This article shouldspecify the language of its non-English content, using{{langx}},{{transliteration}} for transliterated languages, and{{IPA}} for phonetic transcriptions, with an appropriateISO 639 code. Wikipedia'smultilingual support templates may also be used.See why.(September 2024)
French is anofficial language in27 countries, as well asone of the most geographically widespread languages in the world, with about 50 countries and territories having it as ade jure orde facto official, administrative, or cultural language.[4] Most of these countries are members of theOrganisation internationale de la Francophonie (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;[5] it is spoken as a first language (in descending order of the number of speakers) in France, Canada (provinces of Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick), Belgium (Wallonia and theBrussels-Capital Region), western Switzerland (Romandy region), parts of Luxembourg, parts of the United States (Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont), Monaco, theAosta Valley region of Italy, and various communities elsewhere.[6]
In Francophone Africa it is spoken mainly as a second language orlingua 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 someupper classes of the population alongside the indigenous ones, but only a second one among the general population.[7]
French is aRomance language (meaning that it is descended primarily fromVulgar Latin) that evolved out of the Gallo-Romance dialects spoken in northern France. The language's early forms includeOld French andMiddle 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.[14] This local variety evolved into the Gallo-Romance tongues, which include French and its closest relatives, such asArpitan.
The evolution of Latin in Gaul was shaped by its coexistence for over half a millennium beside the nativeCelticGaulish language, which did not go extinct until the late sixth century, long after thefall of the Western Roman Empire.[15] Because few Latin speakers settled in rural areas during Roman times, Latin there held little or no social value for thepeasantry; 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 thecollapse 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 theFrankish conquest of Gaul, adopting theprestige 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 legalserfdom.[16][17][18]
The Gaulish language likely survived into the sixth century in France despite considerableRomanization.[15] Coexisting with Latin, Gaulish helped shape theVulgar Latin dialects that developed into French[18][15] contributingloanwords andcalques (includingoui,[19] the word for "yes"),[20] sound changes shaped by Gaulish influence,[21][22][23] and influences in conjugation and word order.[20][24][14] Recent computational studies suggest that early gender shifts may have been motivated by the gender of the corresponding word in Gaulish.[25]
The estimated number of French words that can be attributed to Gaulish is placed at 154 by thePetit Robert,[26] which is often viewed as representing standardized French, while if non-standard dialects are included, the number increases to 240.[27] 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,[28] and products traded regionally rather than further afield.[29] This semantic distribution has been attributed to peasants being the last to hold onto Gaulish.[29][28]
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.[30] A language divide began to grow across the country. The population in the north spokelangue d'oïl while the population in the south spokelangue d'oc.[30] Langue d'oïl grew into what is known as Old French. The period of Old French spanned between the late 8th[31] 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 becauseit had a case system that retained the difference between nominative subjects and oblique non-subjects.[32] The period is marked by a heavysuperstrate influence from the GermanicFrankish language, which non-exhaustively included the use in upper-class speech and higher registers ofV2 word order,[33] a large percentage of the vocabulary (now at around 15% of modern French vocabulary[34]) including the impersonal singular pronounon (a calque of Germanicman), and the name of the language itself.
Up until its later stages,Old French, alongsideOld Occitan, maintained a relic of the old nominalcase 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 complicateddiphthongs such as-eau which would later be leveled to monophthongs.[citation needed]
During the period of theCrusades French became so dominant in theMediterranean Sea that it became alingua franca ("Frankish language"), and because of increased contact with theArabs during the Crusades, who referred to them[who?] asFranj, numerous Arabic loanwords entered French, such asamiral (admiral),alcool (alcohol),coton (cotton) andsirop (syrop), as well as scientific terms such asalgébre (algebra),alchimie (alchemy) andzéro (zero).[35]
Within Old French many dialects emerged but theFrancien dialect is one that not only continued but also thrived during the Middle French period (14th–17th centuries).[30] Modern French grew out of this Francien dialect.[30] Grammatically, during the period of Middle French, noun declensions were lost and there began to be standardized rules.Robert Estienne published the first Latin-French dictionary, which included information about phonetics, etymology, and grammar.[36] Politically, the first government authority to adopt Modern French as official was theAosta Valley in 1536, while theOrdinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539) named French the language of law in theKingdom of France.
