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the
expansion of education and rapid population growth.[79] It is also where the language has evolved the most
in recent years.[80][81] Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French

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speakers from other countries,[82] but written forms of the

language are very closely related to those of the rest of the
French-speaking world.

Americas

Canada
French is the second most commonly spoken language in Canada
and one of two federal official languages alongside English. As
of the 2021 Canadian census, it was the native language of
7.7 million people (21% of the population) and the second
language of 2.9 million (8% of the population).[83][84] French is Countries of Africa by percentage of
the sole official language in the province of Quebec, where some French speakers in 2023
0–10% Francophone
80% of the population speak it as a native language and 95% are
11–20% Francophone
capable of conducting a conversation in it.[83] Quebec is also
21–30% Francophone
home to the city of Montreal, which is the world's fourth-largest
31–40% Francophone
French-speaking city, by number of first language speakers.[85] 41–50% Francophone
[86] New Brunswick and Manitoba are the only officially
>50% Francophone
bilingual provinces, though full bilingualism is enacted only in
New Brunswick, where about one third of the population is
Francophone. French is also an official language of all of the territories (Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and
Yukon). Out of the three, Yukon has the most French speakers, making up just under 4% of the population.
[87] Furthermore, while French is not an official language in Ontario, the French Language Services Act

ensures that provincial services are available in the language. The Act applies to areas of the province where
there are significant Francophone communities, namely Eastern Ontario and Northern Ontario. Elsewhere,
sizable French-speaking minorities are found in southern Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and
the Port au Port Peninsula in Newfoundland and Labrador, where the unique Newfoundland French dialect
was historically spoken. Smaller pockets of French speakers exist in all other provinces. The Ontarian city of
Ottawa, the Canadian capital, is also effectively bilingual, as it has a large population of federal government
workers, who are required to offer services in both French and English,[88] and is just across the river from
the Quebecois city of Gatineau.

United States
According to the United States Census Bureau (2011), French is the fourth[89] most spoken language in the
United States after English, Spanish, and Chinese, when all forms of French are considered together and all
dialects of Chinese are similarly combined. French is the second-most spoken language (after English) in the
states of Maine and New Hampshire. In Louisiana, it is tied with Spanish for second-most spoken if
Louisiana French and all creoles such as Haitian are included. French is the third most spoken language
(after English and Spanish) in the states of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire.[90] Louisiana is
home to many distinct French dialects, collectively known as Louisiana French. New England French,
essentially a variant of Canadian French, is spoken in parts of New England. Missouri French was
historically spoken in Missouri and Illinois (formerly known as Upper Louisiana), but is nearly extinct today.
[91] French also survived in isolated pockets along the Gulf Coast of what was previously French Lower

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Louisiana, such as Mon Louis Island, Alabama and DeLisle, Mississippi

(the latter only being discovered by linguists in the 1990s) but these
varieties are severely endangered or presumed extinct.

Caribbean
French is one of two official languages in Haiti alongside Haitian
Creole. It is the principal language of education, administration,
business, and public signage and is spoken by all educated Haitians. It is
also used for ceremonial events such as weddings, graduations, and
church masses. The vast majority of the population speaks Haitian French language distribution
Creole as their first language; the rest largely speak French as a first in Canada
language.[92] As a French Creole language, Haitian Creole draws the Regions where French is
large majority of its vocabulary from French, with influences from West the main language and an
official language at both the
African languages, as well as several European languages. It is closely
federal and provincial level
related to Louisiana Creole and the creole from the Lesser Antilles.[93]
Regions where French is
an official language at the
French is the sole official language of all the overseas territories of
federal level but not a
France in the Caribbean that are collectively referred to as the French majority native language or
West Indies, namely Guadeloupe, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin, and an official language at the
Martinique. provincial level

Other territories
French is the official language of both French Guiana on the South
American continent,[94] and of Saint Pierre and Miquelon,[95] an
archipelago off the coast of Newfoundland in North America.

Asia

Southeast Asia
French was the official language of the colony of French Indochina,
comprising modern-day Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. It continues to The "arrêt" signs (French for
be an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its "stop") are used in the
influence has waned in recent decades.[96] In colonial Vietnam, the Canadian province of
elites primarily spoke French, while many servants who worked in Québec, while the English
French households spoke a French pidgin known as "Tây Bồi" (now stop, which is also a valid
French word, is used in
extinct). After French rule ended, South Vietnam continued to use
France and other French-
French in administration, education, and trade.[97] However, since the
speaking countries and
Fall of Saigon and the opening of a unified Vietnam's economy, French regions.
has gradually been effectively displaced as the first foreign language of
choice by English in Vietnam. Nevertheless, it continues to be taught as
the other main foreign language in the Vietnamese educational system and is regarded as a cultural language.
[98] All three countries are full members of La Francophonie (OIF).

