French language

French (Template:Langx Template:IPA or Template:Langx Template:IPA) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-Romance, a descendant of the Latin spoken in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French (Francien) largely supplanted. It was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul and by the Germanic Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 16th century onward, it was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, and Asia, and numerous French-based creole languages, most notably Haitian Creole, were developed. A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French.

French is an official language in 26 countries, as well as one of the most geographically widespread languages in the world, with speakers in about 50 countries.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Most of these countries are members of the Template:Lang (OIF), the community of 54 member states which share the use or teaching of French. It is estimated to have about 310 million speakers, of which about 74 million are native speakers;<ref>Template:E26</ref> it is spoken as a first language (in descending order of the number of speakers) in France, Canada (Quebec), Belgium (Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region), western Switzerland (Romandy region), parts of Luxembourg, and Monaco.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Meanwhile in Francophone Africa it is spoken mainly as a second language or lingua franca, though it has also become a native language in a small number of urban areas; in some North African countries like Algeria, despite not having official status, it is also a first language among some upper classes of the population alongside the indigenous ones, but only a second one among the general population.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

In 2015, approximately 40% of the Francophone population (including L2 and partial speakers) lived in Europe, 36% in sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas, and 1% in Asia and Oceania.<ref name="OIF">Template:Cite web</ref> French is the second most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union.<ref name="nativeLanguages">Template:Citation</ref> Of Europeans who speak other languages natively, approximately one-fifth are able to speak French as a second language.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Many institutions of the EU use French as a working language along with English, German and Italian; in some institutions, French is the sole working language (e.g. at the Court of Justice of the European Union).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> French is also the 22nd most natively spoken language in the world,<ref name=e28>Statistics, in Template:E28</ref> the sixth most spoken language by total number of speakers, and is among the top five most studied languages worldwide, with about 120 million learners as of 2017.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> French has a long history as an international language of literature and scientific standards and is a primary or second language of many international organisations including the United Nations, the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the World Trade Organization, the International Olympic Committee, the General Conference on Weights and Measures, and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

History

Template:Main French is a Romance language (meaning that it is descended primarily from Vulgar Latin) that evolved out of the Gallo-Romance dialects spoken in northern France. The language's early forms include Old French and Middle French.

Vulgar Latin in Gaul

Due to Roman rule, Latin was gradually adopted by the inhabitants of Gaul. As the language was learned by the common people, it developed a distinct local character, with grammatical differences from Latin as spoken elsewhere, some of which is attested in graffiti.<ref name="Adams" /> This local variety evolved into the Gallo-Romance tongues, which include French and its closest relatives, such as Franco-Provençal.

The evolution of Latin in Gaul was shaped by its coexistence for over half a millennium beside the native Celtic Gaulish language, which did not go extinct until the late sixth century, long after the fall of the Western Roman Empire.<ref name="Helix">Template:Cite book</ref> Because few Latin speakers settled in rural areas during Roman times, Latin there held little or no social value for the peasantry; as a result, 90% of the total population of Gaul remained indigenous in origin. The urban aristocracy, who used Latin for trade, education or official uses, would send their children to Roman schools and administered lands for Rome. In the fifth century, at the time of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the vast majority of the (predominantly rural) population remained Gaulish speakers. They shifted to Latin as their native speech only one century after the Frankish conquest of Gaul, adopting the prestige language of their urban literate elite. This eventual spread of Latin can be attributed to the social migration from the focus of urban power to village-centred economies and legal serfdom.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Mufwene">Template:Cite journal</ref>

The Gaulish language likely survived into the sixth century in France despite considerable Romanization.<ref name="Helix" /> Coexisting with Latin, Gaulish helped shape the Vulgar Latin dialects that developed into French<ref name="Mufwene" /><ref name="Helix" /> contributing loanwords and calques (including Template:Lang,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> the word for "yes"),<ref name="Savignac" /> sound changes shaped by Gaulish influence,<ref name="PellegriniCeltic">Template:Cite book Celtic influences on French discussed in pages 64–67. Page 65:"In recent years the primary role of the substratum... has been disputed. Best documented is the CT- > it change which is found in all Western Romania... more reservations have been expressed about... ū > [y]..."; :"Summary on page 67: "There can be no doubt that the way French stands out from the other Western Romance languages (Vidos 1956: 363) is largely due to the intensity of its Celtic substratum, compared with lateral areas like Iberia and Venetia..."</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Sfn and influences in conjugation and word order.<ref name="Savignac">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Matas">Template:Cite conference</ref><ref name="Adams">Template:Cite book</ref> Recent computational studies suggest that early gender shifts may have been motivated by the gender of the corresponding word in Gaulish.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

The estimated number of French words that can be attributed to Gaulish is placed at 154 by the Petit Robert,<ref name="SchmittLex">Template:Cite journal</ref> which is often viewed as representing standardized French, while if non-standard dialects are included, the number increases to 240.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Known Gaulish loans are skewed toward certain semantic fields, such as plant life (Template:Lang, Template:Lang, etc.), animals (Template:Lang, Template:Lang, etc.), nature (Template:Lang, etc.), domestic activities (ex. Template:Lang), farming and rural units of measure (Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang), weapons,<ref name=HolmesSchutz30>Template:Cite book</ref> and products traded regionally rather than further afield.Template:Sfn This semantic distribution has been attributed to peasants being the last to hold onto Gaulish.Template:Sfn<ref name=HolmesSchutz30 />

