French language explained

States:See below
Speakers:68 million (2005) to 115 million (2010)[1]
Speakers2:Native and L2: 265–275 million[2]
Fam4:Western Romance
Script:Latin (French alphabet)

Numerous international organisations
Agency:Académie française (French Academy)
Map:New-Map-Francophone World.PNG

French (French: ''le français'' or French: ''la langue française'') is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the province of Quebec and the Acadia region in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts of the world, the largest numbers of which reside in Francophone Africa.[3] In Africa, French is most commonly spoken in Gabon (where 80% report fluency)[3] Mauritius (78%), Algeria (75%), Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire (70%). French is estimated as having between 70 million[4] and 110 million[5] native speakers and 190 million second language speakers.[6] French is the second-most studied foreign language in the world, after English.[7] [8]

French is a distortion of the spoken Latin language of the Roman Empire, as are languages such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian, Sardinian and Catalan. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl, languages historically spoken in northern France and Belgium which have largely been supplanted by French today. The development of French was also influenced by the native Celtic languages of Roman Gaul and by the (Germanic) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to France's past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, most notably Haitian Creole.


George Weber, author of "Top Languages: The World's 10 most influential Languages", wrote that until the end of the nineteenth century, French had a global dominance similar to that now occupied by English. He said "nobody could pass for educated without the ability to speak French" and "However, French dominance was never so complete as its rival's is now for the simple reason that 100 years ago large parts of the world were not yet connected to rest as they are all today. In Mongolia it was sufficient to speak Mongolian, in Madagascar Malagasy could get you anywhere. Globalization had not been heard of then."[6] As a result of extensive colonial ambitions of France and Belgium (at that time governed by a French-speaking elite), between the 17th and 20th centuries, French was introduced to the Americas, Africa, Polynesia, the Levant, Southeast Asia, and the Caribbean.

According to a demographic projection led by the Université Laval and the Réseau Démographie de l'Agence universitaire de la francophonie, French will be represented by approximately 500 million people in 2025 and by 650 million people, or approximately seven percent of the world's population in 2050.[9] [10]

Geographic distribution


French is the second-most widely spoken mother tonguein the European Union. It is also the third-most widely understood language in the EU, after English and German, and is one of the three working languages of the European Commission, again, along with English and German.[11]

Legal status in France

See also: Toubon Law and Languages of France.

According to the Constitution of France, French has been the official language since 1992[12] (although previous legal texts have made it official since 1539, see ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts). France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases (though these dispositions are often ignored) and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words.







Monaco and Andorra


Catalan is the only official language of Andorra; however, French is commonly used because of the proximity to France and the fact that France is, with the Urgel's Bishop, part of the government. French nationals make up 7% of the population.


French is one of three official languages of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, alongside German and Luxembourgish, the natively spoken language of Luxembourg. French is primarily used for administrative purposes by the government, and is also the language used to converse with foreigners.[16] Luxembourg's education system is trilingual: the first years of primary school are in Luxembourgish, before changing to German; while in secondary school, the language of instruction changes to French.[16]


French is also an official language in the small region of Aosta Valley, Italy.[17] Though most non-Italophone people in the region speak Franco-Provençal,[18] they use standard French to write. That is because the international recognition of Franco-Provençal as a separate language (as opposed to a dialect or patois of French) was quite recent.

The United Kingdom and the Channel Islands

French is a large minority language and immigrant language in the United Kingdom, with over 300,000 French-born people in the UK. It is also the most popular foreign language. French is spoken and understood by 23% of the UK population.

Modern and Middle English reflect a mixture of Oïl and Old English lexicons after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, when a Norman-speaking aristocracy took control of a population whose mother tongue was Germanic in origin. As a result of the intertwined histories of England and continental possessions of the English Crown, many formal and legal words from Modern English have French roots. Thus whilst words such as buy and sell are of Germanic origin, purchase and vend are from Old French.


North and South America


See also: Canadian French, French language in Canada, Spoken languages of Canada and Official bilingualism in Canada.

