 Romance language | |
| Pronunciation | [fʁɑ̃sɛ] |
|---|---|
| Native to | France, Belgium, Switzerland, Monaco, Luxembourg, Francophone Africa, Canada, and other locations in the Francophonie |
| Speakers | L1: 74 million (2012–2024)1 L2: 238 million (2012–2022)1 Total: 312 million1 |
| Language family | Indo-European Italic-Gallo-Rhaetian?– |
| Early forms | Old Latin Vulgar Latin Proto-Romance Old Gallo-Romance Old French Middle French |
|---|
| Writing system | Latin script (French alphabet) French Braille |
|---|
| Signed forms | Signed French (français signé) |
|---|
| Official language in | 26 countries Belgium Benin Burundi Cameroon Canada Central African Republic Chad Comoros Congo Democratic Republic of the Congo Djibouti Equatorial Guinea France Gabon Guinea Haiti Ivory Coast Luxembourg Madagascar Monaco Rwanda Senegal Seychelles Switzerland Togo Vanuatu 10 subnational Aosta Valley (Italy) French Polynesia Louisiana (United States) Maine (United States) New Caledonia Puducherry (India) Saint Barthélemy Saint Martin Saint Pierre and Miquelon Wallis and Futuna Organizations including the OIF, UN, IOC, CGPM, ICRC, EU, AU, NATO, WTO and CoE |
|---|
| Regulated by | Académie Française (France) Office québécois de la langue française (Quebec) Direction de la langue française (Belgium) |
|---|
| ISO 639-1 | fr |
|---|
| ISO 639-2 | fre (B) fra (T) |
|---|
| ISO 639-3 | fra |
|---|
| Glottolog | stan1290 |
|---|
| Linguasphere | 51-AAA-i |
|---|
French (français [fʁɑ̃sɛ] or langue française [lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛːz] ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, French and its closest relatives—the langues d'oïl, historically spoken in northern France and southern Belgium—descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. It was influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul and by the Germanic Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Over time, French largely supplanted most regional Romance varieties across France, Belgium and Switzerland. As a result of French and later Belgian colonialism, 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.
Not to be confused with Lingua franca.
French is the 22nd most natively spoken language in the world,4 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 2017.56 It is estimated to have about 310 million speakers, of which about 74 million are native speakers;7 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), Luxembourg, and Monaco.8 Meanwhile, in Francophone Africa it is spoken mainly as a second language or lingua franca, though it has also become a native language in several urban areas. In some North African countries like Algeria and Morocco, it is the primary language for the elite (alongside Arabic) while being an auxiliary language for the general population.9 French is an official language in , as well as one of the most geographically widespread languages in the world, with speakers in about 50 countries. Most of these countries are members of the (OIF), the community of 54 member states which share the use or teaching of French. In 2025, approximately 50% of the Francophone population lived in sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean, 30% lived in Europe, 15% in North Africa, 7% in the Americas, and a small percent in Asia and Oceania. French is the second most widely spoken mother tongue in the . Of Europeans who speak other languages natively, approximately one-fifth are able to speak French as a second language.
French has a long history as an international language of literature, diplomacy and science and is a primary or second language of many international organizations 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. 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).14
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
Where French language leads. Every connection below has a source: a link in this article, a shared Wikipedia category, or CirrusSearch text similarity. Articles already on your trail are left out.
11,686 revisions in total · 5,520 contributors · +8,090 / −15,822 bytes across 4 edits by 2 contributors in the last 30 days
The articles this one links to most, weighted towards the introduction.
10,482 words · 209 references · revision 1382871952 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Main article: History of French
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.
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.15 This local variety evolved into the Gallo-Romance tongues, which include French and its closest relatives, such as Franco-Provençal.