Old French

Template:MainThe beginning of French in Gaul was greatly influenced by Germanic invasions into the country. These invasions had the greatest impact on the northern part of the country and on the language there.<ref name=":02">Template:Cite web</ref> A language divide began to grow across the country. The population in the north spoke Template:Lang while the population in the south spoke Template:Lang.<ref name=":02" /> Langue d'oïl grew into what is known as Old French. The period of Old French spanned between the late 8th<ref name="French first attested">Template:Cite book [2-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it was deemed no longer make to think of the varieties spoken in Gaul as Latin. Although a precise date can't be given, there is a general consensus (see Wright 1982, 1991, Lodge 1993) that an awareness of a vernacular, distinct from Latin, emerged at the end of the eighth century.]</ref> and mid-14th centuries. Old French shared many characteristics with Latin. For example, Old French made use of different possible word orders just as Latin did because it had a case system that retained the difference between nominative subjects and oblique non-subjects.<ref name="Lahousse_2012">Template:Cite journal</ref> The period is marked by a heavy superstrate influence from the Germanic Frankish language, which non-exhaustively included the use in upper-class speech and higher registers of V2 word order,<ref>Rowlett, P. 2007. The Syntax of French. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Page 4</ref> a large percentage of the vocabulary (now at around 15% of modern French vocabulary<ref>Pope, Mildred K. (1934). From Latin to Modern French with Especial Consideration of Anglo-Norman Phonology and Morphology. Manchester: Manchester University Press.</ref>) including the impersonal singular pronoun Template:Lang (a calque of Germanic man), and the name of the language itself.

Up until its later stages, Old French, alongside Old Occitan, maintained a relic of the old nominal case system of Latin longer than most other Romance languages (with the notable exception of Romanian which still currently maintains a case distinction), 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 Template:Lang which would later be leveled to monophthongs.Template:Citation needed

The earliest evidence of what became Old French can be seen in the Oaths of Strasbourg and the Sequence of Saint Eulalia, while Old French literature began to be produced in the eleventh century, with major early works often focusing on the lives of saints (such as the Vie de Saint Alexis), or wars and royal courts, notably including the Chanson de Roland, epic cycles focused on King Arthur and his court, as well as a cycle focused on William of Orange.Template:Citation needed

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 themTemplate:Who as Template:Lang, numerous Arabic loanwords entered French, such as Template:Lang (admiral), Template:Lang (alcohol), Template:Lang (cotton) and Template:Lang (syrop), as well as scientific terms such as Template:Lang (algebra), Template:Lang (alchemy) and Template:Lang (zero).<ref name="google.fr">Template:Cite book</ref>

Middle French

Template:Main 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).<ref name=":02" /> Modern French grew out of this Francien dialect.<ref name=":02" /> 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref name="andaman.org">The World's 10 Most Influential Languages. Template:Webarchive. Top Languages. Retrieved 11 April 2011.</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

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 Template:Lang to protect the French language. By the early 1800s, Parisian French had become the primary language of the aristocracy in France.

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".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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".<ref name="Labouysse_2007">Template:Cite book</ref> 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..."<ref name="Labouysse_2007" /> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

French in the 21st Century

In the 21st century, the French language has undergone significant transformations in both linguistic and sociopolitical contexts. Linguistically, French is increasingly shaped by regional variations, particularly those emerging from sub-Saharan Africa. Youth sociolects and vernacular influences, such as Camfranglais in Cameroon and Nouchi in Côte d’Ivoire, have given rise to hybrid linguistic forms that not only dominate local informal communication but are also gaining traction in Francophone popular culture, music, and social media across the broader Francosphere.<ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> While there is significant variation in spoken French, written French stays largely consistent. While French is a significant language on the internet ranking fourth, only approximately 65.5% of Francophones have access to the internet.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":10">Template:Cite web</ref> In the 21st century, French remains a major language for business, diplomacy, and culture though its use, geography, and sociopolitical context continues to shift with declines in some areas (including academia) and growth in others.<ref name=":10" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

On a global scale, the number of French speakers continues to rise, largely attributable to demographic growth in sub-Saharan Africa, where French serves as an official, educational, and administrative language in numerous states. French now serves as a language of instruction in the educational systems serving approximately 93 million pupils from 36 countries and governments worldwide, 24 of which are located in the Africa–Indian Ocean and Middle East regions, either as the sole language or in combination with others.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":10" /> Notably, 80% of students attending French-language schools are in Africa, where French is commonly used both for teaching and as a shared means of communication among different communities.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":10" /> The majority of Francophones in the sub-Saharan region and the Maghreb are young, and are found in the 15–24 age group.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":10" /> This growth contrasts with the declining presence of French in parts of Asia, particularly in former French colonies such as Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, where it has been largely replaced by local languages and English in both public life and education, though significant immigrant populations from these regions continue in France and other francophone regions.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":10" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In sociopolitical terms, French remains deeply entangled in debates over language, identity, and historical legacy. In the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, and Cameroon, (among others) French remains the undisputed language of government, formal education, and major media. The 2022 OIF report highlights that in Kinshasa, Brazzaville, Abidjan, and Yaoundé, French serves as the dominant vehicular language, so entrenched that many urban children acquire it alongside local vernaculars as a de facto first language.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":10" /> Several Sahelian states have formally curtailed French as part of postcolonial language-planning. Many governments and residents perceive it to be a remnant of colonial rule, in a complex context of cultural and political sovereignty discussions, local and Russian propaganda, political and military conflicts, and other factors.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":10" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In July 2023, Mali’s constitutional referendum demoted French from "official" to merely "working" status while elevating thirteen indigenous tongues to constitutional parity.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Burkina Faso’s transitional authorities have announced similar plans to strip French of its official role, framing these moves as assertions of cultural sovereignty as well as a closer relationship to Russian than France.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Yet in both Bamako and Ouagadougou, French endures as the lingua franca of higher education, national media, and interethnic commerce. The language being primarily spoken by secondary-language speakers who have mixed use of the language but reflecting the complicated role of the language in these contexts amidst French military withdrawal in Africa, rising nationalism, shifting alliances, and other factors.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":10" />

