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French ( or ) 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 language, Francien) largely supplanted. It was also substratum (linguistics), influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul and by the Germanic languages, Germanic Frankish language of the post-Roman Franks, 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 established. A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English language, English and French.

French is an official language in List of countries where French is an official language, 26 countries, as well as List of official languages, one of the most geographically widespread languages in the world, with about 50 countries and territories having it as a ''de jure'' or ''de facto'' official, administrative, or cultural language. Most of these countries are members of the (OIF), the community of 54 member states which share the official use or teaching of French. It is estimated to have about 310 million speakers, of which about 80 million are native speakers; it is spoken as a first language (in descending order of the number of speakers) in France, Canada (Provinces and territories of Canada, provinces of Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick), Belgium (Wallonia and the Brussels, Brussels-Capital Region), western Switzerland (Romandy region), parts of Luxembourg, parts of the United States (Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont), Monaco, the Aosta Valley region of Italy, and various communities elsewhere.

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, 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.

In 2015, approximately 40% of the Francophone population (including Second language, 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. French is the second most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union. Of Europeans who speak other languages natively, approximately one-fifth are able to speak French as a second language. Many institutions of the EU use French as a working language along with English, German language, German and Italian language, Italian; in some institutions, French is the sole working language (e.g. at the Court of Justice of the European Union). French is also the 16th List of languages by number of native speakers, most natively spoken language in the world, the sixth List of languages by total number of speakers, 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. 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

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. 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 languages, Celtic Gaulish language, which did not go extinct until the late sixth century, long after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. 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 Franks, 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.

The Gaulish language likely survived into the sixth century in France despite considerable Romanization. Coexisting with Latin, Gaulish helped shape the Vulgar Latin dialects that developed into French contributing loanwords and calques (including , the word for "yes"), sound changes shaped by Gaulish influence, 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..." and influences in conjugation and word order. Recent computational studies suggest that early gender shifts may have been motivated by the gender of the corresponding word in Gaulish.

The estimated number of French words that can be attributed to Gaulish is placed at 154 by the ''Petit Robert'', which is often viewed as representing standardized French, while if non-standard dialects are included, the number increases to 240. 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, and products traded regionally rather than further afield. This semantic distribution has been attributed to peasants being the last to hold onto Gaulish.

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. A language divide began to grow across the country. The population in the north spoke while the population in the south spoke . Langue d'oïl grew into what is known as Old French. The period of Old French spanned between the late 8th [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.] 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 Old French#Nouns, it had a case system that retained the difference between nominative subjects and oblique non-subjects. 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, a large percentage of the vocabulary (now at around 15% of modern French vocabulary) 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 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 to monophthongs.

The earliest evidence of what became Old French can be seen in the Oaths of Strasbourg and the ''Sequence of Saint Eulalia'', while Medieval French literature, 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'', Matter of Britain, epic cycles focused on King Arthur and his court, as well as Geste de Garin de Monglane, a cycle focused on William of Gellone, William of Orange.

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

Middle French

Within Old French many dialects emerged but the Francien language, Francien dialect is one that not only continued but also thrived during the Middle French period (14th–17th centuries). Modern French grew out of this Francien dialect. 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. 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 International English, replaced by English as the United States became the dominant global power following the Second World War.The World's 10 Most Influential Languages
. ''Top Languages''. Retrieved 11 April 2011. 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.

During the Grand Siècle (17th century), France, under the rule of powerful leaders such as Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIV of France, Louis XIV, enjoyed a period of prosperity and prominence among European nations. Richelieu established the 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". When public education was made Compulsory education, compulsory, only French was taught and the use of any other (''patois'') language was punished. The goals of the Education in France, 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 Departments of France, department of Finistère, in western Brittany, included the following: "And remember, Gents: you were given your position in order to kill the Breton language". The prefect of Basses-Pyrénées in the Northern Basque Country, French Basque Country wrote in 1846: "Our schools in the Basque Country are particularly meant to replace the Basque language with French..." 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.

Geographic distribution

Europe

Spoken by 19.71% of the European Union's population, French is the third most widely spoken language in the EU, after English and German and the second-most-widely taught language after English.

