French language

French(français[fʁɑ̃sɛ]orlangue française[lɑ̃ɡfʁɑ̃sɛːz]) is aRomance languageof theIndo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from theVulgar Latinof theRoman Empire. French evolved fromGallo-Romance, the Latin spoken inGaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the otherlangues d'oïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French (Francien) largely supplanted. French was alsoinfluencedby nativeCeltic languagesof Northern Roman Gaul likeGallia Belgicaand by the (Germanic)Frankish languageof the post-RomanFrankishinvaders. Today, owing to theFrench colonial empire, there are numerousFrench-based creole languages, most notablyHaitian Creole. A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to asFrancophonein bothEnglishand French.
French is anofficial languagein27 countries, as well asone of the most geographically widespread languagesin the world, with about 50 countries and territories having it as ade jureorde factoofficial, administrative, or cultural language.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 spoken as a first language (in descending order of the number of speakers) in France; Canada (especially in theprovincesof Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick); Belgium (Walloniaand theBrussels-Capital Region); western Switzerland (specifically the cantons forming theRomandyregion); parts of Luxembourg; parts of the United States (the states of Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont); Monaco; theAosta Valleyregion of Italy; and various communities elsewhere.
French is estimated to have about 310 million speakers, of which about 80 million are native speakers.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.
In Francophone Africa, it is spoken mainly as a second language or lingua franca. However it has also become a native language in a number of urban areas, especially in the cities ofAbidjanin Ivory Coast,KinshasaandLubumbashiin the Democratic Republic of Congo,Doualain Cameroon,Librevillein Gabon,andAntananarivoin Madagascar.In some North African countries, though not having official status, it is also a first language among someupper classesof the population alongside indigenous languages, but only a second one among the general population.
In 2015, approximately 40% of the Francophone population (includingL2and 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 theEuropean 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,GermanandItalian; in some institutions, French is the sole working language (e.g. at theCourt of Justice of the European Union).French is also the 16thmost natively spoken languagein the world, the sixthmost 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.As a result of French and Belgiancolonialismfrom the 16th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. 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 theUnited Nations, the European Union, theNorth Atlantic Treaty Organization, theWorld Trade Organization, theInternational Olympic Committee, theGeneral Conference on Weights and Measures, and theInternational Committee of the Red Cross.
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 FrenchandMiddle French.
Due to Roman rule, Latin was gradually adopted by the inhabitants of Gaul. As the language was learned by the common people, it developed a distinct local character, with grammatical differences from Latin as spoken elsewhere, some of which is attested in graffiti.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.The population remained 90% indigenous in origin;the Romanizing class were the local native elite (not Roman settlers), whose children learned Latin in Roman schools. At the time of the collapse of the Empire, this local elite had been slowly abandoning Gaulish entirely, but the rural and lower class populations remained Gaulish speakers who could sometimes also speak Latin or Greek.The final language shift from Gaulish to Vulgar Latin among rural and lower class populations occurred later, when both they and the incoming Frankish ruler/military class adopted the Gallo-Roman Vulgar Latin speech of the urban intellectual elite.
The Gaulish language likely survived into the sixth century in France despite considerableRomanization.Coexisting with Latin, Gaulish helped shape theVulgar Latindialects that developed into Frenchcontributingloanwordsandcalques(includingoui,the word for "yes"),sound changes shaped by Gaulish influence,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 thePetit 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.
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 spokelangue d'oïlwhile the population in the south spokelangue d'oc.Langue d'oïl grew into what is known as Old French. The period of Old French spanned between the late 8thand 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.The period is marked by a heavysuperstrateinfluence from the GermanicFrankish language, which non-exhaustively included the use in upper-class speech and higher registers ofV2 word order,a large percentage of the vocabulary (now at around 15% of modern French vocabulary) 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 systemof 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 complicateddiphthongssuch as-eauwhich would later be leveled to monophthongs.
The earliest evidence of what became Old French can be seen in theOaths of Strasbourgand theSequence of Saint Eulalia, whileOld French literaturebegan to be produced in the eleventh century, with major early works often focusing on the lives of saints (such as theVie de Saint Alexis), or wars and royal courts, notably including theChanson de Roland,epic cycles focused on King Arthur and his court, as well asa cycle focusedonWilliam of Orange.
It was during the period of theCrusadesin which French became so dominant in theMediterranean Seathat became alingua franca("Frankish language"), and because of increased contact with theArabsduring the Crusades who referred to them 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).