In longstanding Francophone strongholds, policymakers now seek a more balanced multilingual landscape. Senegal’s government has expanded Wolof-language programming on public television and begun renaming colonial-era names in Dakar, even though French remains the sole constitutional language and continues to dominate academia.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This reflects a real commitment seen in Senegal and elsewhere to shift from French to local languages or English.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Algeria has mandated Arabic-medium instruction in formerly Francophone private schools and introduced English tracks at its universities, framed as part of a broader multilingual strategy but in the context of diplomatic issues with France, yet French persists in judicial proceedings, international business, and everyday urban speech in Algiers and Oran and debate continues internally on language in the country.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Meanwhile, in Morocco and Tunisia, French continues to enjoy high prestige, both governments maintain bilingual curricula in secondary and tertiary education, and French remains the lingua franca of tourism, scientific research, and many private-sector enterprises.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":10" /> Québec has doubled down on French through Bill 96 (An Act respecting French, the official and common language of Québec), assented on 1 June 2022. Bill 96 reaffirms French as the province’s sole official language, tightens requirements for French language services and commercial signage, and expands the Charter of the French Language’s scope which are measures designed to counter anglophone pressures and reinforce cultural identity.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Similarly, countries such as Madagascar, Central African Republic, Chad, and Haiti, have legally committed to French alongside local languages.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Overall, French remains a practical and widely accepted medium of communication, particularly where linguistic diversity demands a neutral lingua franca.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":10" /> Despite regional tensions or reductions in certain contexts, French continues to expand as a global language of diplomacy, development, and multilateral cooperation.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":10" /> Several non-Francophone countries, including Rwanda, Ethiopia, Ghana, and even countries outside Africa such as Moldova and the United Arab Emirates, have joined or expanded their involvement in the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Their participation reflects an interest in leveraging French for international diplomacy, educational exchange, and regional economic integration.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":10" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> French is also used for collaboration on public health, economic development, business and local governance including through the Association internationale des maires francophones (AIMF) and other organizations.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Francophone collaboration today spans an increasingly diverse set of domains. In media, international broadcasters such as TV5Monde, Radio France Internationale (RFI), and France 24 play key roles in disseminating French-language content worldwide, especially across Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and the Caribbean.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In education, institutions like the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF) and Espace Francophone pour la Recherche, le Développement et l’Innovation support research and academic partnerships between Francophone universities across five continents.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In culture, the arts, and sports events like the Jeux de la Francophonie foster artistic exchange and culture and reflect increased francophone art and culture emerging outside of Europe and used in local communities around the world including new francophone social media, francophone cinema, TV, francophone literature, art, francophone music, and sport.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Future

According to a demographic projection led by the Réseau Démographie de l'Agence universitaire de la Francophonie, the total number of French speakers will reach approximately 500 million in 2025 and over 1 billion by 2050, largely due to rapid population growth in sub-Saharan Africa.<ref>Template:Cite web (in French)</ref> OIF estimates 700 million French speakers by 2050, 80% of whom will be in Africa.<ref name="OIF" />

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Geographic distribution

Distribution of native French speakers in 6 countries in 2023

Europe

Knowledge of French in the European Union and candidate countries<ref>EUROPA Template:Webarchive, data for EU25, published before 2007 enlargement.</ref>

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 English.<ref name="nativeLanguages" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Under the Constitution of France, French has been the official language of the Republic since 1992,<ref name="Benet-MartínezHong2014">Template:Citation</ref> 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 (approx. 80%), often as their primary language.<ref name="philippevanparijs">Template:Cite journal</ref>

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%<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> of the population.

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),<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> in which is spoken as a first language by 1.25% of the population and as a second one by approximately 50%.<ref>Une Vallée d'Aoste bilingue dans une Europe plurilingue / Una Valle d'Aosta bilingue in un'Europa plurilingue, Aoste, Fondation Émile Chanoux, 2003.</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Africa

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Official status of French in Africa as of 2025:
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Countries of Africa by percentage of French speakers in 2023 Template:Legend Template:Legend Template:Legend Template:Legend Template:Legend Template:Legend

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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> According to a 2023 estimate from the Template:Lang, an estimated 167 million African people spread across 35 countries and territoriesTemplate:Efn can speak French as either a first or a second language;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="2023_speakers">Template:Cite web</ref> only 1.2 million of these spoke it as a first language according to Ethnologue.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Language and slang from francophone Africa, particularly as popularized through music, are playing a growing role in influencing French across the francophone world.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