The Gaulish language likely survived into the sixth century in France despite considerable Romanization.16 Coexisting with Latin, Gaulish helped shape the Vulgar Latin dialects that developed into French1716 contributing loanwords and calques (including oui,18 the word for "yes"),19 sound changes shaped by Gaulish influence,202122 and influences in conjugation and word order.192315 Recent computational studies suggest that early gender shifts may have been motivated by the gender of the corresponding word in Gaulish.24
Following the Roman conquest of Gaul, 90% of the population remained indigenous in origin.25 Furthermore, sociological factors drove an uneven language shift. Latin spread from urban centers—such as Narbonensis—into rural hinterlands as native populations became bilingual. Although the Roman state lacked a deliberate policy of suppression, its requirement that formal administration use Latin accelerated the language's adoption in regulated zones.26
During the Crisis of the Third Century, locals increasingly adopted Latin to communicate with Germanic tribes and Roman settlers.27 Consequently, writing in Gaulish and monolingualism all but disappeared between the 4th and 5th centuries.2829 By the time the Romans left, the majority of the population spoke a mix of Celtic, Latin, and occasionally Greek. Additionally, because Northern Gaul was politically cut off from the Mediterranean by the 5th century, its local Latin diverged sharply from standard grammar rules.25 Overall, Latin was largely adopted by the masses after the Roman departure, largely because of the increasing influence of missionaries and the Romanized elite as sources of authority, rather than the central Imperial authority.30
The estimated number of French words that can be attributed to Gaulish is placed at 154 by the Petit Robert,31 which is often viewed as representing standardized French, while if non-standard dialects are included, the number increases to 240.32 Known Gaulish loans are skewed toward certain semantic fields, such as plant life (chêne, bille, etc.), animals (mouton, cheval, etc.), nature (boue, etc.), domestic activities (ex. berceau), farming and rural units of measure (arpent, lieue, borne, boisseau), weapons,33 and products traded regionally rather than further afield.34 This semantic distribution has been attributed to peasants being the last to hold onto Gaulish.3433
Main article: Old French
The 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.35 A language divide began to grow across the country. The population in the north spoke langues d'oïl while the population in the south spoke langues d'oc.35 One langue d'oïl became Old French. The Old French period spanned between the late 8th36 and mid-14th centuries. Old French shared many characteristics with Latin. For example, Old French used different word orders, just as Latin did, because it had a case system retaining the distinction between nominative subjects and oblique non-subjects.37 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,38 a large percentage of the vocabulary (now at around 15% of modern French vocabulary39) including the impersonal singular pronoun on (a calque of Germanic man), and the name of the language itself.
Up until its later stages, Old French, alongside the langue d'oc called 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 -eau, which would later be leveled as monophthongs.
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, the Matter of Britain, as well as a cycle focused on William of Orange.
During the period of the Crusades, French became so dominant in the Mediterranean Sea that it became the lingua franca (literally 'Frankish language'). Due to increased contact with Arabs (who referred to the Crusaders as Franj), numerous Arabic loanwords entered French, such as amiral (admiral), alcool (alcohol), coton (cotton) and sirop (syrup), as well as scientific terms such as algébre (algebra), alchimie (alchemy) and zéro (zero).40
Main article: 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 between the mid-14th to the early 17th centuries.4135 Modern French grew out of this Francien dialect.35 The status of French as a global language of administration and diplomacy is not merely a product of modern history, but the result of a process of state-building that began in the Crusader states.42
The transition towards French as a formal language began in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Facing a crisis of authority during the War of the Lombards of the mid-13th century, the nobility replaced Latin with Outremer French—a koiné of Parisian, Norman, and Picard dialects—to codify the Assizes of Jerusalem. For the knights and jurists of Outremer, this refined vernacular became a vital tool for legal security in matters of property and inheritance, distinguishing them from Byzantines, Muslims, and newly arrived European crusaders. The military elite, who often lacked academic training in Latin, standardized laws they could read and debate in their native tongue.42
This made Jerusalem the first state to implement French for legal and administrative security, three decades before France itself. This administrative model "rebounded" to Europe through Louis IX, who, after his stay in the Levant (1250–1254), professionalized the French chancery. This trajectory reached its legal peak with the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539), where Francis I mandated French as the exclusive language for all legal acts and official communications, effectively ending the official role of Latin and centralizing the state around the Parisian standard.42
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.43 Politically, the first government authority to adopt Modern French as the official language was the Aosta Valley in 1536, three years before France itself.44
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.4546 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.47
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.