French is the second most common language in Canada, after English, and both are official languages at the federal level. French is the sole official language in the province of Quebec, being the mother tongue for some 7 million people, or almost 80.1% (2006 Census) of the Province. About 95.0% of the people of Quebec speak French as either their first or second language, and for some as their third language. Quebec is also home to the city of Montreal, which is the world's second largest French speaking city, by number of first language speakers. New Brunswick, where about a third of the population is francophone, is the only officially bilingual province. Portions of Eastern Ontario, Northeastern Ontario, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Alberta and Manitoba have sizable French minorities, and many provinces provide service in French for its linguistic minorities. Smaller pockets of French speakers exist in all other provinces.

About 9,487,500 of Canadians speak French as their first language, or around 30% of the country,[19] [20] with 2,065,300 constituting secondary speakers.[21] Due to the increased bilingual school programs and French Immersion Classes in English Canada, the portion of Canadians proficient in French has risen significantly in the past two decades, and is still rising.

The difference between French spoken in Quebec and French spoken in France is similar in degree to that between American and British English.In Quebec, where the majority of French-speaking Canadians live, the Office québécois de la langue française (English: Quebec Board of the French language) regulates Quebec French and ensures the Charter of the French Language (Bill 101 & 104) is respected. The Office québécois de la langue française determined that "stop" is a valid French word; however, it is observed that stop signs reading "ARRÊT" predominate in French-speaking areas, and "STOP" can be found in majority English-speaking areas.


French is one of Haiti's two official languages. It is the principal language of writing, school instruction, and administrative use. It is spoken by all educated Haitians and is used in the business sector. It is also used in ceremonial events such as weddings, graduations and church masses. About 10-15% of the country's population have French as their first language; the rest speak it as a secondary language in varying degrees of proficiency from basic level to fluent. The second official language is the recently standardized Haitian Creole which is spoken by virtually the entire population of Haiti. Haitian Creole is one of the French-based creole languages, drawing the large majority of its vocabulary from French, with influences from West African languages, as well as several European languages. Haitian Creole is closely related to Louisiana Creole and all other French creoles.

French overseas departments and territories in the Americas


United States

See main article: French in the United States.

See also: Cajun French, Louisiana Creole French, Acadian French and Missouri French. French is the fourth[22] [23] most-spoken language in the United States, after English, Spanish and Chinese, and the second most-spoken in the states of Louisiana, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire.



The French language was spoken in Brazil for a brief period during the colonial attempts of France Antarctique and France Ecquinociale. Also, the language was used by the community of French immigrants and expatriates in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and by the Brazilian public education system.

Today the Karipuna indigenous community (nearly 30,000 people) of Amapá in North Brazil speaks a French creole, the Lanc-Patuá, possibly related to the French Guiana Creole.


See main article: African French and Maghreb French.

A majority of the world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to the 2007 report by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, an estimated 115 million African people spread across 31 Francophone African countries can speak French as either a first or a second language.[3] This number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language.[3] Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050.[25]

French is mostly a second language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire[26] and in Libreville, Gabon.[27] The classification of French as a second language in Francophone Africa is debatable because it is often the only language spoken and written in schools, administrations, radio, TV and the Internet. This prevalence of French is noticeable in popular music, in which French is often mixed with the language of the song. It is not possible to speak of a single form of African French, but rather of diverse forms of African French which have developed because of the contact with many indigenous African languages.[28] In fact, the term African French is a misnomer, as forms are different from country to country, and the root of the French spoken in a particular country depends on its former colonial empire. French spoken in the Benin, for example, is closer to that spoken in France than to French spoken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is rooted in Belgian French.




In addition, French is an administrative language and commonly used, though not on an official basis, in Mauritius and in the Maghreb states:


Most urban Algerians have some working knowledge of French, and a high (though unknown) percentage speak it fluently.However, because of the country's colonial past, the predominance of French has long been politically fraught. Numerous reforms have been implemented in recent decades to improve the status of Arabic in relation to French, especially in education. For this reason, although Algeria is certainly one of the most Francophone countries in the world outside of France, and has perhaps the largest number of French speakers, it does not participate in the Francophonie association.