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,<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref> Kinshasa, and Lubumbashi,<ref name="Carson">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=":7">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":8">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=":9">Template:Cite journal</ref> Douala,<ref name=":3">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":4">Template:Cite web</ref> Libreville,<ref name=":5">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=":6">Template:Cite web</ref> Antananarivo,<ref name="Øyvind_2024">Template:Cite web</ref> Cotonou,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Brazzaville.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> However, in contrast to Central Africa and most of West Africa where French had been entrenched, countries in North Africa and the Sahel have generally distanced themselves from the language due to colonial connections.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> For example, Algeria intermittently attempted to remove the use of French in favor of a strong native language (see Arabization), and French has recently also been removed as an official language in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger in 2023, 2024, and 2025, respectively.<ref name=Africanews>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=Africanews2>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=hasual>Template:Cite web</ref> Despite these changes and the emergence of English as a global lingua franca, French today remains a major language in the societies of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050.<ref name="2023_data_sheet">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref> French was the fastest growing language on the continent (in terms of either official or foreign languages).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>France-Diplomatie Template:Webarchive "Furthermore, the demographic growth of Southern hemisphere countries leads us to anticipate a new increase in the overall number of French speakers."</ref> It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years.<ref>Template:In lang "Le français, langue en évolution. Dans beaucoup de pays francophones, surtout sur le continent africain, une proportion importante de la population ne parle pas couramment le français (même s'il est souvent la langue officielle du pays). Ce qui signifie qu'au fur et à mesure que les nouvelles générations vont à l'école, le nombre de francophones augmente : on estime qu'en 2015, ceux-ci seront deux fois plus nombreux qu'aujourd'hui. Template:Webarchive"</ref><ref>Template:In lang c) Le sabir franco-africain Template:Webarchive: Template:Lang</ref> Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries,<ref>Template:In lang République centrafricaine Template:Webarchive: Template:Lang (One example of a variety of African French that is difficult to understand for European French speakers).</ref> but written forms of the language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world. Template:Clear

Americas

Canada

Template:Multiple image 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).<ref name="2021-census">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Qu'est-ce que la Francophonie">Template:Cite web</ref> Although French is spoken throughout Canada, it is mostly present in Quebec, with significant Francophone populations also being found in New Brunswick, especially the region of Acadia, and parts of Northern and Eastern Ontario.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

French is the sole official language in the province of Quebec, where some 80% of the population speak it as a native language and 95% are capable of conducting a conversation in it.<ref name="2021-census"/> Quebec is also home to the city of Montreal, which is the world's fourth-largest French-speaking city, by number of first language speakers.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> New Brunswick and Manitoba are the only officially 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and is just across the river from the Quebecois city of Gatineau.

United States

French language spread in the United States. Counties marked in lighter pink are those where 6–12% of the population speaks French at home; medium pink, 12–18%; darker pink, over 18%. French-based creole languages are not included.

According to the United States Census Bureau (2011), French is the fourth<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref name="factfinder2.census.gov">Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> French also survived in isolated pockets along the Gulf Coast of what was previously French Lower 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 Creole as their first language; the rest largely speak French as a first language.<ref name="DeGraff2015">Template:Cite web</ref> As a French Creole language, Haitian Creole draws the large majority of its vocabulary from French, with influences from West African languages, as well as several European languages. It is closely related to Louisiana Creole and the creole from the Lesser Antilles.<ref>Ministère de l'Éducation nationale</ref>

French is the sole official language of all the overseas territories of France in the Caribbean that are collectively referred to as the French West Indies, namely Guadeloupe, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin, and Martinique.

Other Caribbean French Creoles

In the countries of Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia, Trinidad <ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Venezuela <ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Panama <ref>Template:Cite web</ref> French based creoles are used in lesser capacities, <ref>Template:Cite web</ref> being secondary languages. <ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It should be understood that Creoles are distinct from French although they are occasionally intelligible (depending on the Creole and how much French influence the language received). The Creoles of Venezuela and Panama are dying/severely endangered. In Trinidad and Grenada creole (known colloquially as Patwa) are only spoken by elders although revitalisation efforts are growing. In Dominica and St Lucia standard French is also used unofficially as a third language and some people use French and French creoles interchangeably.

Other territories

French is the official language of both French Guiana on the South American continent,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and of Saint Pierre and Miquelon,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> an archipelago off the coast of Newfoundland in North America.

Asia

Southeast Asia

Template:See also French was the official language of the colony of French Indochina, comprising modern-day Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. It continues to be an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent decades.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In colonial Vietnam, the elites primarily spoke French, while many servants who worked in French households spoke a French pidgin known as "Tây Bồi" (now extinct). After French rule ended, South Vietnam continued to use French in administration, education, and trade.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> However, since the Fall of Saigon and the opening of a unified Vietnam's economy, French has gradually declined in modern Vietnam: it has been effectively displaced as the first foreign language of choice by English, and slightly under 1% of the population was fluent in French in 2018.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Nevertheless, it continues to be taught as the other main foreign language in the Vietnamese educational system and is regarded as a cultural language.<ref>Kirkpatrick, Andy and Anthony J. Liddicoat, The Routledge International Handbook of Language Education Policy in Asia., Routledge, 2019, p. 192</ref> All three countries are full members of La Francophonie (OIF).

Lebanon

Town sign in Standard Arabic and French at the entrance of Rechmaya in 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".<ref name="article_11">Template:Cite web</ref> 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 road signs, on Lebanese license plates, and on official buildings (alongside Arabic).