Modern French
During the 17th century, French replacedLatin 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 wasreplaced by English as the United States became the dominant global power following theSecond World War.[37][38] Stanley Meisler of theLos Angeles Times said that the fact that theTreaty of Versailles was written in English as well as French was the "first diplomatic blow" against the language.[39]
During theGrand Siècle (17th century), France, under the rule of powerful leaders such asCardinal Richelieu andLouis XIV, enjoyed a period of prosperity and prominence among European nations. Richelieu established theAcadémie 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, theFrench 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 withHenri Grégoire's "Report on the necessity and means to annihilate the patois and to universalize the use of the French language".[40] When public education was madecompulsory, only French was taught and the use of any other (patois) language was punished. The goals of thepublic school system were made especially clear to the French-speaking teachers sent to teach students in regions such asOccitania andBrittany. Instructions given by a French official to teachers in thedepartment ofFinistère, in western Brittany, included the following: "And remember, Gents: you were given your position in order to kill the Breton language".[41] The prefect ofBasses-Pyrénées in theFrench Basque Country wrote in 1846: "Our schools in the Basque Country are particularly meant to replace theBasque language with French..."[41] Students were taught that their ancestral languages were inferior and they should be ashamed of them; this process was known in the Occitan-speaking region asVergonha.[42]
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.[9][44]
Under theConstitution of France, French has been the official language of the Republic since 1992,[45] although theOrdinance 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 ofWallonia (excluding a part of theEast Cantons, which areGerman-speaking) and one of the two official languages—along withDutch—of theBrussels-Capital Region, where it is spoken by the majority of the population (approx. 80%), often as their primary language.[46]
French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland, along with German, Italian, andRomansh, and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland, calledRomandy, of which Geneva is the largest city. The language divisions in Switzerland do not coincide with political subdivisions, and somecantons have bilingual status: for example, cities such asBiel/Bienne and cantons such asValais,Fribourg andBern. French is the native language of about 23% of the Swiss population, and is spoken by 50%[47] of the population.
Along with Luxembourgish and German, French is one of the three official languages ofLuxembourg, where it is generally the preferred language of business as well as of the different public administrations. It is also the official language ofMonaco.
At a regional level, French is acknowledged as an official language in theAosta Valley region ofItaly (the first government authority to adopt Modern French as the official language in 1536, three years before France itself),[48] in which is spoken as a first language by 1.25% of the population and as a second one by approximately 50%.[49] French dialects remain spoken by minorities on theChannel Islands; it is also spoken inAndorra and is the main language afterCatalan inEl Pas de la Casa. The language is taught as the primary second language in the German state ofSaarland, with French being taught from pre-school and over 43% of citizens being able to speak French.[50][51]
Countries in which it is an officialde jure language
Regions in which is spoken as a native language
Countries of Africa by percentage of French speakers in 2023
0–10% Francophone
11–20% Francophone
21–30% Francophone
31–40% Francophone
41–50% Francophone
>50% Francophone
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 alingua franca due to the many indigenous languages spoken in the territories.[52] According to a 2023 estimate from theOrganisation internationale de la Francophonie, an estimated 167 million African people spread across 35 countries and territories[b] can speak French as either afirst or asecond language.[53][54] 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.[55][56][57] French was the fastest growing language on the continent (in terms of either official or foreign languages).[58][59]
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, especially in the cities ofAbidjan in Ivory Coast,[60][61]Kinshasa andLubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of Congo,[62][63][64][65]Douala in Cameroon,[66][67]Libreville in Gabon,[68][69] andAntananarivo in Madagascar.[70] However, some African countries such asAlgeria intermittently attempted to remove the use of French in favor of native languages, and it was removed as an official language inMali andBurkina Faso in 2023 and 2024 respectevely.[71][72]
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.[74] It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years.[75][76] Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries,[77] but written forms of the language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world.
Regions where French is the main language and an official language at both the federal and provincial level
Regions where French is an official language at the federal level but not a majority native language or an official language at the provincial level
The"arrêt" signs (French for "stop") are used in the Canadian province of Québec, while the Englishstop, which is also a valid French word, is used in France and other French-speaking countries and regions.
French is the second most commonly spoken language in Canada and one of two federal official languages alongside English. As of the2021 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).[78][79] French is the sole official language in the province ofQuebec, where some 80% of the population speak it as a native language and 95% are capable of conducting a conversation in it.[78] Quebec is also home to the city ofMontreal, which is the world's fourth-largest French-speaking city, by number of first language speakers.[80][81]New Brunswick andManitoba 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, andYukon). Out of the three, Yukon has the most French speakers, making up just under 4% of the population.[82] Furthermore, while French is not an official language inOntario, theFrench 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, namelyEastern Ontario andNorthern Ontario. Elsewhere, sizable French-speaking minorities are found in southern Manitoba,Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and thePort au Port Peninsula in Newfoundland and Labrador, where the uniqueNewfoundland French dialect was historically spoken. Smaller pockets of French speakers exist in all other provinces. The Ontarian city ofOttawa, 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,[83] and is just across the river from the Quebecois city ofGatineau.