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India
French was the official language of French India, consisting of
the geographically separate enclaves referred to as Puducherry. It
continued to be an official language of the territory even after its
cession to India in 1956 until 1965.[99] A small number of older
locals still retain knowledge of the language, although it has now
given way to Tamil and English.[99][100] French is one of the
main languages of Auroville.[101]

Puducherry is served by the Alliance française de Pondichéry

founded in 1889 teaching 2,200 students and holding a library
with 12,000 books and the Institut français de Pondichéry.[102]
[103][104] Over 100,000 people of Indian origin, and a growing

number of students, live in Metropolitan France and

approximately 250,000 live in Reunion.[105][106] Reunion Creole French language spread in the
is derived mainly from French but includes terms from United States. Counties marked in
Malagasy, Hindi, Portuguese, Gujarati and Tamil.[107] French lighter pink are those where 6–12%
based Mauritian Creole also has some influence from Indian of the population speaks French at
home; medium pink, 12–18%;
languages.[108]
darker pink, over 18%. French-based
creole languages are not included.
Lebanon
A former French mandate, Lebanon designates Arabic as the sole official
language, while a special law regulates cases when French can be publicly
used. Article 11 of Lebanon's Constitution states that "Arabic is the official
national language. A law determines the cases in which the French language
is to be used".[109] The French language in Lebanon is a widespread second
language among the Lebanese people, and is taught in many schools along
with Arabic and English. French is used on Lebanese pound banknotes, on Town sign in Standard
road signs, on Lebanese license plates, and on official buildings (alongside Arabic and French at the
Arabic). entrance of Rechmaya in
Lebanon
Today, French and English are secondary languages of Lebanon, with about
40% of the population being Francophone and 40% Anglophone.[110] The
use of English is growing in the business and media environment. Out of about 900,000 students, about
500,000 are enrolled in Francophone schools, public or private, in which the teaching of mathematics and
scientific subjects is provided in French.[111] Actual usage of French varies depending on the region and
social status. One-third of high school students educated in French go on to pursue higher education in
English-speaking institutions. English is the language of business and communication, with French being an
element of social distinction, chosen for its emotional value.[112]

Oceania
French is an official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu, where 31% of the population was
estimated to speak it in 2023.[54] It is the sole official language in the French special collectivity of New

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Caledonia and the overseas collectivities of Wallis and Futuna and French
Polynesia.[113]

In New Caledonia, 97% of the population can speak, read and write
French[114] while in French Polynesia this figure is 95%,[115] and in
Wallis and Futuna, it is 84%.[116] In French Polynesia and to a lesser
extent Wallis and Futuna, where oral and written knowledge of the French A 500-CFP franc (€4.20;
US$5.00) banknote, used in
language has become almost universal, French increasingly tends to
French Polynesia, New
displace the native Polynesian languages as the language most spoken at
Caledonia and Wallis and
home. In French Polynesia, the percentage of the population who reported Futuna
that French was the language they use the most at home rose from 67% at
the 2007 census to 74% at the 2017 census.[117][115] In Wallis and Futuna,
the percentage of the population who reported that French was the language they use the most at home rose
from 10% at the 2008 census to 13% at the 2018 census.[116][118]

Future
According to a demographic projection led by the Université Laval and the Réseau Démographie de
l'Agence universitaire de la Francophonie, the total number of French speakers will reach approximately 500
million in 2025 and 650 million by 2050, largely due to rapid population growth in sub-Saharan Africa.[119]
OIF estimates 700 million French speakers by 2050, 80% of whom will be in Africa.[8]

In a study published in March 2014 by Forbes, the investment bank Natixis said that French could become
the world's most spoken language by 2050.[120]

In the European Union, French was the dominant language within all institutions until the 1990s. After
several enlargements of the EU (1995, 2004), French significantly lost ground in favour of English, which is
more widely spoken and taught in most EU countries. French currently remains one of the three working
languages, or "procedural languages", of the EU, along with English and German. It is the second-most
widely used language within EU institutions after English, but remains the preferred language of certain
institutions or administrations such as the Court of Justice of the European Union, where it is the sole
internal working language, or the Directorate-General for Agriculture. Since 2016, Brexit has rekindled
discussions on whether or not French should again hold greater role within the institutions of the European
Union.[121]

Varieties
▪ African French
▪ Maghreb French (North African French)
▪ Aostan French
▪ Belgian French
▪ Cambodian French

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▪ Canadian French
▪ Acadian French
▪ Newfoundland French
▪ New England French
▪ Ontario French
▪ Quebec French
▪ French French
▪ Guianese French
▪ Meridional French
▪ Haitian French
▪ Indian French
▪ Jersey Legal French
▪ Lao French
▪ Louisiana French
▪ Cajun French
▪ Missouri French
▪ South East Asian French
▪ Swiss French
▪ Vietnamese French
▪ West Indian French

Varieties of the French language in the world

Current status and importance

According to the OIF, approximately 321 million people worldwide are "able to speak the language" as of
2022,[122] without specifying the criteria for this estimation or whom it encompasses.[123] A leading world
language, French is taught in universities around the world, and is one of the world's most influential
languages because of its wide use in the worlds of journalism, jurisprudence, education, and diplomacy.[124]
In diplomacy, French is one of the six official languages of the United Nations (and one of the UN
Secretariat's only two working languages[125]), one of twenty official and three procedural languages of the

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European Union, an official language of NATO, the International Olympic Committee, the Council of
Europe, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Organization of American States
(alongside Spanish, Portuguese and English), the Eurovision Song Contest, one of eighteen official
languages of the European Space Agency, World Trade Organization and the least used of the three official
languages in the North American Free Trade Agreement countries. It is also a working language in nonprofit
organisations such as the Red Cross (alongside English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and Russian),
Amnesty International (alongside 32 other languages of which English is the most used, followed by
Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Italian), Médecins sans Frontières (used alongside English, Spanish,
Portuguese and Arabic), and Médecins du Monde (used alongside English).[126] Given the demographic
prospects of the French-speaking nations of Africa, researcher Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry wrote in 2014 that
French "could be the language of the future".[127] However, some African countries such as Algeria
intermittently attempted to eradicate the use of French, and in 2024 and 2025 it was removed as an official
language in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.[74][75]