Today, French and English are secondary languages of Lebanon, with about 40% of the population being Francophone and 40% Anglophone.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

India

Template:See also 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.<ref name="timesofindia.indiatimes.com">Template:Cite news</ref> A small number of older locals still retain knowledge of the language, although it has now given way to Tamil and English.<ref name="timesofindia.indiatimes.com" /><ref>Pondicherry, the French outpost in India Template:Webarchive, France 24</ref>

Oceania

File:CFP 500 recto.jpg

A 500-CFP franc (€4.20; US$5.00) banknote, used in French Polynesia, New Caledonia and Wallis and Futuna

French is an official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu, where 31% of the population was estimated to speak it in 2023.<ref name="2023_speakers" /> It is the sole official language in the French special collectivity of New Caledonia and the overseas collectivities of Wallis and Futuna and French Polynesia.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

In New Caledonia, 97% of the population can speak, read and write French<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> while in French Polynesia this figure is 95%,<ref name="PF_2017">Template:Cite web</ref> and in Wallis and Futuna, it is 84%.<ref name="WF_2018">Template:Cite web</ref> In French Polynesia and to a lesser extent Wallis and Futuna, where oral and written knowledge of the French language has become almost universal, French increasingly tends to displace the native Polynesian languages as the language most spoken at home. In French Polynesia, the percentage of the population who reported that French was the language they use the most at home rose from 67% at the 2007 census to 74% at the 2017 census.<ref name="PF_2007">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="PF_2017" /> 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.<ref name="WF_2018" /><ref name="WF_2008">Template:Cite web</ref>

Varieties

• African French
  • Maghreb French (North African French)
• Aostan French
• Belgian French
• Cambodian French
• 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

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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,<ref name="Francophonie">Template:Cite web</ref> without specifying the criteria for this estimation or whom it encompasses.<ref name="ontheuplocalfr2014">Template:Cite web</ref> French is regarded as an influental world language because of its wide use in the worlds of journalism, jurisprudence, education, and diplomacy,<ref>Kai Chan, Distinguished Fellow, INSEAD Innovation and Policy Initiative, "These are the most powerful languages in the world" Template:Webarchive, World Economic Forum, December 2016</ref> though its use, geography, and sociopolitical context continues to shift with declines in some areas, including academia, and growth in others.<ref name=":10" /> 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";<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> despite this growth in parts of Central and West Africa, where it had been entrenched as an official, administrative and educational language in numerous states, countries in North Africa and the Sahel have generally distanced themselves from the language due to colonial connections: some countries such as Algeria intermittently attempted to eradicate the use of French, and it was removed as an official language in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger in 2023, 2024, and 2025, respectively.<ref name=Africanews/><ref name=Africanews2/> Its use is also largely declined in parts of Asia, particularly in former French colonies such as Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, where it has been replaced by local languages and English in both public life and education.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":10" />

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<ref name="dawnmarley">Rodney Ball, Dawn Marley, The French-Speaking World: A Practical Introduction to Sociolinguistic Issues, Taylor & Francis, 2016, page 6</ref>), one of twenty official and three procedural languages of the 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).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

In 1997, George Weber published, in Language Today, a comprehensive academic study entitled "The World's 10 most influential languages". In the article, Weber ranked French as, after English, the second-most influential language of the world, ahead of Spanish. 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). In a 2008 reassessment of his article, Weber concluded that his findings were still correct since "the situation among the top ten remains unchanged."<ref name="weber">The World's 10 most influential languages, George Weber, 1997, Language Today, retrieved on scribd.com</ref>

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%).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> MIT economist Albert Saiz calculated a 2.3% premium for those who have French as a foreign language in the workplace.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese.<ref name="Lauerman2011">Template:Citation</ref>

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.Template:Cn

Phonology

File:10-07-2013 - Mary Robinson juge « inacceptables » les violences faites aux femmes en RDC - VOA.ogg

Spoken French (Africa)

Consonant phonemes in French

		Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental/ Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular
Nasal		Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link	(Template:IPA link)
Stop	Template:Small	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link			Template:IPA link
	Template:Small	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link			Template:IPA link
Fricative	Template:Small		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link			Template:IPA link
	Template:Small		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Approximant	Template:Small					Template:IPA link
	Template:Small					Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Lateral Approximant				Template:IPAlink

Vowel phonemes in French

Oral Front Central Back Template:Small Template:Small Close Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Close-mid Template:IPA link Template:IPA link (Template:IPA link) Template:IPA link Open-mid Template:IPA link/(Template:IPA link) Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Open Template:IPA link (Template:IPA link)

Nasal Front Back Template:Small Template:Small Open-mid Template:IPA link (Template:IPA link) Template:IPA link Open Template:IPA link