United States
French language spread in the United States. Counties marked in lighter pink are those where 6–12% of the population speaks French at home; medium pink, 12–18%; darker pink, over 18%.French-based creole languages are not included.
According to theUnited States Census Bureau (2011), French is the fourth[84] 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 ofMaine andNew Hampshire. InLouisiana, 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 ofConnecticut,Rhode Island, andNew Hampshire.[85] Louisiana is home to many distinct French dialects, collectively known asLouisiana French.New England French, essentially a variant ofCanadian French, is spoken in parts ofNew England.Missouri French was historically spoken inMissouri andIllinois (formerly known asUpper Louisiana), but is nearly extinct today.[86] French also survived in isolated pockets along theGulf Coast of what was previously FrenchLower Louisiana, such asMon Louis Island, Alabama andDeLisle, 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 inHaiti alongsideHaitian 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.[87] As aFrench 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 theLesser Antilles.[88]
French is the official language of bothFrench Guiana on the South American continent,[89] and ofSaint Pierre and Miquelon,[90] an archipelago off the coast of Newfoundland in North America.
French was the official language of the colony ofFrench Indochina, comprising modern-dayVietnam,Laos, andCambodia. It continues to be an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent decades.[91] In colonial Vietnam, the elites primarily spoke French, while many servants who worked in French households spoke a French pidgin known as "Tây Bồi" (now extinct). After French rule ended,South Vietnam continued to use French in administration, education, and trade.[92] However, since theFall 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.[93]All three countries are full members of La Francophonie (OIF).
French was the official language ofFrench India, consisting of the geographically separate enclaves referred to asPuducherry. It continued to be anofficial language of the territory even after its cession to India in 1956 until 1965.[94] A small number of older locals still retain knowledge of the language, although it has now given way to Tamil and English.[94][95]
A former Frenchmandate,Lebanon designatesArabic 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".[96] TheFrench language in Lebanon is a widespread second language among theLebanese people, and is taught in many schools along with Arabic and English. French is used onLebanese pound banknotes, on road signs, on Lebaneselicense plates, and on official buildings (alongside Arabic).
Today, French and English are secondary languages ofLebanon, with about 40% of the population beingFrancophone and 40% Anglophone.[97] 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.[98] 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.[99]
In New Caledonia, 97% of the population can speak, read and write French[101] while in French Polynesia this figure is 95%,[102] and in Wallis and Futuna, it is 84%.[103] 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 nativePolynesian 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.[104][102] 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.[103][105]
In a study published in March 2014 byForbes, the investment bankNatixis said that French could become the world's most spoken language by 2050.[107][better source needed]
In theEuropean 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 theCourt of Justice of the European Union, where it is the sole internal working language, or theDirectorate-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.[108]
According to the OIF, approximately 321 million people worldwide are "able to speak the language" as of 2022,[109] without specifying the criteria for this estimation or whom it encompasses.[110] A leadingworld 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.[111]In diplomacy, French is one of the six official languages of the United Nations (and one of theUN Secretariat's only two working languages[112]), one of twenty official and three procedural languages of theEuropean Union, an official language ofNATO, theInternational Olympic Committee, theCouncil of Europe, theOrganisation for Economic Co-operation and Development,Organization of American States (alongside Spanish, Portuguese and English), theEurovision Song Contest, one of eighteen official languages of theEuropean Space Agency,World Trade Organization and the least used of the three official languages in theNorth American Free Trade Agreement countries. It is also a working language in nonprofit organisations such as theRed 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), andMédecins du Monde (used alongside English).[113] 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".[114] However, some African countries such asAlgeria intermittently attempted to eradicate the use of French, and as of 2024 it was removed as an official language inMali andBurkina Faso.[71][72]
In 1997, George Weber published, inLanguage Today, a comprehensive academic study entitled "The World's 10 most influential languages".[116] In the article, Weber ranked French as, after English, the second-mostinfluential language of the world, ahead of Spanish.[116] 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 thelinguistic prestige associated with the mastery of the language (Weber highlighted that French in particular enjoys considerable linguistic prestige).[116] In a 2008 reassessment of his article, Weber concluded that his findings were still correct since "the situation among the top ten remains unchanged."[116]
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%).[117] MIT economist Albert Saiz calculated a 2.3% premium for those who have French as a foreign language in the workplace.[118]
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.
Although there are many French regional accents, foreign learners normally use only one variety of the language.