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".48 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".49 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..."49 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.50
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.515253 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.5455 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.5556
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.5455 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.5455 The majority of Francophones in the sub-Saharan region and the Maghreb are young, and are found in the 15–24 age group.5455 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.545557
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.5455 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.54555859606162 In July 2023, Mali's constitutional referendum demoted French from "official" to merely "working" status while elevating thirteen indigenous tongues to constitutional parity.63 '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. Yet in both and , 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.
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.67 This reflects a real commitment seen in Senegal and elsewhere to shift from French to local languages or English.686970 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.717273 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.5455 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. Similarly, countries such as , , , and , have legally committed to French alongside local languages.
Overall, French remains a practical and widely accepted medium of communication, particularly where linguistic diversity demands a neutral lingua franca.5455 Despite regional tensions or reductions in certain contexts, French continues to expand as a global language of diplomacy, development, and multilateral cooperation.5455 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).78 Their participation reflects an interest in leveraging French for international diplomacy, educational exchange, and regional economic integration.545579 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.808182
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.8384 In education, institutions like the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF) and Espace Francophone pour la Recherche, Développement et l'Innovation support research and academic partnerships between Francophone universities across five continents.8586 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.87888990
Per the OIF, between 2022 and 2025, use of French experienced significant growth, increasing from 321 to between 348 and 396 million speakers (depending on the methodology used).11 The first method counts all native speakers in countries considered natively Francophone (France, Monaco, and the Francohpone regions of Belgium, Switzerland, and Canada). In other countries where French is an official language, co-official language, or language of instruction only children aged 10 and older and adults aged 15 and older who are literate in French are counted. The second method additionally includes children aged 6–9 who are literate in French in countries of the Global South where French is an official language, co-official language, or language of instruction.11 Under this method there are 396 million French speakers, distributed across the five continents, nearly 65% of whom are in Africa.11 Given the second methodology, the OIF states that French is the fourth most spoken language in the world, with 170 million students enrolled in French language education or courses, and the language being the third most used for business and fourth most used on the internet.11
Growth of French is caused by many factors including population growth in Africa, a youthful Francophone population, urbanization and improved educational access. In 2025, approximately 70% of Francophones live in urban areas as the world continues to urbanize.11 The Francophone population is young. In 2025, around 150 million young Francophones represent 30.6% of the total population. In 2024, more than 170 million pupils in 36 countries around the world received education in French or learned French in institutional settings, in contexts of French as a native, or French as a second language. The number of learners of French as a foreign language worldwide is estimated at 51 million learners.11 Primary education remains the main point of growth for French, particularly in countries such as Niger, Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where school enrollment rates have risen quickly since 2010.11 In Côte d'Ivoire the number of Francophones is growing rapidly, at a pace higher than demographic growth. French language use increased from 7.4 million in 2010 to 17.1 million in 2025 (+131%) while the country's population grew from 22 to 33 million (52%) during the same period.11 In the Democratic Republic of the Congo the number of French speakers grew from rom 31 million in 2010 to 68 million in 2025.11
French usage is also growing to formal organizational initiatives, business, and culture. The Agency for French Education Abroad has 600 locations and 397,000 students as of 2025. The Alliance Francaise network has almost 1,000 locations with 824 main branches and 160 affiliated branches spread across 138 countries. Within this system, there are 450,000 students including 420,000 students of French and 33,000 students in other courses. Combined with the Institut de France (IF) there are 912,000 students enrolled in language centers outside of France. Due to France's Campus France program, over 440,000 international students study in France and students studying at numerous other universities in the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie.91
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.92 in 2026, the OIF estimated French will be spoken by between 466 million and 666 million people by 2050, the majority of which 9 of 10 will live in Africa.11
Main articles: Francophonie and Geographical distribution of French speakers
Main article: European French
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.1294
Under the , French has been the official language of the Republic since 1992, although the 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.