The official language in Egypt is literary Arabic, and it is mandatory in all schools. The most used second languages in Egypt are English and French, which are learned by some elements of the Egyptian upper and upper-middle classes; most Egyptians will mostly learn English and French in addition to Arabic. Private schools have either English or French as the main language of instruction. Egypt participates in the Francophonie. There are two French-speaking universities in the country, the Université Française d'Égypte and the Université Senghor.

French overseas departments and territories in Africa

French is also the official language of Mayotte and Réunion, two overseas territories of France located in the southwest Indian Ocean.


Lebanon & Syria & Israel




Southeast Asia

French is an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent years.[33] In colonial Vietnam, the elites spoke French, and many who worked for the French spoke a French creole known as "Tây Bồi" (now extinct). However, French has been effectively displaced as the main foreign language of choice by English in recent years. The language was also spoken by the elite in the leased territory Guangzhouwan in southern China. (See also: French Indochina)


French has de-jure official status in the Indian Union Territory of Pondicherry, along with the regional languages Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. Some students of Tamil Nadu opt for French as their second or third language (usually behind English and Tamil). According to the French Institute of Pondicherry, French is however "very little spoken" in Pondicherry.[34]


French is also taught in schools in Chandannagar (a former French colony in West Bengal). Students also have the option of having French as an additional subject in the secondary school (WBBSE) and higher secondary school (WBCHSE) certificate examinations. Nevertheless, French is taught throughout India as an optional foreign language and is a very popular subject among students.

See also: French India.

Oceania and Australasia

French is an official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu where 45% of the population can speak French. In the French territory of New Caledonia, 97% of the population can speak, read and write French, whereas only 1% have no knowledge of French.[35] In French Polynesia, 95% of the population can speak, read and write French, whereas only 2% have no knowledge of French.[36] In the French territory of Wallis and Futuna, 78% of the population can speak, read and write French, whereas 17% have no knowledge of French.[37]


See main article: Dialects of the French language.


See 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.

Current situation

French was the most important language of diplomacy and international relations from the 17th century to approximately the middle of the 20th century. English has taken over that role since then.[6] [38] [39] French remains one of the most important diplomatic languages,[5] with the language being one of the working languages of NATO, the International Olympic Committee, the UN Secretariat, the Council of Europe, the International Court of Justice, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, European Commission, the European Space Agency, World Trade Organisation and the North American Free Trade Agreement. It is also a working language in nonprofit organisations such as the Red Cross, Amnesty International, Médecins sans Frontières, or Médecins du Monde.[40]


See main article: French phonology.



Writing system


See main article: French alphabet.




See main article: French orthography.



On the other hand, a given spelling will usually lead to a predictable sound, and the Académie française works hard to enforce and update this correspondence. In particular, a given vowel combination or diacritic predictably leads to one phoneme.

French writing, as with any language, is affected by the spoken language. In Old French, the plural for animal was animals. The sequence was unstable and was turned into a diphthong . This change was then reflected in the orthography: animaus. The us ending, very common in Latin, was then abbreviated by copists monks by the letter x, resulting in a written form animax. As the French language further evolved, the pronunciation of au turned into so that the u was reestablished in orthography for consistency, resulting in modern French animaux (pronounced first before the final was dropped in contemporary French). The same is true for cheval pluralized as chevaux and many others. In addition, castel pl. castels became château pl. châteaux

Some proposals exist to simplify the existing writing system, but they still fail to gather interest.[41] [42] [43] [44]


See main article: French grammar.





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




The French counting system is partially vigesimal: twenty (French: vingt) is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 60 to 99. The French word for 80 is French: quatre-vingts, literally "four twenties", and the word for 75 is French: soixante-quinze, literally "sixty-fifteen". This reform arose after the French Revolution to unify the different counting systems (mostly vigesimal near the coast, because of Celtic (via Breton) and Viking influences). This system is comparable to the archaic English use of score, as in "fourscore and seven" (87), or "threescore and ten" (70). 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.

Belgian French, Swiss French and the French used in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi are different in this respect. In Belgium and Switzerland 70 and 90 are French: septante and French: nonante. In Switzerland, depending on the local dialect, 80 can be French: quatre-vingts (Geneva, Neuchâtel, Jura) or French: huitante (Vaud, Valais, Fribourg). Octante had been used in Switzerland in the past, but is now considered archaic.[46] In Belgium and in its former African colonies, however, quatre-vingts is universally used.