There are a maximum of 17 vowels in French, not all of which are used in every dialect:/a/,/ɑ/,/e/,/ɛ/,/ɛː/,/ə/,/i/,/o/,/ɔ/,/y/,/u/,/œ/,/ø/, plus the nasalized vowels/ɑ̃/,/ɛ̃/,/ɔ̃/ and/œ̃/. In France, the vowels/ɑ/,/ɛː/ and/œ̃/ are tending to be replaced by/a/,/ɛ/ and/ɛ̃/ in many people's speech, but the distinction of/ɛ̃/ and/œ̃/ is present inMeridional French. In Quebec and Belgian French, the vowels/ɑ/,/ə/,/ɛː/ and/œ̃/ are present.
Voiced stops (i.e.,/b,d,ɡ/) are typically produced fully voiced throughout.
Voiceless stops (i.e.,/p,t,k/) are unaspirated.
The velar nasal/ŋ/ can occur in final position in borrowed (usually English) words:parking, camping, swing.
The palatal nasal/ɲ/, which is written ⟨gn⟩, can occur in word initial position (e.g.,gnon), but it is most frequently found in intervocalic, onset position or word-finally (e.g.,montagne).
French has three pairs of homorganic fricatives distinguished by voicing, i.e., labiodental/f/~/v/, dental/s/~/z/, and palato-alveolar/ʃ/~/ʒ/./s/~/z/ are dental, like the plosives/t/~/d/ and the nasal/n/.
French has one rhotic whose pronunciation varies considerably among speakers and phonetic contexts. In general, it is described as avoiced uvular fricative, as in[ʁu]roue, "wheel". Vowels are often lengthened before this segment. It can be reduced to an approximant, particularly in final position (e.g.,fort), or reduced to zero in some word-final positions. For other speakers, a uvular trill is also common, and an apical trill[r] occurs in some dialects. The cluster /ʁw/ is generally pronounced as a labialised voiced uvular fricative [ʁʷ], such as in [ʁʷa]roi, "king", or [kʁʷaʁ]croire, "to believe".
Lateral and central approximants: The lateral approximant/l/ is unvelarised in both onset (lire) and coda position (il). In the onset, the central approximants[w],[ɥ], and[j] each correspond to a high vowel,/u/,/y/, and/i/ respectively. There are a fewminimal pairs where the approximant and corresponding vowel contrast, but there are also many cases where they are in free variation. Contrasts between/j/ and/i/ occur in final position as in/pɛj/paye, "pay", vs./pɛi/pays, "country".
The lateral approximant /l/ can bedelateralised 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 particulars,x,z,t,d,n,p andg, are normally silent. (A consonant is considered "final" when no vowel follows it even if one or more consonants follow it.) The final lettersf,k,q, andl, however, are normally pronounced. The finalc is sometimes pronounced, as inbac,sac,roc, but can also be silent, as inblanc orestomac. The finalr is usually silent when it follows ane 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 consonantmay once again be pronounced, to provide aliaison or "link" between the two words. Some liaisons aremandatory, for example thes inles amants orvous avez; some areoptional, depending ondialect andregister, for example, the firsts indeux cents euros oreuros irlandais; and some areforbidden, for example, thes inbeaucoup d'hommes aiment. Thet ofet is never pronounced and the silent final consonant of a noun is only pronounced in the plural and inset phrases likepied-à-terre.
Doubling a finaln and adding a silente at the end of a word (e.g.,chien →chienne) makes it clearly pronounced. Doubling a finall and adding a silente (e.g.,gentil →gentille) adds a [j] sound if thel is preceded by the letteri.
Some monosyllabic function words ending ina ore, such asje andque, drop their final vowel when placed before a word that begins with a vowel sound (thus avoiding ahiatus). The missing vowel is replaced by an apostrophe. (e.g.,*je ai is instead pronounced and spelledj'ai). This gives, for example, the same pronunciation forl'homme qu'il a vu ("the man whom he saw") andl'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, inQuebec French, the second example (l'homme qui l'a vu) has more emphasis onl'a vu.
There are twoligatures, "œ" and "æ", but they are often replaced in contemporary French with "oe" and "ae", because the ligatures do not appear on theAZERTY keyboard layout used in French-speaking countries. However this is nonstandard in formal and literary texts.
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 Frenchdoit > Frenchdoigt "finger" (Latindigitus)
Old Frenchpie > Frenchpied "foot" [Latinpes (stem:ped-)]
French orthography ismorphophonemic. While it contains 130graphemes that denote only 36phonemes, many of its spelling rules are likely due to a consistency in morphemic patterns such as adding suffixes and prefixes.[120] 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 howtomber andtombé both end with the /e/ phoneme.[121] Additionally, there are many variations in the pronunciation of consonants at the end of words, demonstrated by how thex inpaix is not pronounced though at the end ofAix 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 (seeLiaison (French)). For example, the following words end in a vowel sound:pied,aller,les,finit,beaux. The same words followed by a vowel, however, may sound the consonants, as they do in these examples:beaux-arts,les amis,pied-à-terre.