Significant as a judicial language, French is one of the official languages of such major international and
regional courts, tribunals, and dispute-settlement bodies as the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights,
the Caribbean Court of Justice, the Court of Justice for the Economic Community of West African States, the
Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the International Tribunal
for the Law of the Sea the International Criminal Court and the World Trade Organization Appellate Body.
It is the sole internal working language of the Court of Justice of the European Union, and makes with
English the European Court of Human Rights's two working languages.[128]

In 1997, George Weber published, in Language Today, a comprehensive academic study entitled "The
World's 10 most influential languages".[129] In the article, Weber ranked French as, after English, the
second-most influential language of the world, ahead of Spanish.[129] His criteria were the numbers of native
speakers, the number of secondary speakers (especially high for French among fellow world languages), the
number of countries using the language and their respective populations, the economic power of the
countries using the language, the number of major areas in which the language is used, and the linguistic
prestige associated with the mastery of the language (Weber highlighted that French in particular enjoys
considerable linguistic prestige).[129] In a 2008 reassessment of his article, Weber concluded that his findings
were still correct since "the situation among the top ten remains unchanged."[129]

Knowledge of French is often considered to be a useful skill by business owners in the United Kingdom; a
2014 study found that 50% of British managers considered French to be a valuable asset for their business,
thus ranking French as the most sought-after foreign language there, ahead of German (49%) and Spanish
(44%).[130] MIT economist Albert Saiz calculated a 2.3% premium for those who have French as a foreign
language in the workplace.[131]

In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English
and Standard Mandarin Chinese.[132]

In English-speaking Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland, French is the first foreign language taught
and in number of pupils is far ahead of other languages. In the United States, French is the second-most
commonly taught foreign language in schools and universities, although well behind Spanish. In some areas
of the country near French-speaking Quebec, however, it is the foreign language more commonly taught.

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Phonology

3:10
Spoken French (Africa)

Consonant phonemes in French

Dental/ Palatal/ Velar/

Labial
Alveolar Postalveolar Uvular

Nasal m n ɲ (ŋ)

voiceless p t k
Stop
voiced b d ɡ

voiceless f s ʃ
Fricative ʁ
voiced v z ʒ

plain l j
Approximant
labial ɥ w

Vowel phonemes in French

Oral Nasal

Front Front
Central Back Back
unrounded rounded unrounded rounded

Close i y u Open-mid ɛ̃ (œ̃ ) ɔ̃

Close-mid e ø o Open ɑ̃
(ə)
Open-mid ɛ/(ɛː) œ ɔ

Open a (ɑ)

Although there are many French regional accents, foreign learners normally use only one variety of the
language.

▪ There are a maximum of 17 vowels in French, not all of which are used in every
dialect: /a/, /ɑ/, /e/, /ɛ/, /ɛː/, /ə/, /i/, /o/, /ɔ/, /y/, /u/, /œ/, /ø/, plus the nasalized vowels
/ɑ̃ /, /ɛ̃/, /ɔ̃ / and /œ̃ /. In France, the vowels /ɑ/, /ɛː/ and /œ̃ / are tending to be replaced
by /a/, /ɛ/ and /ɛ̃/ in many people's speech, but the distinction of /ɛ̃/ and /œ̃ / is
present in Meridional French. In Quebec and Belgian French, the vowels /ɑ/, /ə/, /ɛː/
and /œ̃ / are present.
▪ Voiced stops (i.e., /b, d, ɡ/) are typically produced fully voiced throughout.
▪ Voiceless stops (i.e., /p, t, k/) are unaspirated.
▪ The velar nasal /ŋ/ can occur in final position in borrowed (usually English) words:

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parking, camping, swing.

▪ The palatal nasal /ɲ/, which is written ⟨gn⟩, can occur in word initial position (e.g.,
gnon), but it is most frequently found in intervocalic, onset position or word-finally
(e.g., montagne).
▪ French has three pairs of homorganic fricatives distinguished by voicing, i.e.,
labiodental /f/~/v/, dental /s/~/z/, and palato-alveolar /ʃ/~/ʒ/. /s/~/z/ are dental, like
the plosives /t/~/d/ and the nasal /n/.
▪ French has one rhotic whose pronunciation varies considerably among speakers
and phonetic contexts. In general, it is described as a voiced uvular fricative, as in
[ʁu] roue, "wheel". Vowels are often lengthened before this segment. It can be
reduced to an approximant, particularly in final position (e.g., fort), or reduced to
zero in some word-final positions. For other speakers, a uvular trill is also common,
and an apical trill [r] occurs in some dialects. The cluster /ʁw/ is generally
pronounced as a labialised voiced uvular fricative [ʁʷ], such as in [ʁʷa] roi, "king",
or [kʁʷaʁ] croire, "to believe".
▪ Lateral and central approximants: The lateral approximant /l/ is unvelarised in both
onset (lire) and coda position (il). In the onset, the central approximants [w], [ɥ],
and [j] each correspond to a high vowel, /u/, /y/, and /i/ respectively. There are a
few minimal pairs where the approximant and corresponding vowel contrast, but
there are also many cases where they are in free variation. Contrasts between /j/
and /i/ occur in final position as in /pɛj/ paye, "pay", vs. /pɛi/ pays, "country".
▪ The lateral approximant /l/ can be delateralised when word- or morpheme-final and
preceded by /i/, such as in /tʁavaj/ travail, "work", or when a word ending in ⟨al⟩ is
pluralised, giving ⟨aux⟩ /o/.
French pronunciation follows strict rules based on spelling, but French spelling is often based more on
history than phonology. The rules for pronunciation vary between dialects, but the standard rules are:

▪ Final single consonants, in particular s, x, z, t, d, n, p and g, are normally silent. (A

consonant is considered "final" when no vowel follows it even if one or more
consonants follow it.) The final letters f, k, q, and l, however, are normally
pronounced. The final c is sometimes pronounced, as in bac, sac, roc, but can also
be silent, as in blanc or estomac. The final r is usually silent when it follows an e
in a word of two or more syllables, but it is pronounced in some words (hiver,
super, cancer etc.).
▪ When the following word begins with a vowel, however, a silent consonant may
once again be pronounced, to provide a liaison or "link" between the two words.
Some liaisons are mandatory, for example the s in les amants or vous avez;
some are optional, depending on dialect and register, for example, the first s in
deux cents euros or euros irlandais; and some are forbidden, for example, the s
in beaucoup d'hommes aiment. The t of et is never pronounced and the silent
final consonant of a noun is only pronounced in the plural and in set phrases like
pied-à-terre.
▪ Doubling a final n and adding a silent e at the end of a word (e.g., chien →
chienne) makes it clearly pronounced. Doubling a final l and adding a silent e
(e.g., gentil → gentille) adds a [j] sound if the l is preceded by the letter i.
▪ Some monosyllabic function words ending in a or e, such as je and que, drop their

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final vowel when placed before a word that begins with a vowel sound (thus
avoiding a hiatus). The missing vowel is replaced by an apostrophe. (e.g., *je ai is
instead pronounced and spelled j'ai). This gives, for example, the same
pronunciation for l'homme qu'il a vu ("the man whom he saw") and l'homme qui l'a
vu ("the man who saw him"). However, in Belgian French the sentences are
pronounced differently; in the first sentence the syllable break is as "qu'il-a", while
the second breaks as "qui-l'a". It can also be noted that, in Quebec French, the
second example (l'homme qui l'a vu) has more emphasis on l'a vu.

Writing system

Alphabet
French is written with the 26 letters of the basic Latin script, with four diacritics appearing on vowels
(circumflex accent, acute accent, grave accent, diaeresis) and the cedilla appearing in "ç".

There are two ligatures, "œ" and "æ", but they are often replaced in contemporary French with "oe" and "ae",
because the ligatures do not appear on the AZERTY keyboard layout used in French-speaking countries.
However, this is nonstandard in formal and literary texts.

Orthography
French spelling, like English spelling, tends to preserve obsolete pronunciation rules. This is mainly due to
extreme phonetic changes since the Old French period, without a corresponding change in spelling.
Moreover, some conscious changes were made to restore Latin orthography (as with some English words
such as "debt"):

▪ Old French doit > French doigt "finger" (Latin digitus)

▪ Old French pie > French pied "foot" [Latin pes (stem: ped-)]
French orthography is morphophonemic. While it contains 130 graphemes that denote only 36 phonemes,
many of its spelling rules are likely due to a consistency in morphemic patterns such as adding suffixes and
prefixes.[133] Many given spellings of common morphemes usually lead to a predictable sound. In particular,
a given vowel combination or diacritic generally leads to one phoneme. However, there is not a one-to-one
relation of a phoneme and a single related grapheme, which can be seen in how tomber and tombé both end
with the /e/ phoneme.[134] Additionally, there are many variations in the pronunciation of consonants at the
end of words, demonstrated by how the x in paix is not pronounced though at the end of Aix it is.

As a result, it can be difficult to predict the spelling of a word based on the sound. Final consonants are
generally silent, except when the following word begins with a vowel (see Liaison (French)). For example,
the following words end in a vowel sound: pied, aller, les, finit, beaux. The same words followed by a
vowel, however, may sound the consonants, as they do in these examples: beaux-arts, les amis, pied-à-terre.

French writing, as with any language, is affected by the spoken language. In Old French, the plural for
animal was animals. The /als/ sequence was unstable and was turned into a diphthong /aus/. This change was
then reflected in the orthography: animaus. The us ending, very common in Latin, was then abbreviated by

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copyists (monks) to the letter x, resulting in a written form animax. As the French language further evolved,
the pronunciation of au turned into /o/ so that the u was reestablished in orthography for consistency,
resulting in modern French animaux (pronounced first /animos/ before the final /s/ was dropped in
contemporary French). The same is true for cheval pluralized as chevaux and many others. In addition, castel
pl. castels became château pl. châteaux.