Main article: Varieties of French
According to the OIF, approximately 321 million people worldwide are "able to speak the language" as of 2022,167 without specifying the criteria for this estimation or whom it encompasses.168 French is regarded as an influential world language because of its wide use in the worlds of journalism, jurisprudence, education, and diplomacy,169 though its use, geography, and sociopolitical context continues to shift with declines in some areas, including academia, and growth in others.55 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";170 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.63121 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.54
Main article: French phonology
Main articles: French alphabet and French braille
French is written in the Latin script. The French alphabet has 26 letters. Standard French orthography also uses the acute accent, grave accent, circumflex, diaeresis (tréma), and cedilla. Accented letters and ç are not separate letters of the alphabet. Diacritics are retained on capital letters in standard French typography.179
The orthographic ligatures ⟨œ⟩ and ⟨æ⟩ occur in conventional spellings. ⟨œ⟩ is common in words such as cœur, sœur, œuf, œuvre and œil, whereas ⟨æ⟩ is much rarer and is found chiefly in learned words and Latin expressions such as ex æquo. Legacy French AZERTY layouts often lacked direct access to these and other characters required for fully correct French typography; this is a keyboard limitation rather than a rule of French spelling. The voluntary French keyboard standard NF Z71-300, published by AFNOR in 2019, was designed in part to remedy such limitations.180
Main articles: French orthography and
Main article: French grammar
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.
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:
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in French:
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English:
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.96
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%97 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),44 in which is spoken as a first language by 1.25% of the population and as a second one by approximately 50%.98 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.99100
Main article: African French
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.101 According to a 2023 estimate from the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, an estimated 167 million African people spread across 35 countries and territoriesb can speak French as either a first or a second language;102103 only 1.2 million of these spoke it as a first language according to Ethnologue.104 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.105 Language and slang from francophone Africa, particularly as popularized through music, are playing a growing role in influencing French across the francophone world.106
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,107108 Kinshasa, and Lubumbashi,109110111112 Douala,113114 Libreville,115116 Antananarivo,117 Cotonou,118 and Brazzaville.119 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.120 For example, Algeria intermittently attempted to remove the use of French in favor of a strong native language (see Arabization), and French was removed as an official language in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger in 2023, 2024, and 2025, respectively.63121122 Despite these changes and the emergence of English as a global lingua franca, French today remains a major language in the Sahel and the societies of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.123
Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050.124125126 French was the fastest growing language on the continent (in terms of either official or foreign languages).127128 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.129 It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years.130131 Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries,132 but written forms of the language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world.
Further information: Languages of North America, Languages of South America, Languages of the Caribbean, and French language in 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).133134 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.135136
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.133 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.137138 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.139 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,140 and is just across the river from the Quebecois city of Gatineau.
According to the United States Census Bureau (2011), French is the fourth141 most spoken language in the United States after English, Spanish, and Chinese, when all forms of French are considered together and all forms of Chinese are similarly combined. French is the second-most spoken language (after English) in the states of Maine and Vermont. 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.142 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.143 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. In 2024–2025, Louisiana has around 4,300 pupils enrolled in 32 French immersion schools, and nearly 22,800 learners of French as a foreign language.11
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.144 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.145
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.
In some countries, French-based creole languages are spoken, namely Dominica, Grenada, and Saint Lucia, but these are slightly intelligible with standard French.
French is the official language of both French Guiana on the South American continent,146 and of Saint Pierre and Miquelon,147 an archipelago off the coast of Newfoundland in North America.