French writing, as with any language, is affected by the spoken language. In Old French, the plural foranimal wasanimals. The/als/ sequence was unstable[further explanation needed] and was turned into a diphthong/aus/. This change was then reflected in the orthography:animaus. Theus ending, very common in Latin, was then abbreviated by copyists (monks) to the letterx, resulting in a written formanimax. As the French language further evolved, the pronunciation ofau turned into/o/ so that theu was reestablished in orthography for consistency, resulting in modern Frenchanimaux (pronounced first/animos/ before the final/s/ was dropped in contemporary French). The same is true forcheval pluralized aschevaux and many others. In addition,castel pl.castels becamechâteau pl.châteaux.
Nasal:n andm. Whenn orm follows a vowel or diphthong, then orm 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 then orm is doubled, or immediately followed by a vowel. The prefixesen- andem- are always nasalized. The rules are more complex than this but may vary between dialects.
Digraphs: French uses not onlydiacritics to specify its large range of vowel sounds anddiphthongs, but also specific combinations of vowels, sometimes with following consonants, to show which sound is intended.
Gemination: Within words, double consonants are generally not pronounced as geminates in modern French (but geminates can be heard in the cinema or TV news from as recently as the 1970s, and in very refined elocution they may still occur). For example,illusion is pronounced[ilyzjɔ̃] and not[ilːyzjɔ̃]. However, gemination does occur between words; for example,une info ("a news item" or "a piece of information") is pronounced[ynɛ̃fo], whereasune nympho ("a nymphomaniac") is pronounced[ynːɛ̃fo].
Accents are used sometimes for pronunciation, sometimes to distinguish similar words, and sometimes based on etymology alone.
Accents that affect pronunciation
Theacute accent (l'accent aigu)é (e.g.,école—school) means that the vowel is pronounced/e/ instead of the default/ə/.
Thegrave accent (l'accent grave)è (e.g.,élève—pupil) means that the vowel is pronounced/ɛ/ instead of the default/ə/.
Thecircumflex (l'accent circonflexe)ê (e.g.forêt—forest) shows that ane is pronounced/ɛ/ and that anô is pronounced/o/. In standard French, it also signifies a pronunciation of/ɑ/ for the letterâ, but this differentiation is disappearing. In the mid-18th century, the circumflex was used in place ofs after a vowel, where that letters was not pronounced. Thus,forest becameforêt,hospital becamehôpital, andhostel becamehôtel.
Diaeresis ortréma (ë,ï,ü,ÿ): overe,i,u ory, indicates that a vowel is to be pronounced separately from the preceding one:naïve,Noël.
The combination ofe with diaeresis followingo (Noël[ɔɛ]) is nasalized in the regular way if followed byn (Samoëns[wɛ̃])
The combination ofe with diaeresis followinga is either pronounced[ɛ] (Raphaël,Israël[aɛ]) or not pronounced, leaving only thea (Staël[a]) and thea is nasalized in the regular way ifaë is followed byn (Saint-Saëns[ɑ̃])
A diaeresis ony only occurs in some proper names and in modern editions of old French texts. Some proper names in whichÿ appears includeAÿ (a commune inMarne, formerlyAÿ-Champagne),Rue des Cloÿs (an alley in Paris),Croÿ (family name and hotel on the Boulevard Raspail, Paris),Château du Faÿ [fr] (nearPontoise),Ghÿs (name of Flemish origin speltGhijs whereij in handwriting looked likeÿ to French clerks),L'Haÿ-les-Roses (commune near Paris),Pierre Louÿs (author),Moÿ-de-l'Aisne (commune inAisne and a family name), andLe Blanc de Nicolaÿ (an insurance company in eastern France).
The diaeresis onu appears in the Biblical proper namesArchélaüs,Capharnaüm,Emmaüs,Ésaü, andSaül, as well as French names such asHaüy. Nevertheless, since the 1990 orthographic changes, the diaeresis in words containingguë (such asaiguë orciguë) may be moved onto theu:aigüe,cigüe, and by analogy may be used in verbs such asj'argüe.
In addition, words coming from German retain theirumlaut (ä,ö andü) if applicable but use often French pronunciation, such asKärcher (trademark of a pressure washer).
Thecedilla (la cédille)ç (e.g.,garçon—boy) means that the letterç is pronounced/s/ in front of the back vowelsa,o andu (c is otherwise/k/ before a back vowel).C is always pronounced/s/ in front of the front vowelse,i, andy, thusç is never found in front of front vowels. This letter is used when a front vowel after ⟨c⟩, such as inFrance orplacer, is replaced with a back vowel. To retain the pronunciation of the ⟨c⟩, it is given a cedilla, as infrançais orplaçons.