▪ Nasal: n and m. When n or m follows a vowel or diphthong, the n or m becomes

silent and causes the preceding vowel to become nasalized (i.e., pronounced with
the soft palate extended downward so as to allow part of the air to leave through
the nostrils). Exceptions are when the n or m is doubled, or immediately followed
by a vowel. The prefixes en- and em- are always nasalized. The rules are more
complex than this but may vary between dialects.
▪ Digraphs: French uses not only diacritics to specify its large range of vowel sounds
and diphthongs, but also specific combinations of vowels, sometimes with following
consonants, to show which sound is intended.
▪ Gemination: Within words, double consonants are generally not pronounced as
geminates in modern French (but geminates can be heard in the cinema or TV
news from as recently as the 1970s, and in very refined elocution they may still
occur). For example, illusion is pronounced [ilyzjɔ̃ ] and not [ilːyzjɔ̃ ]. However,
gemination does occur between words; for example, une info ("a news item" or "a
piece of information") is pronounced [ynɛ̃fo], whereas une nympho ("a
nymphomaniac") is pronounced [ynːɛ̃fo].
▪ Accents are used sometimes for pronunciation, sometimes to distinguish similar
words, and sometimes based on etymology alone.
▪ Accents that affect pronunciation
▪ The acute accent (l'accent aigu) é (e.g., école—school) means that the vowel
is pronounced /e/ instead of the default /ə/.
▪ The grave accent (l'accent grave) è (e.g., élève—pupil) means that the vowel
is pronounced /ɛ/ instead of the default /ə/.
▪ The circumflex (l'accent circonflexe) ê (e.g. forêt—forest) shows that an e is
pronounced /ɛ/ and that an ô is pronounced /o/. In standard French, it also
signifies a pronunciation of /ɑ/ for the letter â, but this differentiation is
disappearing. In the mid-18th century, the circumflex was used in place of s
after a vowel, where that letter s was not pronounced. Thus, forest became
forêt, hospital became hôpital, and hostel became hôtel.
▪ Diaeresis or tréma (ë, ï, ü, ÿ): over e, i, u or y, indicates that a vowel is to be
pronounced separately from the preceding one: naïve, Noël.
▪ö
▪ The combination of e with diaeresis following o (Noël [ɔɛ]) is nasalized in
the regular way if followed by n (Samoëns [wɛ̃])
▪ The combination of e with diaeresis following a is either pronounced [ɛ]
(Raphaël, Israël [aɛ]) or not pronounced, leaving only the a (Staël [a])
and the a is nasalized in the regular way if aë is followed by n (Saint-
Saëns [ɑ̃ ])
▪ A diaeresis on y only occurs in some proper names and in modern

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editions of old French texts. Some proper names in which ÿ appears

include Aÿ (a commune in Marne, formerly Aÿ-Champagne), Rue des
Cloÿs (an alley in Paris), Croÿ (family name and hotel on the Boulevard
Raspail, Paris), Château du Faÿ (near Pontoise), Ghÿs (name of Flemish
origin spelt Ghijs where ij in handwriting looked like ÿ to French clerks),
L'Haÿ-les-Roses (commune near Paris), Pierre Louÿs (author), Moÿ-de-
l'Aisne (commune in Aisne and a family name), and Le Blanc de Nicolaÿ
(an insurance company in eastern France).
▪ The diaeresis on u appears in the Biblical proper names Archélaüs,
Capharnaüm, Emmaüs, Ésaü, and Saül, as well as French names such as
Haüy. Nevertheless, since the 1990 orthographic changes, the diaeresis in
words containing guë (such as aiguë or ciguë) may be moved onto the u:
aigüe, cigüe, and by analogy may be used in verbs such as j'argüe.
▪ In addition, words coming from German retain their umlaut (ä, ö and ü) if
applicable but use often French pronunciation, such as Kärcher
(trademark of a pressure washer).
▪ The cedilla (la cédille) ç (e.g., garçon—boy) means that the letter ç is
pronounced /s/ in front of the back vowels a, o and u (c is otherwise /k/
before a back vowel). C is always pronounced /s/ in front of the front vowels
e, i, and y; thus ç is never found in front of front vowels. This letter is used
when a front vowel after ⟨c⟩, such as in France or placer, is replaced with a
back vowel. To retain the pronunciation of the ⟨c⟩, it is given a cedilla, as in
français or plaçons.
▪ Accents with no pronunciation effect
▪ The circumflex does not affect the pronunciation of the letters i or u, nor, in
most dialects, a. It usually indicates that an s came after it long ago, as in île
(from former isle, compare with English word "isle"). The explanation is that
some words share the same orthography, so the circumflex is put here to
mark the difference between the two words. For example, dites (you say) /
dîtes (you said), or even du (of the) / dû (past participle for the verb devoir =
must, have to, owe; in this case, the circumflex disappears in the plural and
the feminine).
▪ All other accents are used only to distinguish similar words, as in the case of
distinguishing the adverbs là and où ("there", "where") from the article la
("the" feminine singular) and the conjunction ou ("or"), respectively.

Some proposals exist to simplify the existing writing system, but they still fail to gather interest.[135][136][137]
[138]

In 1990, a reform accepted some changes to French orthography. At the time the proposed changes were
considered to be suggestions. In 2016, schoolbooks in France began to use the newer recommended
spellings, with instruction to teachers that both old and new spellings be deemed correct.[139]

Grammar
French is a moderately inflected language. Nouns and most pronouns are inflected for number (singular or

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plural, though in most nouns the plural is pronounced the same as the singular even if spelled differently);
adjectives, for number and gender (masculine or feminine) of their nouns; personal pronouns and a few other
pronouns, for person, number, gender, and case; and verbs, for tense, aspect, mood, and the person and
number of their subjects. Case is primarily marked using word order and prepositions, while certain verb
features are marked using auxiliary verbs. According to the French lexicogrammatical system, French has a
rank-scale hierarchy with clause as the top rank, which is followed by group rank, word rank, and morpheme
rank. A French clause is made up of groups, groups are made up of words, and lastly, words are made up of
morphemes.[140]

French grammar shares several notable features with most other Romance languages, including

▪ the loss of Latin declensions

▪ the loss of the neuter gender
▪ the development of grammatical articles from Latin demonstratives
▪ the loss of certain Latin tenses and the creation of new tenses from auxiliaries.