Under the Constitution of France, French has been the official language of the Republic since 1992, 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 language, German-speaking) and one of the two official languages—along with Dutch language, Dutch—of the Brussels-Capital Region, where it is spoken by the majority of the population (approx. 80%), often as their primary language.

French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland, along with German, Italian, and Romansh language, 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 of Switzerland, cantons have bilingual status: for example, cities such as Biel/Bienne and cantons such as Canton of Valais, Valais, Canton of Fribourg, Fribourg and Canton of Bern, Bern. French is the native language of about 23% of the Swiss population, and is spoken by 50% 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), in which is spoken as a first language by 1.25% of the population and as a second one by approximately 50%. French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands; it is also spoken in Andorra and is the main language after Catalan language, 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.

Africa

The majority of the world's French-speaking population lives in Africa; while it is an official language in 18 countries, it is not spoken as a first language by the majority, acting mainly as a second one or a lingua franca due to the many indigenous languages spoken in the territories. According to a 2023 estimate from the , an estimated 167 million African people spread across 35 countries and territories can speak French as either a first language, first or a second language; only 1,2 million of these spoke it as a first language according to Ethnologue. This number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050. French was the fastest growing language on the continent (in terms of either official or foreign languages).

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, Kinshasa, and Lubumbashi, Douala, Libreville, Antananarivo, Cotonou, and Brazzaville. However, some African countries such as Algeria intermittently attempted to remove the use of French in favor of native languages, and it was removed as an official language in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger in 2023, 2024, and 2025, respectively.

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

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. It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years. Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries, but written forms of the language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world.

Americas

Canada

French is the second most commonly spoken language in Canada and one of two federal official languages alongside English. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it was the native language of 7.7 million people (21% of the population) and the second language of 2.9 million (8% of the population). 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. 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. 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. Furthermore, while French is not an official language in Ontario, the French Language Services Act (Ontario), 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, and is just across the river from the Quebecois city of Gatineau.

United States

According to the United States Census Bureau (2011), French is the fourth 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. 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. 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. As a French-based creole languages, 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.

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, Collectivity of Saint Martin, Saint Martin, and Martinique.

Other territories

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

Asia

Southeast Asia

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

India

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

Puducherry is served by the Alliance française de Pondichéry founded in 1889 teaching 2,200 students and holding a library with 12,000 books and the French Institute of Pondicherry, Institut français de Pondichéry. Over 100,000 people of Indian origin, and a growing number of students, live in Metropolitan France and approximately 250,000 live in Reunion. Reunion Creole is derived mainly from French but includes terms from Malagasy language, Malagasy, Hindi, Portuguese language, Portuguese, Gujarati language, Gujarati and Tamil language, Tamil. French based Mauritian Creole also has some influence from Indian languages.

Lebanon

A former French French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon, 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". 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 Vehicle registration plates of Lebanon, 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. 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. 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.

Oceania

French is an official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu, where 31% of the population was estimated to speak it in 2023. 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.

In New Caledonia, 97% of the population can speak, read and write French while in French Polynesia this figure is 95%, and in Wallis and Futuna, it is 84%. 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. 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.

Future

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

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

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 and Rural Development, 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.

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 in France, French French
** French Guiana, Guianese French
** Meridional French
* Haitian French
* Indian French
* Jersey Legal French
* French language in Laos, Lao French
* Louisiana French
** Cajun French
* Missouri French
* Varieties of French#Asia, South East Asian French
* Swiss French
* French language in Vietnam, Vietnamese French
* French West Indies, West Indian French

Current status and importance

According to the OIF, approximately 321 million people worldwide are "able to speak the language" as of 2022, without specifying the criteria for this estimation or whom it encompasses. A leading world language, French is taught in universities around the world, and is one of the world's most influential languages because of its wide use in the worlds of journalism, jurisprudence, education, and diplomacy.
In diplomacy, French is one of the six official languages of the United Nations (and one of the UN Secretariat's only two working languagesRodney Ball, Dawn Marley, ''The French-Speaking World: A Practical Introduction to Sociolinguistic Issues'', Taylor & Francis, 2016, page 6), 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 International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, 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). 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". However, some African countries such as Algeria intermittently attempted to eradicate the use of French, and in 2024 and 2025 it was removed as an official language in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.