Accents with no pronunciation effect
The circumflex does not affect the pronunciation of the lettersi oru, nor, in most dialects,a. It usually indicates that ans came after it long ago, as inîle (from formerisle, 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 evendu (of the) /dû (past participle for the verbdevoir = 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 adverbslà andoù ("there", "where") from the articlela ("the" feminine singular) and the conjunctionou ("or"), respectively.
Some proposals exist to simplify the existing writing system, but they still fail to gather interest.[122][123][124][125]
In 1990, areform 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.[126]
French is a moderatelyinflected language.Nouns and mostpronouns are inflected fornumber (singular or plural, though in most nouns the plural is pronounced the same as the singular even if spelled differently);adjectives, for number andgender (masculine or feminine) of their nouns;personal pronouns and a few other pronouns, forperson, number, gender, andcase; andverbs, fortense,aspect,mood, and the person and number of theirsubjects. Case is primarily marked usingword order andprepositions, while certain verb features are marked usingauxiliary 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.[127]
French grammar shares several notable features with most other Romance languages, including
the loss of certain Latintenses and the creation of new tenses from auxiliaries.
Nouns
Every Frenchnoun 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, theirgrammatical genders often correspond to that which they refer to. For example, a male teacher is anenseignant while a female teacher is anenseignante. 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 beenseignants. A group of two male teachers and two female teachers would still beenseignants. However, a group of two female teachers would beenseignantes. In many situations, including in the case ofenseignant, 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 singularle professeur orla professeure (the male or female teacher, professor) can be distinguished from the pluralles professeur(e)s becausele /lə/,la /la/, andles /le(s)/ are all pronounced differently. Withenseignant, however, for both singular forms thele/la becomesl', 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 whilela dentiste refers to a female dentist. Furthermore, a few nouns' meanings depend on their gender. For example,un livre (masculine) refers to a book, whileune livre a (feminine) is a pound.
Within the indicative mood, thepassé composé,plus-que-parfait,futur antérieur, andpassé antérieur all use auxiliary verbs in their forms.
Indicatif
Présent
Imparfait
Passé composé
Passé simple
Singular
Plural
Singular
Plural
Singular
Plural
Singular
Plural
1st person
j'aime
nous aimons
j'aimais
nous aimions
j'ai aimé
nous avons aimé
j'aimai
nous aimâmes
2nd person
tu aimes
vous aimez
tu aimais
vous aimiez
tu as aimé
vous avez aimé
tu aimas
vous aimâtes
3rd person
il/elle aime
ils/elles aiment
il/elle aimait
ils/elles aimaient
il/elle a aimé
ils/elles ont aimé
il/elle aima
ils/elles aimèrent
Futur simple
Futur antérieur
Plus-que-parfait
Passé antérieur
Singular
Plural
Singular
Plural
Singular
Plural
Singular
Plural
1st person
j'aimerai
nous aimerons
j'aurai aimé
nous aurons aimé
j'avais aimé
nous avions aimé
j'eus aimé
nous eûmes aimé
2nd person
tu aimeras
vous aimerez
tu auras aimé
vous aurez aimé
tu avais aimé
vous aviez aimé
tu eus aimé
vous eûtes aimé
3rd person
il/elle aimera
ils/elles aimeront
il/elle aura aimé
ils/elles auront aimé
il/elle avait aimé
ils/elles avaient aimé
il/elle eut aimé
ils/elles eurent aimé
Subjunctive (subjonctif)
The subjunctive mood only includes four of the tense-aspect forms found in the indicative: present (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.
Subjonctif
Présent
Imparfait
Passé composé
Plus-que-parfait
Singular
Plural
Singular
Plural
Singular
Plural
Singular
Plural
1st person
j'aime
nous aimions
j'aimasse
nous aimassions
j'aie aimé
nous ayons aimé
j'eusse aimé
nous eussions aimé
2nd person
tu aimes
vous aimiez
tu aimasses
vous aimassiez
tu aies aimé
vous ayez aimé
tu eusses aimé
vous eussiez aimé
3rd person
il/elle aime
ils/elles aiment
il/elle aimât
ils/elles aimassent
il/elle ait aimé
ils/elles aient aimé
il/elle eût aimé
ils/elles eussent aimé
Imperative (imperatif)
The imperative is used in the present tense (with the exception of a few instances where it is used in the perfect tense). The imperative is used to give commands to you (tu), we/us (nous), and plural you (vous).