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: Template:IPA plus the nasalized vowels Template:IPA and Template:IPA. In France, the vowels Template:IPA, Template:IPA and Template:IPA are tending to be replaced by Template:IPA, Template:IPA and Template:IPA in many people's speech, but the distinction of Template:IPA and Template:IPA is present in Meridional French. In Quebec and Belgian French, the vowels Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA and Template:IPA are present.
• Voiced stops (i.e., Template:IPA) are typically produced fully voiced throughout.
• Voiceless stops (i.e., Template:IPA) are unaspirated.
• The velar nasal Template:IPA can occur in final position in borrowed (usually English) words: Template:Lang.
• The palatal nasal Template:IPA, which is written ⟨gn⟩, can occur in word initial position (e.g., Template:Lang), but it is most frequently found in intervocalic, onset position or word-finally (e.g., Template:Lang).
• French has three pairs of homorganic fricatives distinguished by voicing, i.e., labiodental Template:IPA, dental Template:IPA, and palato-alveolar Template:IPA. Template:IPA are dental, like the plosives Template:IPA and the nasal Template:IPA.
• 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 Template:IPA Template:Wikt-lang, "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 Template:IPA occurs in some dialects. The cluster /ʁw/ is generally pronounced as a labialised voiced uvular fricative Template:Ipa, such as in Template:Ipa Template:Lang, "king", or Template:Ipa Template:Lang, "to believe".
• Lateral and central approximants: The lateral approximant Template:IPA is unvelarised in both onset (Template:Lang) and coda position (Template:Lang). In the onset, the central approximants Template:IPA, Template:IPA, and Template:IPA each correspond to a high vowel, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, and Template:IPA 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 Template:IPA and Template:IPA occur in final position as in Template:IPA Template:Wikt-lang, "pay", vs. Template:IPA Template:Wikt-lang, "country".
• The lateral approximant /l/ can be delateralised when word- or morpheme-final and preceded by /i/, such as in /tʁavaj/ Template:Lang, "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 Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang, but can also be silent, as in Template:Lang or Template:Lang. 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 (Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang 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 Template:Lang or Template:Lang; some are optional, depending on dialect and register, for example, the first s in Template:Lang or Template:Lang; and some are forbidden, for example, the s in Template:Lang. The t of Template:Lang is never pronounced and the silent final consonant of a noun is only pronounced in the plural and in set phrases like Template:Lang.
  • Doubling a final n and adding a silent e at the end of a word (e.g., Template:Lang → Template:Lang) makes it clearly pronounced. Doubling a final l and adding a silent e (e.g., Template:Lang → Template:Lang) adds a [j] sound if the l is preceded by the letter i.
• Some monosyllabic function words ending in a or e, such as Template:Lang and Template:Lang, drop their 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., Template:Lang is instead pronounced and spelled Template:Lang). This gives, for example, the same pronunciation for Template:Lang ("the man whom he saw") and Template:Lang ("the man who saw him"). However, in Belgian French the sentences are pronounced differently; in the first sentence the syllable break is as "Template:Lang", while the second breaks as "Template:Lang". It can also be noted that, in Quebec French, the second example (Template:Lang) has more emphasis on Template:Lang.

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, thisTemplate:Ambiguous 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 Template:Lang > French Template:Lang "finger" (Latin Template:Lang)
• Old French Template:Lang > French Template:Lang "foot" [Latin Template:Lang (stem: Template:Lang)]

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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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 Template:Lang and Template:Lang both end with the /e/ phoneme.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Additionally, there are many variations in the pronunciation of consonants at the end of words, demonstrated by how the x in Template:Lang is not pronounced though at the end of Template:Lang 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: Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang. The same words followed by a vowel, however, may sound the consonants, as they do in these examples: Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang.

French writing, as with any language, is affected by the spoken language. In Old French, the plural for Template:Lang was Template:Lang. The Template:IPA sequence was unstableTemplate:Explain and was turned into a diphthong Template:IPA. This change was then reflected in the orthography: Template:Lang. The us ending, very common in Latin, was then abbreviated by copyists (monks) to the letter x, resulting in a written form Template:Lang. As the French language further evolved, the pronunciation of au turned into Template:IPA so that the u was reestablished in orthography for consistency, resulting in modern French Template:Lang (pronounced first Template:IPA before the final Template:IPA was dropped in contemporary French). The same is true for Template:Lang pluralized as Template:Lang and many others. In addition, Template:Lang pl. Template:Lang became Template:Lang pl. Template:Lang.

• 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, Template:Lang is pronounced Template:IPA and not Template:IPA. However, gemination does occur between words; for example, Template:Lang ("a news item" or "a piece of information") is pronounced Template:IPA, whereas Template:Lang ("a nymphomaniac") is pronounced Template:IPA.
• Accents are used sometimes for pronunciation, sometimes to distinguish similar words, and sometimes based on etymology alone.
  • Accents that affect pronunciation
    • The acute accent (Template:Lang) é (e.g., Template:Lang—school) means that the vowel is pronounced Template:IPA instead of the default Template:IPA.
    • The grave accent (Template:Lang) è (e.g., Template:Lang—pupil) means that the vowel is pronounced Template:IPA instead of the default Template:IPA.
    • The circumflex (Template:Lang) ê (e.g. Template:Lang—forest) shows that an e is pronounced Template:IPA and that an ô is pronounced Template:IPA. In standard French, it also signifies a pronunciation of Template:IPA 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, Template:Lang became Template:Lang, Template:Lang became Template:Lang, and Template:Lang became Template:Lang.
    • Diaeresis or Template:Lang (ë, ï, ü, ÿ): over e, i, u or y, indicates that a vowel is to be pronounced separately from the preceding one: Template:Lang, Template:Lang.
      • ö Template:Clarify
      • The combination of e with diaeresis following o (Template:Lang Template:IPA) is nasalized in the regular way if followed by n (Template:Lang Template:IPA)
      • The combination of e with diaeresis following a is either pronounced Template:IPA (Template:Lang, Template:Lang Template:IPA) or not pronounced, leaving only the a (Template:Lang Template:IPA) and the a is nasalized in the regular way if aë is followed by n (Template:Lang Template:IPA)
      • A diaeresis on y only occurs in some proper names and in modern editions of old French texts. Some proper names in which ÿ appears include Template:Lang (a commune in Marne, formerly Template:Lang), Template:Lang (an alley in Paris), Template:Lang (family name and hotel on the Boulevard Raspail, Paris), Template:Lang (near Pontoise), Template:Lang (name of Flemish origin spelt Template:Lang where ij in handwriting looked like ÿ to French clerks), Template:Lang (commune near Paris), Pierre Louÿs (author), Moÿ-de-l'Aisne (commune in Aisne and a family name), and Template:Lang (an insurance company in eastern France).
      • The diaeresis on u appears in the Biblical proper names Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang, and Template:Lang, as well as French names such as Haüy. Nevertheless, since the 1990 orthographic changes, the diaeresis in words containing guë (such as Template:Lang or Template:Lang) may be moved onto the u: Template:Lang, Template:Lang, and by analogy may be used in verbs such as Template:Lang.
      • 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 (Template:Lang) ç (e.g., Template:Lang—boy) means that the letter ç is pronounced Template:IPA in front of the back vowels a, o and u (c is otherwise Template:IPA before a back vowel). C is always pronounced Template:IPA 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 Template:Lang or Template:Lang, is replaced with a back vowel. To retain the pronunciation of the ⟨c⟩, it is given a cedilla, as in Template:Lang or Template:Lang.
  • 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 Template:Lang (from former Template:Lang, 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, Template:Lang (you say) / Template:Lang (you said), or even Template:Lang (of the) / Template:Lang (past participle for the verb Template:Lang = 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 Template:Lang and Template:Lang ("there", "where") from the article Template:Lang ("the" feminine singular) and the conjunction Template:Lang ("or"), respectively.