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 Economic Community of West African States#Community Court of Justice, 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 Appellate Body, 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.

In 1997, George Weber published, in ''Language Today'', a comprehensive academic study entitled "The World's 10 most influential languages".The World's 10 most influential languages
George Weber, 1997, ''Language Today'', retrieved on scribd.com 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."

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%). MIT economist Albert Saiz calculated a 2.3% premium for those who have French as a foreign language in the workplace.

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

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.

Phonology

Vowel phonemes in French

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: plus the nasalized vowels and . In France, the vowels , and are tending to be replaced by , and in many people's speech, but the distinction of and is present in Meridional French. In Quebec and Belgian French, the vowels , , and are present.
* Voiced stops (i.e., ) are typically produced fully voiced throughout.
* Voiceless stops (i.e., ) are unaspirated.
* The velar nasal can occur in final position in borrowed (usually English) words: ''parking, camping, swing''.
* The palatal nasal , which is written ⟨gn⟩, can occur in word initial position (e.g., ''gnon''), but it is most frequently found in intervocalic, onset position or word-finally (e.g., ''montagne'').
* French has three pairs of homorganic fricatives distinguished by voicing, i.e., labiodental , dental , and palato-alveolar . are dental, like the plosives and the nasal .
* 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 ', "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 occurs in some dialects. The cluster /ʁw/ is generally pronounced as a labialised voiced uvular fricative [ʁʷ], such as in [ʁʷa] ''roi'', "king", or [kʁʷaʁ] ''croire'', "to believe".
* Lateral and central approximants: The lateral approximant is unvelarised in both onset (''lire'') and coda position (''il''). In the onset, the central approximants , , and each correspond to a high vowel, , , and 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 and occur in final position as in ', "pay", vs. ', "country".
* The lateral approximant /l/ can be Delateralization, delateralised when word- or morpheme-final and preceded by /i/, such as in /tʁavaj/ ''travail'', "work", or when a word ending in ⟨al⟩ is pluralised, giving ⟨aux⟩ /o/.

French pronunciation follows strict rules based on spelling, but French spelling is often based more on history than phonology. The rules for pronunciation vary between dialects, but the standard rules are:
* Final single consonants, in particular ''s'', ''x'', ''z'', ''t'', ''d'', ''n'', ''p'' and ''g'', are normally silent. (A consonant is considered "final" when no vowel follows it even if one or more consonants follow it.) The final letters ''f'', ''k'', ''q'', and ''l'', however, are normally pronounced. The final c is sometimes pronounced, as in bac, sac, roc, but can also be silent, as in blanc or estomac. The final ''r'' is usually silent when it follows an ''e'' in a word of two or more syllables, but it is pronounced in some words (''hiver'', ''super'', ''cancer'' etc.).
** When the following word begins with a vowel, however, a silent consonant ''may'' once again be pronounced, to provide a ''liaison (linguistics), liaison'' or "link" between the two words. Some liaisons are ''mandatory'', for example the ''s'' in ''les amants'' or ''vous avez''; some are ''optional'', depending on dialect and Register (sociolinguistics), register, for example, the first ''s'' in ''deux cents euros'' or ''euros irlandais''; and some are ''forbidden'', for example, the ''s'' in ''beaucoup d'hommes aiment''. The ''t'' of ''et'' is never pronounced and the silent final consonant of a noun is only pronounced in the plural and in set phrases like ''pied-à-terre''.
** Doubling a final ''n'' and adding a silent ''e'' at the end of a word (e.g., ''chien'' → ''chienne'') makes it clearly pronounced. Doubling a final ''l'' and adding a silent ''e'' (e.g., ''gentil'' → ''gentille'') adds a [j] sound if the ''l'' is preceded by the letter ''i''.
* Some monosyllabic function words ending in ''a'' or ''e'', such as ''je'' and ''que'', drop their final vowel when placed before a word that begins with a vowel sound (thus avoiding a hiatus (linguistics), hiatus). The missing vowel is replaced by an apostrophe. (e.g., ''*je ai'' is instead pronounced and spelled ''j'ai''). This gives, for example, the same pronunciation for ''l'homme qu'il a vu'' ("the man whom he saw") and ''l'homme qui l'a vu'' ("the man who saw him"). However, in Belgian French the sentences are pronounced differently; in the first sentence the syllable break is as "qu'il-a", while the second breaks as "qui-l'a". It can also be noted that, in Quebec French, the second example (''l'homme qui l'a vu'') has more emphasis on ''l'a vu''.