French was the official language of the colony of French Indochina, comprising modern-day Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. All three countries are full members of Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) with Cambodia hosting the 20th Sommet de la Francophonie in 2026.148149 French continues to be an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its usage in all three countries has waned significantly since the colonial period.150 In 2025, there were about 712,000 speakers in Vietnam, 400,000 in Cambodia, and 215,000 in Laos.151 All three countries have francophone education, including though the OIF assisted Teacher Mobility Program and institutions within the Agency for French Education Abroad. In Cambodia approximately 400,000 students were learning French followed by Loas with approximately 75,000 students. Several francophone cultural and media institutions serve the region such as the several Alliance Francaise offices and French Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia.152153154
See also: French language 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".155 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.156 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.157 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.158
See also: Indian French
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 1965.159 A small number of older locals still retain knowledge of the language, although it has now given way to Tamil and English.159160
French is an official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu, where 31% of the population was estimated to speak it in 2023.103 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.161
In New Caledonia, 97% of the population can speak, read and write French162 while in French Polynesia this figure is 95%,163 and in Wallis and Futuna, it is 84%.164 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.165163 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.164166
In diplomacy, French is one of the six official languages of the United Nations (and one of the UN Secretariat's only two working languages171), 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).172
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.173
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.174
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."175
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%).176 MIT economist Albert Saiz calculated a 2.3% premium for those who have French as a foreign language in the workplace.177
In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese.178
| b |
| d |
| ɡ |
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | ʁ |
|---|
| voiced | v | z | ʒ |
|---|
| Approximant | plain | l | j |
|---|
| labialized | ɥ | w |
|---|
Although there are many French regional accents, foreign learners normally use only one variety of the language.
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:
French orthography is alphabetic but relatively deep. It represents not only phonological information but also morphological, grammatical, lexical and historical distinctions. In the influential analysis of Nina Catach, the French writing system combines a phonographic component with morphographic and other non-phonographic information.181 Estimates depend on how graphemes and phonemes are counted, but recent descriptions commonly give about 130 graphemes for roughly three dozen phonemes.182
The system is considerably more predictable in the direction from spelling to pronunciation than from pronunciation to spelling. A phoneme may have several possible spellings, and many written letters have no independent pronunciation. For example, inflectional morphology is frequently visible in writing but not in speech: the plural -s in amis and many verbal endings are normally silent, while homophonous verbal endings can have different spellings.183184 Morphological knowledge therefore contributes substantially to French spelling, including the spelling of otherwise silent letters.185186
Historical sound change is another source of mismatch between spelling and pronunciation. In addition, some spellings were deliberately reshaped to reflect etymology. For example, modern doigt 'finger' descends from Latin digitus; the g in the modern spelling is part of an etymological reshaping of older French forms such as doi and doit.187
Many word-final consonant letters are silent, but this is not a general rule that is suspended whenever the next word begins with a vowel. Some final consonants are pronounced in all contexts, while others are latent and may surface in liaison. Liaison is a morphophonological process that occurs only in particular syntactic and lexical contexts before a vowel-initial word; depending on the context, it can be obligatory, optional or prohibited.188189 Thus forms such as les amis and beaux-arts contain liaison [z], but a following vowel does not automatically cause every silent final consonant to be pronounced.
French uses numerous multiletter graphemes, such as ⟨ou⟩, ⟨au⟩, ⟨eau⟩, ⟨ch⟩ and vowel–nasal-consonant sequences. Sequences of a vowel followed by ⟨n⟩ or ⟨m⟩ often represent a nasal vowel when the nasal consonant is word-final or followed by another consonant; before a following vowel or a doubled nasal consonant, the vowel is commonly oral and the nasal consonant is pronounced. There are lexical and morphological exceptions, so this is a spelling tendency rather than a complete rule.190
Orthographic double consonants do not normally represent phonemic consonant length in contemporary French. Surface lengthening can nevertheless occur in particular morphological, lexical or prosodic environments; it should not be described as a straightforward spelling-to-sound rule.190