Some proposals exist to simplify the existing writing system, but they still fail to gather interest.<ref>Template:In lang Fonétik.fr writing system proposal Template:Webarchive.</ref><ref>Template:In lang Ortofasil writing system proposal Template:Webarchive.</ref><ref>Template:In lang Alfograf writing system proposal Template:Webarchive.</ref><ref>Template:In lang Ortograf.net writing system proposal Template:Webarchive.</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Grammar

Template:Main French is a moderately inflected language. Nouns and most pronouns are inflected for number (singular or 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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 Template:Lang while a female teacher is an Template:Lang. 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 Template:Lang. A group of two male teachers and two female teachers would still be Template:Lang. However, a group of two female teachers would be Template:Lang. In many situations, including in the case of Template:Lang, 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 Template:Lang or Template:Lang (the male or female teacher, professor) can be distinguished from the plural Template:Lang because Template:Lang /lə/, Template:Lang /la/, and Template:Lang /le(s)/ are all pronounced differently. With Template:Lang, however, for both singular forms the Template:Lang/Template:Lang becomes Template:Lang, 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, Template:Lang refers to a male dentist while Template:Lang refers to a female dentist. Furthermore, a few nouns' meanings depend on their gender. For example, Template:Lang (masculine) refers to a book, while Template:Lang 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 (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 (Template:Lang), the simple past (Template:Lang and Template:Lang), the past imperfective (Template:Lang), the pluperfect (Template:Lang), the simple future (Template:Lang), the future perfect (Template:Lang), and the past perfect (Template:Lang). Some forms are less commonly used today. In today's spoken French, the Template:Lang is used while the Template:Lang is reserved for formal situations or for literary purposes. Similarly, the Template:Lang is used for speaking rather than the older Template:Lang seen in literary works.

Within the indicative mood, the Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang, and Template:Lang all use auxiliary verbs in their forms.

Indicatif

	Présent		Imparfait		Passé composé		Passé simple
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
1st person	j'aime	nous aimons	j'aimais	nous aimions	j'ai aimé	nous avons aimé	j'aimai	nous aimâmes
2nd person	tu aimes	vous aimez	tu aimais	vous aimiez	tu as aimé	vous avez aimé	tu aimas	vous aimâtes
3rd person	il/elle aime	ils/elles aiment	il/elle aimait	ils/elles aimaient	il/elle a aimé	ils/elles ont aimé	il/elle aima	ils/elles aimèrent
	Futur simple		Futur antérieur		Plus-que-parfait		Passé antérieur
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
1st person	j'aimerai	nous aimerons	j'aurai aimé	nous aurons aimé	j'avais aimé	nous avions aimé	j'eus aimé	nous eûmes aimé
2nd person	tu aimeras	vous aimerez	tu auras aimé	vous aurez aimé	tu avais aimé	vous aviez aimé	tu eus aimé	vous eûtes aimé
3rd person	il/elle aimera	ils/elles aimeront	il/elle aura aimé	ils/elles auront aimé	il/elle avait aimé	ils/elles avaient aimé	il/elle eut aimé	ils/elles eurent aimé

Subjunctive (subjonctif)

The subjunctive mood only includes four of the tense-aspect forms found in the indicative: present (Template:Lang), simple past (Template:Lang), past imperfective (Template:Lang), and pluperfect (Template:Lang).

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
1st person	j'aime	nous aimions	j'aimasse	nous aimassions	j'aie aimé	nous ayons aimé	j'eusse aimé	nous eussions aimé
2nd person	tu aimes	vous aimiez	tu aimasses	vous aimassiez	tu aies aimé	vous ayez aimé	tu eusses aimé	vous eussiez aimé
3rd person	il/elle aime	ils/elles aiment	il/elle aimât	ils/elles aimassent	il/elle ait aimé	ils/elles aient aimé	il/elle eût aimé	ils/elles eussent 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 (Template:Lang), we/us (Template:Lang), and plural you (Template:Lang).

Imperatif

	Présent
	Singular	Plural
1st person		aimons
2nd person	aime	aimez

Conditional (conditionnel)

The conditional makes use of the present (Template:Lang) and the past (Template:Lang).