Nouns
Every French noun is either masculine or feminine. Because French nouns are not inflected for gender, a
noun's form cannot specify its gender. For nouns regarding the living, their grammatical genders often
correspond to that which they refer to. For example, a male teacher is an enseignant while a female teacher is
an enseignante. However, plural nouns that refer to a group that includes both masculine and feminine
entities are always masculine. So a group of two male teachers would be enseignants. A group of two male
teachers and two female teachers would still be enseignants. However, a group of two female teachers would
be enseignantes. In many situations, including in the case of enseignant, both the singular and plural form of
a noun are pronounced identically. The article used for singular nouns is different from that used for plural
nouns and the article provides a distinguishing factor between the two in speech. For example, the singular le
professeur or la professeure (the male or female teacher, professor) can be distinguished from the plural les
professeur(e)s because le /lə/, la /la/, and les /le(s)/ are all pronounced differently. With enseignant,
however, for both singular forms the le/la becomes l', and so the only difference in pronunciation is that the
⟨t⟩ on the end of masculine form is silent, whereas it is pronounced in the feminine. If the word was to be
followed by a word starting with a vowel, then liaison would cause the ⟨t⟩ to be pronounced in both forms,
resulting in identical pronunciation. There are also some situations where both the feminine and masculine
form of a noun are the same and the article provides the only difference. For example, le dentiste refers to a
male dentist while la dentiste refers to a female dentist. Furthermore, a few nouns' meanings depend on their
gender. For example, un livre (masculine) refers to a book, while une livre a (feminine) is a pound.

Verbs

Moods and tense-aspect forms

The French language consists of both finite and non-finite moods. The finite moods include the indicative
mood (indicatif), the subjunctive mood (subjonctif), the imperative mood (impératif), and the conditional
mood (conditionnel). The non-finite moods include the infinitive mood (infinitif), the present participle

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(participe présent), and the past participle (participe passé).

Finite moods

Indicative (indicatif)
The indicative mood makes use of eight tense-aspect forms. These include the present (présent), the simple
past (passé composé and passé simple), the past imperfective (imparfait), the pluperfect (plus-que-parfait),
the simple future (futur simple), the future perfect (futur antérieur), and the past perfect (passé antérieur).
Some forms are less commonly used today. In today's spoken French, the passé composé is used while the
passé simple is reserved for formal situations or for literary purposes. Similarly, the plus-que-parfait is used
for speaking rather than the older passé antérieur seen in literary works.

Within the indicative mood, the passé composé, plus-que-parfait, futur antérieur, and passé antérieur all use
auxiliary verbs in their forms.

Indicatif

Présent Imparfait Passé composé Passé simple

Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural

nous
1st nous nous nous
j'aime j'aimais j'ai aimé avons j'aimai
person aimons aimions aimâmes
aimé

vous
2nd vous vous tu as vous
tu aimes tu aimais avez tu aimas
person aimez aimiez aimé aimâtes
aimé

ils/elles
3rd il/elle ils/elles il/elle ils/elles il/elle a il/elle ils/elles
ont
person aime aiment aimait aimaient aimé aima aimèrent
aimé

Futur simple Futur antérieur Plus-que-parfait Passé antérieur

Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural

nous nous nous

1st nous j'aurai j'avais j'eus
j'aimerai aurons avions eûmes
person aimerons aimé aimé aimé
aimé aimé aimé

vous vous vous

2nd tu vous tu auras tu avais tu eus
aurez aviez eûtes
person aimeras aimerez aimé aimé aimé
aimé aimé aimé

il/elle ils/elles il/elle ils/elles ils/elles

3rd il/elle ils/elles il/elle eut
aura auront avait avaient eurent
person aimera aimeront aimé
aimé aimé aimé aimé aimé

Subjunctive (subjonctif)
The subjunctive mood only includes four of the tense-aspect forms found in the indicative: present (présent),
simple past (passé composé), past imperfective (imparfait), and pluperfect (plus-que-parfait).

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Within the subjunctive mood, the passé composé and plus-que-parfait use auxiliary verbs in their forms.

Subjonctif

Présent Imparfait Passé composé Plus-que-parfait

Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural

nous nous
1st nous nous j'aie j'eusse
j'aime j'aimasse ayons eussions
person aimions aimassions aimé aimé
aimé aimé

vous vous
2nd vous tu vous tu aies tu eusses
tu aimes ayez eussiez
person aimiez aimasses aimassiez aimé aimé
aimé aimé

ils/
ils/elles
3rd il/elle ils/elles il/elle ils/elles il/elle ait elles il/elle eût
eussent
person aime aiment aimât aimassent aimé aient aimé
aimé
aimé

Imperative (imperatif)
The imperative is used in the present tense (with the exception of a few instances where it is used in the
perfect tense). The imperative is used to give commands to you (tu), we/us (nous), and plural you (vous).

Imperatif

Présent

Singular Plural

1st person aimons

2nd person aime aimez

Conditional (conditionnel)
The conditional makes use of the present (présent) and the past (passé).

The passé uses auxiliary verbs in its forms.

Conditionnel

Présent Passé

Singular Plural Singular Plural

1st person j'aimerais nous aimerions j'aurais aimé nous aurions aimé

2nd person tu aimerais vous aimeriez tu aurais aimé vous auriez aimé

3rd person il/elle aimerait ils/elles aimeraient il/elle aurait aimé ils/elles auraient aimé

Voice
French uses both the active voice and the passive voice. The active voice is unmarked while the passive

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voice is formed by using a form of verb être ("to be") and the past participle.