Writing system

Alphabet

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

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

Orthography

French spelling, like English spelling, tends to preserve obsolete pronunciation rules. This is mainly due to extreme phonetic changes since the Old French period, without a corresponding change in spelling. Moreover, some conscious changes were made to restore Latin orthography (as with some English words such as "debt"):
* Old French ''doit'' > French ' "finger" (Latin ''digitus'')
* Old French ''pie'' > French ' "foot" [Latin ''pes'' (stem: ''ped-'')]

French orthography is Morphophonemic orthography, 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. Many given spellings of common morphemes usually lead to a predictable sound. In particular, a given vowel combination or diacritic generally leads to one phoneme. However, there is not a one-to-one relation of a phoneme and a single related grapheme, which can be seen in how ''tomber'' and ''tombé'' both end with the /e/ phoneme. Additionally, there are many variations in the pronunciation of consonants at the end of words, demonstrated by how the ''x'' in ''paix'' is not pronounced though at the end of ''Aix'' it is''.''

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

French writing, as with any language, is affected by the spoken language. In Old French, the plural for ''animal'' was ''animals''. The 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 copyists (monks) to 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''.
* Nasal vowel, 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.
* digraph (orthography), 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.
* Consonant length, Gemination: Within words, double consonants are generally not pronounced as geminates in modern French (but geminates can be heard in the cinema or TV news from as recently as the 1970s, and in very refined elocution they may still occur). For example, ''illusion'' is pronounced and not . However, gemination does occur between words; for example, ''une info'' ("a news item" or "a piece of information") is pronounced , whereas ''une nympho'' ("a nymphomaniac") is pronounced .
* Diacritic, Accents are used sometimes for pronunciation, sometimes to distinguish similar words, and sometimes based on etymology alone.
** Accents that affect pronunciation
*** The acute accent (') ''é'' (e.g., ''école''—school) means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default .
*** The grave accent (') ''è'' (e.g., ''élève''—pupil) means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default .
*** The circumflex (') ''ê'' (e.g. ''forêt''—forest) shows that an ''e'' is pronounced and that an ''ô'' is pronounced . In standard French, it also signifies a pronunciation of for the letter ''â'', but this differentiation is disappearing. In the mid-18th century, the circumflex was used in place of ''s'' after a vowel, where that letter ''s'' was not pronounced. Thus, ''forest'' became ''forêt'', ''hospital'' became ''hôpital'', and ''hostel'' became ''hôtel''.
*** Diaeresis (diacritic), Diaeresis or ' (''ë'', ''ï'', ''ü'', ''ÿ''): over ''e'', ''i'', ''u'' or ''y'', indicates that a vowel is to be pronounced separately from the preceding one: ''naïve'', ''Noël''.
**** ö
**** The combination of ''e'' with diaeresis following ''o'' (''Noël'' ) is nasalized in the regular way if followed by ''n'' (''Samoëns, Samoëns'' )
**** The combination of ''e'' with diaeresis following ''a'' is either pronounced (''Raphaël'', ''Israël'' ) or not pronounced, leaving only the ''a'' (''Madame de Staël, Staël'' ) and the ''a'' is nasalized in the regular way if ''aë'' is followed by ''n'' (''Saint-Saëns, Saint-Saëns'' )
**** 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 ''Aÿ'' (a commune in Marne (department), Marne, formerly ''Aÿ-Champagne''), ' (an alley in Paris), ''Croÿ'' (family name and hotel on the Boulevard Raspail, Paris), ' (near Pontoise), ''Ghÿs'' (name of Flemish origin spelt ''Ghijs'' where ''ij'' in handwriting looked like ''ÿ'' to French clerks), ''L'Haÿ-les-Roses'' (commune near Paris), Pierre Louÿs (author), Moÿ-de-l'Aisne (commune in Aisne (department), Aisne and a family name), and ''Le Blanc de Nicolaÿ'' (an insurance company in eastern France).
**** The diaeresis on ''u'' appears in the Biblical proper names ''Archélaüs'', ''Capharnaüm'', ''Emmaüs'', ''Ésaü'', and ''Saül'', as well as French names such as René Just Haüy, Haüy. Nevertheless, since the 1990 orthographic changes, the diaeresis in words containing ''guë'' (such as ''aiguë'' or ''ciguë'') may be moved onto the ''u'': ''aigüe'', ''cigüe'', and by analogy may be used in verbs such as ''j'argüe''.
**** In addition, words coming from German retain their Diaeresis (diacritic)#Umlaut, umlaut (''ä'', ''ö'' and ''ü'') if applicable but use often French pronunciation, such as ''Kärcher'' (trademark of a pressure washer).
*** The cedilla (') ''ç'' (e.g., ''garçon''—boy) means that the letter ''ç'' is pronounced in front of the back vowels ''a'', ''o'' and ''u'' (''c'' is otherwise before a back vowel). ''C'' is always pronounced in front of the front vowels ''e'', ''i'', and ''y'', thus ''ç'' is never found in front of front vowels. This letter is used when a front vowel after ⟨c⟩, such as in ''France'' or ''placer'', is replaced with a back vowel. To retain the pronunciation of the ⟨c⟩, it is given a cedilla, as in ''français'' or ''plaçons''.
** Accents with no pronunciation effect
*** The circumflex does not affect the pronunciation of the letters ''i'' or ''u'', nor, in most dialects, ''a''. It usually indicates that an ''s'' came after it long ago, as in ''île'' (from former ''isle'', compare with English word "isle")
-->. The explanation is that some words share the same orthography, so the circumflex is put here to mark the difference between the two words. For example, ''dites'' (you say) / ''dîtes'' (you said), or even ''du'' (of the) / ''dû'' (past participle for the verb ''devoir'' = must, have to, owe; in this case, the circumflex disappears in the plural and the feminine).
*** All other accents are used only to distinguish similar words, as in the case of distinguishing the adverbs ' and ' ("there", "where") from the article ' ("the" feminine singular) and the conjunction ' ("or"), respectively.