Imperatif
Présent
Singular
Plural
1st person
aimons
2nd person
aime
aimez
Conditional (conditionnel)
The conditional makes use of the present (présent) and the past (passé).
The passé uses auxiliary verbs in its forms.
Conditionnel
Présent
Passé
Singular
Plural
Singular
Plural
1st person
j'aimerais
nous aimerions
j'aurais aimé
nous aurions aimé
2nd person
tu aimerais
vous aimeriez
tu aurais aimé
vous auriez aimé
3rd person
il/elle aimerait
ils/elles aimeraient
il/elle aurait aimé
ils/elles auraient aimé
Voice
French uses both theactive voice and thepassive voice. The active voice is unmarked while the passive voice is formed by using a form of verbêtre ("to be") and the past participle.
Example of the active voice:
"Elle aime le chien." She loves the dog.
"Marc a conduit la voiture." Marc drove the car.
Example of the passive voice:
"Le chien est aimé par elle." The dog is loved by her.
"La voiture a été conduite par Marc." The car was driven by Marc.
However, unless the subject of the sentence is specified, generally the pronounon "one" is used:
"On aime le chien." The dog is loved. (Literally "one loves the dog.")
"On conduit la voiture." The car is (being) driven. (Literally "one drives the car.")
Word order issubject–verb–object although a pronoun object precedes the verb. Some types of sentences allow for or require different word orders, in particularinversion 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 usesverb–object–subject (VOS) andobject–subject–verb (OSV) word order. OSV word order is not used often and VOS is reserved for formal writings.[32]
The majority of French words derive fromVulgar Latin or were constructed fromLatin orGreek 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 fromClassical Latin. The following pairs consist of a native noun and a learned adjective:
However, a historical tendency toGallicise Latin roots can be identified, whereas English conversely leans towards a more direct incorporation of the Latin:
It can be difficult to identify the Latin source of native French words because in the evolution fromVulgar 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[129] 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.
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.[130] The French language'slexical 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.[131][1]
Numerals
The numeral system used in the majority of Francophone countries employs bothdecimal andvigesimal counting. After the use of unique names for the numbers 1–16, those from 17 to 69 are counted by tens, whiletwenty (vingt) is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 70 to 99. The French word for 80 isquatre-vingts, literally "four twenties", and the word for75 issoixante-quinze, literally "sixty-fifteen". The vigesimal method of counting is analogous to the archaic English use ofscore, as in "fourscore and seven" (87), or "threescore and ten" (70).
Belgian,Swiss, andAostan French[132] as well as that used in theDemocratic Republic of the Congo,Rwanda andBurundi, use different names for 70 and 90, namelyseptante andnonante. In Switzerland, depending on the local dialect, 80 can bequatre-vingts (Geneva, Neuchâtel, Jura) orhuitante (Vaud, Valais, Fribourg). TheAosta Valley similarly useshuitante[132] for 80. Conversely, Belgium and in its former African colonies usequatre-vingts for 80.
InOld French (during theMiddle 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, ornonante for 90.[133]
The termoctante was historically used in Switzerland for 80, but is now considered archaic.[134]
French, like most European languages, uses a space to separate thousands.[135] 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 7cents".
Tous les êtres humains naissent libres et égaux en dignité et en droits. Ils sont doués de raison et de conscience et doivent agir les uns envers les autres dans un esprit de fraternité.[136]
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.[137]
^Schrijver, Peter (1997).Studies in the History of Celtic Pronouns and Particles. Maynooth: Department of Old Irish, National University of Ireland. p. 15.ISBN9780901519597.
^abSavignac, Jean-Paul (2004).Dictionnaire Français-Gaulois. Paris: La Différence. p. 26.
^Pellegrini, Giovanni Battista (2011). "Substrata". In Posner; Green (eds.).Romance Comparative and Historical Linguistics. De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 43–74. 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..."
^Guiter, Henri (1995). "Sur le substrat gaulois dans la Romania". In Bochnakowa, Anna; Widlak, Stanislan (eds.).Munus amicitae. Studia linguistica in honorem Witoldi Manczak septuagenarii. Krakow.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Matasovic, Ranko (2007). "Insular Celtic as a Language Area".The Celtic Languages in Contact: Papers from the Workshop Within the Framework of the XIII International Congress of Celtic Studies. p. 106.
^Schmitt, Christian (1997). "Keltische im heutigen Französisch".Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie.49–50:814–829.doi:10.1515/zcph.1997.49-50.1.814.
^Müller, Bodo (1982). "Geostatistik der gallischen/keltischen Substratwörter in der Galloromania". In Winkelmann, Otto (ed.).Festschrift für Johannes Hubschmid zum 65. Geburtsag. Beiträge zur allgemeinen, indogermanischen und romanischen Sprachwissenschaft. pp. 603–620.