Example of the active voice:

▪ "Elle aime le chien." She loves the dog.

▪ "Marc a conduit la voiture." Marc drove the car.
Example of the passive voice:

▪ "Le chien est aimé par elle." The dog is loved by her.
▪ "La voiture a été conduite par Marc." The car was driven by Marc.
However, unless the subject of the sentence is specified, generally the pronoun on "one" is used:

▪ "On aime le chien." The dog is loved. (Literally "one loves the dog.")
▪ "On conduit la voiture." The car is (being) driven. (Literally "one drives the car.")
Word order is subject–verb–object although a pronoun object precedes the verb. Some types of sentences
allow for or require different word orders, in particular inversion of the subject and verb, as in "Parlez-vous
français ?" when asking a question rather than "Vous parlez français ?" Both formulations are used, and
carry a rising inflection on the last word. The literal English translations are "Do you speak French?" and
"You speak French?", respectively. To avoid inversion while asking a question, "Est-ce que" (literally "is it
that") may be placed at the beginning of the sentence. "Parlez-vous français ?" may become "Est-ce que
vous parlez français ?" French also uses verb–object–subject (VOS) and object–subject–verb (OSV) word
order. OSV word order is not used often and VOS is reserved for formal writings.[32]

Vocabulary
The majority of French words derive from Vulgar Latin or were constructed from Latin or Greek roots. In
many cases, a single etymological root appears in French in a "popular" or native form, inherited from
Vulgar Latin, and a learned form, borrowed later from Classical Latin. The following pairs consist of a
native noun and a learned adjective:

▪ brother: frère / fraternel from Latin frater / fraternalis

▪ finger: doigt / digital from Latin digitus / digitalis
▪ faith: foi / fidèle from Latin fides / fidelis
▪ eye: œil / oculaire from Latin oculus / ocularis
However, a historical tendency to Gallicise Latin roots can be identified, whereas English conversely leans
towards a more direct incorporation of the Latin:

▪ rayonnement / radiation from Latin radiatio

▪ éteindre / extinguish from Latin exstinguere
▪ noyau / nucleus from Latin nucleus
▪ ensoleillement / insolation from Latin insolatio
There are also noun-noun and adjective-adjective pairs:

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▪ thing/cause: chose / cause from Latin

causa
▪ cold: froid / frigide from Latin frigidum
It can be difficult to identify the Latin source of
native French words because in the evolution from
Vulgar Latin, unstressed syllables were severely
reduced and the remaining vowels and consonants
underwent significant modifications.

More recently (1994) the linguistic policy (Toubon

Law) of the French language academies of France
Root languages of loanwords[141]
and Quebec has been to provide French
equivalents[142] to (mainly English) imported words, English (25.1%)
either by using existing vocabulary, extending its
Other Germanic languages (20.65%)
meaning or deriving a new word according to French
Italian (16.83%)
morphological rules. The result is often two (or
more) co-existing terms for describing the same Other Romance languages (15.26%)
phenomenon. Celtic (3.81%)
Persian and Sanskrit (2.67%)
▪ mercatique / marketing
▪ finance fantôme / shadow banking Native American (2.41%)
▪ bloc-notes / notepad Other Asian languages (2.12%)
▪ ailière / wingsuit Afro-Asiatic (6.45%)
▪ tiers-lieu / coworking Balto-Slavic (1.31%)
It is estimated that 12% (4,200) of common French Basque (0.24%)
words found in a typical dictionary such as the Petit Other languages (3.43%)
Larousse or Micro-Robert Plus (35,000 words) are
of foreign origin (where Greek and Latin learned
words are not seen as foreign). About 25% (1,054) of these foreign words come from English and are fairly
recent borrowings. The others are some 707 words from Italian, 550 from ancient Germanic languages, 481
from other Gallo-Romance languages, 215 from Arabic, 164 from German, 160 from Celtic languages, 159
from Spanish, 153 from Dutch, 112 from Persian and Sanskrit, 101 from Native American languages, 89
from other Asian languages, 56 from other Afro-Asiatic languages, 55 from Balto-Slavic languages, 10 from
Basque and 144 (about 3%) from other languages.[141]

One study analyzing the degree of differentiation of Romance languages in comparison to Latin estimated
that among the languages analyzed French has the greatest distance from Latin.[143] The French language's
lexical similarity to a selection of other Romance languages is 89% with Italian, 80% with Sardinian, 78%
with Rhaeto-Romance, and 75% with Romanian, Spanish and Portuguese.[144][1]

Numerals
The numeral system used in the majority of Francophone countries employs both decimal and vigesimal
counting. After the use of unique names for the numbers 1–16, those from 17 to 69 are counted by tens,

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while twenty (vingt) is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 70 to 99. The French word for
80 is quatre-vingts, literally "four twenties", and the word for 75 is soixante-quinze, literally "sixty-fifteen".
The vigesimal method of counting is analogous to the archaic English use of score, as in "fourscore and
seven" (87), or "threescore and ten" (70).

Belgian, Swiss, and Aostan French[145] as well as that used in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Rwanda and Burundi, use different names for 70 and 90, namely septante and nonante. In Switzerland,
depending on the local dialect, 80 can be quatre-vingts (Geneva, Neuchâtel, Jura) or huitante (Vaud, Valais,
Fribourg). The Aosta Valley similarly uses huitante[145] for 80. Conversely, Belgium and in its former
African colonies use quatre-vingts for 80.