Some proposals exist to simplify the existing writing system, but they still fail to gather interest.

In 1990, a Reforms of French orthography, 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.

Grammar

French is a moderately Inflection, inflected language. Nouns and most pronouns are inflected for grammatical number, 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 grammatical gender, gender (masculine or feminine) of their nouns; personal pronouns and a few other pronouns, for grammatical person, person, number, gender, and grammatical case, case; and verbs, for grammatical tense, tense, Grammatical aspect, aspect, grammatical mood, mood, and the person and number of their subject (grammar), 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.

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 article (grammar), articles from Latin demonstratives
* the loss of certain Latin Grammatical tense, tenses and the creation of new tenses from auxiliaries.

Nouns

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

Verbs

Moods and tense-aspect forms

The French language consists of both finite and non-finite moods. The finite moods include the indicative mood (indicatif), the subjunctive mood (subjonctif), the imperative mood (impératif), and the conditional mood (conditionnel). The non-finite moods include the infinitive mood (infinitif), the present participle (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 tense, present (), the simple past ( and ), the past imperfective (), the pluperfect (), the simple future (), the future perfect (), and the past perfect (). Some forms are less commonly used today. In today's spoken French, the is used while the is reserved for formal situations or for literary purposes. Similarly, the is used for speaking rather than the older seen in literary works.

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

Subjunctive (subjonctif)

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

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

Imperative (imperatif)

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

Conditional (conditionnel)

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

The passé uses auxiliary verbs in its forms.

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 ' ("to be") and the past participle.

Example of the active voice:
* "" She loves the dog.
* "" Marc drove the car.
Example of the passive voice:
* "" The dog is loved by her.
* "" The car was driven by Marc.
However, unless the subject of the sentence is specified, generally the pronoun ''on'' "one" is used:
* "" The dog is loved. (Literally "one loves the dog.")
* "" 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 (linguistics), inversion of the subject and verb, as in "" when asking a question rather than "" 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, "" (literally "is it that") may be placed at the beginning of the sentence. "" may become "" 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.