The acute accent occurs in native French principally on ⟨é⟩ and normally indicates a close-mid front vowel, /e/. The grave accent on ⟨è⟩ normally indicates an open-mid front vowel, /ɛ/. It is misleading, however, to describe these values simply as alternatives to a 'default' /ə/ for unaccented ⟨e⟩, because unaccented ⟨e⟩ has several possible phonological values and may also be silent.191
The circumflex has several functions rather than a single phonetic or etymological one. Depending on the word and variety of French, it can correlate with a difference in vowel quality, distinguish otherwise identical written forms (for example sur and sûr, du and dû), mark particular verbal forms, or reflect the history of the spelling. The familiar association of the circumflex with a lost ⟨s⟩, as in forêt beside older forest, is real but not systematic. The 1990 orthographic rectifications retained the circumflex on ⟨a⟩, ⟨e⟩ and ⟨o⟩, while making it optional on most occurrences of ⟨i⟩ and ⟨u⟩, with exceptions where it marks grammatical or semantic distinctions.191
The diaeresis or tréma indicates that a letter is to receive a separate phonetic interpretation rather than being absorbed into an adjacent multiletter spelling, as in naïf, Noël and maïs. Under the 1990 rectifications, the tréma is placed on the pronounced vowel in forms such as aigüe, ambigüe and cigüe, and is used in forms such as argüer to prevent a misleading pronunciation. Traditional spellings such as aiguë remain in use.191
The cedilla in ⟨ç⟩ indicates /s/ before ⟨a⟩, ⟨o⟩ or ⟨u⟩, where plain ⟨c⟩ would normally represent /k/; compare France ~ français and placer ~ plaçons. Before ⟨e⟩, ⟨i⟩ and ⟨y⟩, plain ⟨c⟩ normally already represents /s/, so a cedilla is not required. The cedilla is retained on capital ⟨Ç⟩.192
The grave accent on ⟨à⟩ and ⟨ù⟩ does not ordinarily mark a different pronunciation; it primarily distinguishes homographs, as in a 'has' versus à 'to/at' and ou 'or' versus où 'where'. The long lists of rare ⟨ÿ⟩, ⟨ö⟩ and foreign-name examples are better treated in the dedicated article on the French alphabet rather than in a summary of the writing system.
The ⟨x⟩ in plurals such as chevaux is a historical spelling development, not a direct continuation of a Latin plural ending. In medieval French, ⟨l⟩ before plural ⟨s⟩ was vocalized, so forms such as chevals developed into chevaus. Scribes commonly represented the final sequence ⟨us⟩ by an abbreviation resembling ⟨x⟩; the abbreviation was later interpreted as the letter ⟨x⟩, while ⟨u⟩ was restored in writing, producing the modern spelling chevaux.193
In 1990 the Superior Council of the French Language proposed a set of orthographic rectifications, approved by the Académie française and published in the Journal officiel. They concern such matters as hyphenation and word joining, the plurals of compounds and loanwords, accents and the diaeresis, some verbs in -eler and -eter, the past participle of laisser before an infinitive, and a number of isolated anomalies.191 The Académie presents the rectifications as recommendations rather than as a compulsory replacement of traditional spelling; traditional and rectified spellings therefore coexist in present-day usage.194
The rectifications were not a new reform introduced in 2016. A 2015 French national curriculum explicitly stated that its texts applied the 1990 rectifications, which helped generate renewed public attention the following year.195 The French and mathematics sections of that 2015 cycle-3 programme were replaced by a new programme in 2025 (with staged implementation in 2025–2027), so the 2016 schoolbook episode should not be used as a timeless description of current curriculum policy.196
French grammar shares several notable features with most other Romance languages, including
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.
Main article: French verbs
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).
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.
| 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 |
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).
Within the subjunctive mood, the passé composé and plus-que-parfait use auxiliary verbs in their forms.
| 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 |
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).
| Présent | ||
|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | |
| 1st person | aimons | |
| 2nd person | aime | aimez |
The conditional makes use of the present (présent) and the past (passé).
The passé uses auxiliary verbs in its forms.
| 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 |
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 être ("to be") and the past participle.
Example of the active voice:
Example of the passive voice:
However, unless the subject of the sentence is specified, generally the pronoun on "one" is used:
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.37
More recently (1994) the linguistic policy (Toubon Law) of the French language academies of France and Quebec has been to provide French equivalents199 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.
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.198
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.200 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.2011
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 (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 French202 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 huitante202 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 90.203
The term octante was historically used in Switzerland for 80, but is now considered archaic.204
French, like most European languages, uses a space to separate thousands.205 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".
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link){{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help){{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)For other unilingual dictionaries, see fr:Dictionnaire.