^abHolmes, Urban; Herman Schutz, Alexander (June 1938).A History of the French Language. Biblo & Tannen Publishers. p. 30.ISBN978-0-8196-0191-9.Archived from the original on 18 September 2023. Retrieved10 June 2021."...sixty-eight or more Celtic words in standard Latin; not all of these came down into Romance.... did not survive among the people. Vulgar speech in Gaul used many others... at least 361 words of Gaulish provenance in French and Provençal. These Celtic words fell into more homely types than... borrowings from Germanː agriculture... household effects... animals... food and drink... trees... body -- 17 (dor <durnu), dress... construction... birds... fish... insects...pièce < *pettia, and the remainder divided among weapons, religion, literature, music, persons, sickness and mineral. It is evident that the peasants were the last to hold to their Celtic. The count on the Celtic element was made by Leslie Moss at the University of North Carolina... based on unanimity of agreement among the best lexicographers...
^Battye, Adrian; Hintze, Marie-Anne; Rowlett, Paul (2000).The French Language Today (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 12.ISBN978-1-136-90328-1. [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.]
^Rowlett, P. 2007. The Syntax of French. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Page 4
^Pope, Mildred K. (1934). From Latin to Modern French with Especial Consideration of Anglo-Norman Phonology and Morphology. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
^abLabouysse, Georges (2007).L'Imposture. Mensonges et manipulations de l'Histoire officielle. France: Institut d'études occitanes.ISBN978-2-85910-426-9.
^Simpson, Andrew, ed. (2008).Language and National Identity in Africa. y Oxford University Press Language and National Identity in Asia.ISBN9780199286751.
^Ploog, Katja (25 September 2002).Le français à Abidjan : Pour une approche syntaxique du non-standard Broché – 25 septembre 2002.ASIN2271059682.
^France-DiplomatieArchived 27 July 2009 at theWayback Machine "Furthermore, the demographic growth of Southern hemisphere countries leads us to anticipate a new increase in the overall number of French speakers."
^(in French)c) Le sabir franco-africainArchived 17 January 2013 at theWayback Machine:"C'est la variété du français la plus fluctuante. Le sabir franco-africain est instable et hétérogène sous toutes ses formes. Il existe des énoncés où les mots sont français mais leur ordre reste celui de la langue africaine. En somme, autant les langues africaines sont envahies par les structures et les mots français, autant la langue française se métamorphose en Afrique, donnant naissance à plusieurs variétés."
^(in French)République centrafricaineArchived 5 April 2007 at theWayback Machine:Il existe une autre variété de français, beaucoup plus répandue et plus permissive : le français local. C'est un français très influencé par les langues centrafricaines, surtout par le sango. Cette variété est parlée par les classes non-instruites, qui n'ont pu terminer leur scolarité. Ils usent ce qu'ils connaissent du français avec des emprunts massifs aux langues locales. Cette variété peut causer des problèmes de compréhension avec les francophones des autres pays, car les interférences linguistiques, d'ordre lexical et sémantique, sont très importantes. (One example of a variety of African French that is difficult to understand for European French speakers).
^DeGraff, Michel; Ruggles, Molly (1 August 2014)."A Creole Solution for Haiti's Woes".The New York Times. p. A17.ISSN0362-4331.Archived from the original on 6 September 2015.Under the 1987 Constitution, adopted after the overthrow of Jean‑Claude Duvalier's dictatorship, [Haitian] Creole and French have been the two official languages, but most of the population speaks only Creole fluently.
^Rodney Ball, Dawn Marley,The French-Speaking World: A Practical Introduction to Sociolinguistic Issues, Taylor & Francis, 2016, page 6
^The French Ministry of Foreign affairs."France-Diplomatie".France Diplomatie: Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development.Archived from the original on 19 January 2012. Retrieved26 July 2011.
^Lauerman, John (30 August 2011).Mandarin Chinese Most Useful Business Language After English. New York: Bloomberg L.P.Archived from the original on 29 March 2015.French, spoken by 68 million people worldwide and the official language of 27 countries, was ranked second [to Mandarin].
^abJean-Pierre Martin,Description lexicale du français parlé en Vallée d'Aoste, éd. Musumeci,Quart, 1984.
^Einhorn, E. (1974).Old French: A Concise Handbook. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 110.ISBN978-0-521-09838-0.
^"Septante, octante (huitante), nonante".langue-fr.net (in French).Archived from the original on 4 September 2010. Retrieved19 July 2009.. See also the English Wikipedia article onWelsh language, especially the section "Counting system" and its note on the influence ofCeltic in the French counting system.