Vocabulary

The majority of French words derive from Vulgar Latin or were constructed from Latin or Ancient Greek, 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: ''wikt:frère, frère'' / ''wikt:fraternel, fraternel'' from Latin ''wikt:frater, frater / wikt:fraternalis, fraternalis''
* finger: ''wikt:doigt, doigt'' / ''wikt:digital, digital'' from Latin ''wikt:digitus, digitus / wikt:digitalis, digitalis''
* faith: ''wikt:foi, foi'' / ''wikt:fidèle, fidèle'' from Latin ''wikt:fides, fides / wikt:fidelis, fidelis''
* eye: ''wikt:œil, œil'' / ''wikt:oculaire, oculaire'' from Latin ''wikt:oculus, oculus / wikt:ocularis, ocularis''

However, a historical tendency to Francization, Gallicise Latin roots can be identified, whereas English conversely leans towards a more direct incorporation of the Latin:
* ''wikt:rayonnement, rayonnement'' / ''radiation'' from Latin ''wikt:radiatio, radiatio''
* ''wikt:éteindre, éteindre'' / ''extinguish'' from Latin ''wikt:exstinguo#Latin, exstinguere''
* ''wikt:noyau, noyau'' / ''nucleus'' from Latin ''wikt:nucleus#Latin, nucleus''
* ''wikt:ensoleillement, ensoleillement'' / ''insolation'' from Latin ''wikt:insolatio, insolatio''

There are also noun-noun and adjective-adjective pairs:
* thing/cause: ''wikt:chose, chose'' / ''wikt:cause, cause'' from Latin ''wikt:causa, causa''
* cold: ''wikt:froid, froid'' / ''wikt:frigide, frigide'' from Latin ''wikt:frigidum, frigidum''

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

More recently (1994) the linguistic policy (Toubon Law) of the French language academies of France and Quebec has been to provide French equivalents 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.
* ''mercatique ''/ ''marketing''
* ''finance'' ''fantôme'' / ''shadow'' ''banking''
* ''bloc-notes'' / ''notepad''
* ''ailière'' / ''wingsuit''
* ''tiers-lieu ''/'' coworking''

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 Ancient Greek, Greek and Latin language, 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 language, Dutch, 112 from Persian language, Persian and Sanskrit language, 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 language, Basque and 144 (about 3%) from other languages.

One study analyzing the degree of differentiation of Romance languages in comparison to Latin estimated that among the languages analyzed French has the greatest distance from Latin. 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.

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 20 (number), twenty (') is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 70 to 99. The French word for 80 is ', literally "four twenties", and the word for ''75'' is ', 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 French, Belgian, Swiss French, Swiss, and Aostan FrenchJean-Pierre Martin, ''Description lexicale du français parlé en Vallée d'Aoste'', éd. Musumeci, Quart, Aosta Valley, Quart, 1984. as well as that used in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi, use different names for 70 and 90, namely ' and '. In Switzerland, depending on the local dialect, 80 can be ' (Geneva, Neuchâtel, Jura) or ' (Vaud, Valais, Fribourg). The Aosta Valley similarly uses ' 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.

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

French, like most European languages, uses a space to separate thousands. The comma () 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 cent (currency), cents".

Example text

Article 1 of the ''Universal Declaration of Human Rights'' in French:
:'

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.''

See also

* Alliance Française
* AZERTY
* Français fondamental
* Francization
* Francophile
* Francophobia
* Francophonie
* French language in the United States
* French language in Canada
* French poetry
* Glossary of French expressions in English
* Influence of French on English
* Language education
* List of countries where French is an official language
* List of English words of French origin
* List of French loanwords in Persian
* List of French words and phrases used by English speakers
* List of German words of French origin
* Official bilingualism in Canada
* Varieties of French

Notes

References

Works cited

*
*

Further reading

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

External links

Organisations

Fondation Alliance française
an international organisation for the promotion of French language and culture

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
The Language machine

Online dictionaries

* Oxford Dictionarie
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

* :wikt:Appendix:French Swadesh list, Swadesh list in English and French

Numbers

*

Books

*
La langue française dans le monde 2010
(Full book freely accessible)

Articles

*
The status of French in the world
. Ministry of Foreign Affairs (France), French Ministry of Foreign Affairs

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