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

Example of the active voice:

• "Template:Lang" She loves the dog.
• "Template:Lang" Marc drove the car.

Example of the passive voice:

• "Template:Lang" The dog is loved by her.
• "Template:Lang" The car was driven by Marc.

However, unless the subject of the sentence is specified, generally the pronoun Template:Lang "one" is used:

• "Template:Lang" The dog is loved. (Literally "one loves the dog.")
• "Template:Lang" 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 "Template:Lang" when asking a question rather than "Template:Lang" 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, "Template:Lang" (literally "is it that") may be placed at the beginning of the sentence. "Template:Lang" may become "Template:Lang" 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.<ref name="Lahousse_2012" />

Vocabulary

Template:Pie chart 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: Template:Wikt-lang / Template:Wikt-lang from Latin Template:Wikt-lang / Template:Wikt-lang
• finger: Template:Wikt-lang / Template:Wikt-lang from Latin Template:Wikt-lang / Template:Wikt-lang
• faith: Template:Wikt-lang / Template:Wikt-lang from Latin Template:Wikt-lang / Template:Wikt-lang
• eye: Template:Wikt-lang / Template:Wikt-lang from Latin Template:Wikt-lang / Template:Wikt-lang

However, a historical tendency to Gallicise Latin roots can be identified, whereas English conversely leans towards a more direct incorporation of the Latin:

• Template:Wikt-lang / radiation from Latin Template:Wikt-lang
• Template:Wikt-lang / extinguish from Latin Template:Wikt-lang
• Template:Wikt-lang / nucleus from Latin Template:Wikt-lang
• Template:Wikt-lang / insolation from Latin Template:Wikt-lang

There are also noun-noun and adjective-adjective pairs:

• thing/cause: Template:Wikt-lang / Template:Wikt-lang from Latin Template:Wikt-lang
• cold: Template:Wikt-lang / Template:Wikt-lang from Latin Template:Wikt-lang

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 and Quebec has been to provide French equivalents<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> to (mainly English) imported words, either by using existing vocabulary, extending its meaning or deriving a new word according to French morphological rules. The result is often two (or more) co-existing terms for describing the same phenomenon.

• Template:Lang / Template:Lang
• Template:Lang / Template:Lang
• Template:Lang / Template:Lang
• Template:Lang / Template:Lang
• Template:Lang / Template:Lang

It is estimated that 12% (4,200) of common French words found in a typical dictionary such as the Petit 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.<ref name="Walter_1998" />

One study analyzing the similarity of seven Romance languages to Vulgar Latin in terms of accent vocalization estimated that among the languages analyzed, French was the most differentiated language from Vulgar Latin in this respect.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref name="MED">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=e27/>

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, while twenty (Template:Lang) is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 70 to 99. The French word for 80 is Template:Lang, literally "four twenties", and the word for 75 is Template:Lang, 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<ref name="Jean-Pierre Martin 1984">Jean-Pierre Martin, Description lexicale du français parlé en Vallée d'Aoste, éd. Musumeci, Quart, 1984.</ref> as well as that used in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi, use different names for 70 and 90, namely Template:Lang and Template:Lang. In Switzerland, depending on the local dialect, 80 can be Template:Lang (Geneva, Neuchâtel, Jura) or Template:Lang (Vaud, Valais, Fribourg). The Aosta Valley similarly uses Template:Lang<ref name="Jean-Pierre Martin 1984" /> for 80. Conversely, Belgium and in its former African colonies use Template:Lang 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. Template:Lang (twenty and twelve) for 32, Template:Lang (two twenties and ten) for 50, Template:Lang for 80, or Template:Lang for 90.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The term Template:Lang was historically used in Switzerland for 80, but is now considered archaic.<ref>Template:Cite web. See also the English Wikipedia article on Welsh language, especially the section "Counting system" and its note on the influence of Celtic in the French counting system.</ref>

French, like most European languages, uses a space to separate thousands.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The comma (Template:Langx) 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:

Template:Lang<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

• Template:Anl
• Template:Anl
• Template:Anl
• Template:Anl
• Template:Anl
• Template:Anl
• Template:Anl
• French language in Canada
• French language in the United States
• Template:Anl
• Glossary of French expressions in English
• Template:Anl
• Template:Anl
• 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
• Template:Anl
• Varieties of French

References

Works cited

• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book

Further reading

• Template:Cite book
• Nadeau, Jean-Benoît, and Julie Barlow (2006). The Story of French. (First U.S. ed.) New York: St. Martin's Press. Template:ISBN.
• Ursula Reutner (2017). Manuel des francophonies. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter. Template:ISBN

External links

Organisations

• Fondation Alliance française: an international organisation for the promotion of French language and culture Template:In lang
• Agence de promotion du FLE: Agency for promoting French as a foreign language

Courses and tutorials

• Français interactif: interactive French program, University of Texas at Austin
• Tex's French Grammar, University of Texas at Austin
• Lingopolo French
• French lessons in London Template:Webarchive, The Language machine

Online dictionaries

• Oxford Dictionaries French Dictionary
• Collins Online English↔French Dictionary
• Centre national de ressources textuelles et lexicales: monolingual dictionaries (including the Trésor de la langue française), language corpora, etc.

Grammar

Verbs

• French verb conjugation at Verbix

Vocabulary

• Swadesh list in English and French

Numbers

• Template:Cite web

Books

• Template:In lang La langue française dans le monde 2010 (Full book freely accessible)

Articles

• "The status of French in the world". French Ministry of Foreign Affairs