In Old French (during the Middle Ages), all numbers from 30 to 99 could be said in either base 10 or base
20, e.g. vint et doze (twenty and twelve) for 32, dous vinz et diz (two twenties and ten) for 50, uitante for 80,
or nonante for 90.[146]

The term octante was historically used in Switzerland for 80, but is now considered archaic.[147]

French, like most European languages, uses a space to separate thousands.[148] The comma (French: virgule)
is used in French numbers as a decimal point, i.e. "2,5" instead of "2.5". In the case of currencies, the
currency markers are substituted for decimal point, i.e. "5$7" for "5 dollars and 7 cents".

Example text
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in French:

Tous les êtres humains naissent libres et égaux en dignité et en droits. Ils sont
doués de raison et de conscience et doivent agir les uns envers les autres dans
un esprit de fraternité.[149]

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed
with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of
brotherhood.[150]

See also
▪ Alliance Française France portal
▪ AZERTY
Language portal
▪ Français fondamental
▪ Francization
▪ Francophile
▪ Francophobia

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▪ Francophonie
▪ French language in the United States
▪ French language in Canada
▪ French poetry
▪ Glossary of French expressions in English
▪ Influence of French on English
▪ Language education
▪ List of countries where French is an official language
▪ List of English words of French origin
▪ List of French loanwords in Persian
▪ List of French words and phrases used by English speakers
▪ List of German words of French origin
▪ Official bilingualism in Canada
▪ Varieties of French

Notes
a. Dots: cities with native transmission, typically a minority.
b. French pronunciation: [fʁɑ̃ sɛ] ⓘ, Canadian French: [fʁãsɛ]
c. French pronunciation: [lɑ̃ ɡ fʁɑ̃ sɛːz] ⓘ, Canadian French: [lãɡ fʁãsaɛ̯z]
d. 29 full members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF): Benin,
Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad,
Comoros, DR Congo, Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt,
Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania,
Mauritius, Morocco, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Seychelles,
Togo, and Tunisia.
One associate member of the OIF: Ghana.
Two observers of the OIF: Gambia and Mozambique.
One country not member or observer of the OIF: Algeria.
Two French territories in Africa: Réunion and Mayotte.

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Works cited
▪ La langue française dans le monde 2014 (https://web.archive.org/web/2015041200
2239/http://www.francophonie.org/Langue-Francaise-2014/projet/Rapport-OIF-201
4.pdf) (PDF) (in French). Nathan. 2014. ISBN 978-2-09-882654-0. Archived from the
original (http://www.francophonie.org/Langue-Francaise-2014/projet/Rapport-OIF-20
14.pdf) (PDF) on 12 April 2015. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
▪ Roegiest, Eugeen (2006). Vers les sources des langues romanes: Un itinéraire
linguistique à travers la Romania. Leuven, Belgium: Acco.

Further reading
▪ Marc Fumaroli (2011). When the World Spoke French (https://archive.org/details/wh
enworldspokefr00fuma). Translated by Richard Howard. New York Review of Books.
ISBN 978-1-59017-375-6.

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French language - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_language

▪ Nadeau, Jean-Benoît, and Julie Barlow (2006). The Story of French. (First U.S. ed.)
New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-34183-0.
▪ Ursula Reutner (2017). Manuel des francophonies. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter.
ISBN 978-3-11-034670-1

External links

Organisations
▪ Fondation Alliance française (http://www.fondation-alliancefr.org/): an international
organisation for the promotion of French language and culture (in French)
▪ Agence de promotion du FLE (https://web.archive.org/web/20170201102539/http://
www.fle.fr/en/): Agency for promoting French as a foreign language

Courses and tutorials

▪ Français interactif (http://www.laits.utexas.edu/fi/): interactive French program,
University of Texas at Austin
▪ Tex's French Grammar (http://www.laits.utexas.edu/tex/), University of Texas at
Austin
▪ Lingopolo French (https://lingopolo.org/french/)
▪ French lessons in London (http://www.thelanguagemachine.co.uk/french-lessons-in-l
ondon/), The Language machine

Online dictionaries
▪ Oxford Dictionaries French Dictionary (https://web.archive.org/web/2001051604245
0/http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/)
▪ Collins Online English↔French Dictionary (https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictiona
ry/english-french)
▪ Centre national de ressources textuelles et lexicales (http://www.cnrtl.fr/):
monolingual dictionaries (including the Trésor de la langue française), language
corpora, etc.

Grammar

Verbs

▪ French verb conjugation (https://web.archive.org/web/20120206085345/http://ww

w.verbix.com/languages/french.shtml) at Verbix

Vocabulary

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French language - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_language

▪ Swadesh list in English and French

Numbers

▪ Smith, Paul. "French, Numbers" (https://web.archive.org/web/20170302235307/htt

p://www.numberphile.com/videos/french_numbers.html). Numberphile. Brady
Haran. Archived from the original (http://www.numberphile.com/videos/french_num
bers.html) on 2 March 2017. Retrieved 7 April 2013.

Books

▪ (in French) La langue française dans le monde 2010 (https://web.archive.org/web/2

0120603081542/http://www.francophonie.org/IMG/pdf/langue_francaise_monde_int
egral.pdf) (Full book freely accessible)

Articles

▪ "The status of French in the world (http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/french-foreign-

policy/francophony-1113/the-status-of-french-in-the-world/)". French Ministry of
Foreign Affairs

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=French_language&oldid=1299238680"

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