Cardinal numbers in French from 1 to 20 are as follows:


The "Canadian" audio samples here are not necessarily from speakers of Quebec French, which has distinct regional pronunciations of certain words.

EnglishFrenchCanadian accentNorthern French accent
YesOui (si when countering an assertion or a question expressed in the negative)
Hello!Bonjour! (formal) or Salut (informal) or "Allô" (Canada or when answering on the telephone)
Good evening!Bonsoir!
Good night!Bonne nuit!
Goodbye!Au revoir!
Have a nice day!Bonne journée!
Please/if you pleaseS’il vous plaît (formal) or S’il te plaît (informal)
Thank youMerci
Who?Qui ?
What?Quoi ? (←informal; used as "What?" in English)) or Comment ? (←formal; used the same as "Pardon me?" in English)
When?Quand ?
Where?Où ?
Why?Pourquoi ?
BecauseParce que / Car
Because ofà cause de
How?Comment ?
How much?Combien ?
I do not understand.Je ne comprends pas.
Yes, I understand.Oui, je comprends. Except when responding to a negatively posed question, in which case Si is used preferentially over Oui
I agreeJe suis d’accord. D’accord can be used without je suis.
Help!Au secours!(à l’aide)
Where are the toilets?Où sont les toilettes ?
Do you speak English?Parlez-vous anglais ?
I do not speak French.Je ne parle pas français.
I do not know.Je ne sais pas.
I know.Je sais.
I am thirsty.J’ai soif. (literally, "I have thirst")
I am hungry.J’ai faim. (literally, "I have hunger")
I am (very) well / Things are going (very) well // Everything is (very) wellJe vais (très) bien (formal) or Ça va (très) bien. / Tout va (très) bien (informal)
I am (very) bad / Things are (very) bad / Everything is (very) badJe vais (très) mal (formal) or Ça va (très) mal / Tout va (très) mal (informal)
I am all right/so-so / Everything is all right/so-soAssez bien or Ça va comme ci, comme ça or simply Ça va.. (Sometimes said: « Couci, couça. », informal: "bof") i.e. « Comme ci, comme ça. »)
I am fine.Ça va bien.
| |(how)can i help you ? / (do)you need help ? / on a besoins d'aide ! || (comment)pourais-je vous aider ? / (est-ce que)tu a besoin d'aide / we need help!

See also

External links

Courses and tutorials


Notes and References

  1. Francophonie
  2. La langue française dans le monde 2010
  4. French Language
  5. Francophonie
  6. The World's 10 Most Influential Languages
  7. Figures from Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (France) official website
  8. International Organization of the Francophonie report (2010)
  9. Web site: Agora: La francophonie de demain. 2011-06-13.
  10. Web site: Bulletin de liaison du réseau démographie. 2011-06-14.
  11. Frequently Asked Questions
  12. Loi constitutionnelle 1992 – French: C'est à la loi constitutionnelle du 25 juin 1992, rédigée dans le cadre de l'intégration européenne, que l'on doit la première déclaration de principe sur le français, langue de la République.
  13. The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and Education
  15. 40%+60%*59%=75.4%
  16. Languages in Luxembourg
  18. Qu'est-ce Que La Francophonie
  19. Saint George International
  20. Qu'est-ce Que La Francophonie
  21. National Virtual Translation Center
  22. U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 Summary File 3
  23. Book: Ammon, Ulrich. Status and Function of Languages and Language Varieties. International Sociological Association. 1989. Walter de Gruyter. 0899253563. 306–308. November 14, 2011.
  27. "En Afrique, il est impossible de parler d'une forme unique du français mais..."
  28. France-Diplomatie
  32. French Declines in Indochina, as English Booms
  33. French Institute of Pondicherry
  34. The French language today: a linguistic introduction
  35. Why you should learn French
  36. French, an international language
  37. Foné writing system proposal.
  38. Ortofasil writing system proposal.
  39. Alfograf writing system proposal.
  40. writing system proposal.
  41. Walter & Walter 1998.