Within Old French many dialects emerged but theFranciendialect 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 Estiennepublished 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 theAosta Valleyin 1536, while theOrdinance of Villers-Cotterêts(1539) named French the language of law in theKingdom of France.
During the 17th century, French replacedLatinas 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 Englishas the United States became the dominant global power following theSecond World War.Stanley Meisler of theLos Angeles Timessaid that the fact that theTreaty of Versailleswas written in English as well as French was the "first diplomatic blow" against the language.
During theGrand Siècle(17th century), France, under the rule of powerful leaders such asCardinal RichelieuandLouis XIV, enjoyed a period of prosperity and prominence among European nations. Richelieu established theAcadémie françaiseto 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 governmentbegan 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".When public education was madecompulsory, only French was taught and the use of any other (patois) language was punished. The goals of thepublic school systemwere made especially clear to the French-speaking teachers sent to teach students in regions such asOccitaniaandBrittany. Instructions given by a French official to teachers in thedepartmentofFinistère, in western Brittany, included the following: "And remember, Gents: you were given your position in order to kill the Breton language".The prefect ofBasses-Pyrénéesin theFrench Basque Countrywrote in 1846: "Our schools in the Basque Country are particularly meant to replace theBasque languagewith 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 asVergonha.
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 theConstitution of France, French has been the official language of the Republic since 1992,although theOrdinance of Villers-Cotterêtsmade 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.
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 somecantonshave bilingual status: for example, cities such asBiel/Bienneand cantons such asValais,FribourgandBern. 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 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 Valleyregion ofItaly(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 theChannel Islands; it is also spoken inAndorraand is the main language afterCatalaninEl 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.
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 francadue to the many indigenous languages spoken in the territories.According to a 2023 estimate from theOrganisation internationale de la Francophonie, an estimated 167 million African people spread across 35 countries and territoriescan speak French as either afirstor asecond language.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, especially in regions likeIvory Coast,Cameroon,Gabon,Madagascar,and theDemocratic Republic of Congo.However, some African countries such asAlgeriaintermittently attempted to remove the use of French in favor of native languages, and it was removed as an official language inMaliandBurkina Fasoin 2023 and 2024 respectevely.
There is not a singleAfrican French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenousAfrican languages.
Sub-Saharan Africais 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.
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).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.Quebec is also home to the city ofMontreal, which is the world's fourth-largest French-speaking city, by number of first language speakers.New BrunswickandManitobaare 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.Furthermore, while French is not an official language inOntario, theFrench Language Services Actensures that provincial services are available in the language. The Act applies to areas of the province where there are significant Francophone communities, namelyEastern OntarioandNorthern Ontario. Elsewhere, sizable French-speaking minorities are found in southern Manitoba,Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and thePort au Port Peninsulain Newfoundland and Labrador, where the uniqueNewfoundland Frenchdialect 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,and is just across the river from the Quebecois city ofGatineau.
According to theUnited States Census Bureau(2011), French is the fourthmost 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 ofMaineandNew 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.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 Frenchwas historically spoken inMissouriandIllinois(formerly known asUpper Louisiana), but is nearly extinct today.French also survived in isolated pockets along theGulf Coastof 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.
French is one of two official languages inHaitialongsideHaitian 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 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.
French is the sole official language of all the overseas territories of France in the Caribbean that are collectively referred to as theFrench West Indies, namelyGuadeloupe,Saint Barthélemy,Saint Martin, andMartinique.
French is the official language of bothFrench Guianaon the South American continent,and ofSaint Pierre and Miquelon,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.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 Vietnamcontinued to use French in administration, education, and trade.However, since theFall of Saigonand 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).
French was the official language ofFrench India, consisting of the geographically separate enclaves referred to asPuducherry. It continued to be anofficial language of the territoryeven 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.
A former Frenchmandate,LebanondesignatesArabicas 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".TheFrench language in Lebanonis a widespread second language among theLebanese people, and is taught in many schools along with Arabic and English. French is used onLebanese poundbanknotes, 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 beingFrancophoneand 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.
French is an official language of thePacific Islandnation ofVanuatu, where 31% of the population was estimated to speak it in 2023.In the French special collectivity ofNew Caledonia, 97% of the population can speak, read and write Frenchwhile inFrench Polynesiathis figure is 95%,and in the French collectivity ofWallis 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 (95% and 84% respectively), 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.
According to a demographic projection led by theUniversité Lavaland theRéseau 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 insub-Saharan Africa.OIF estimates 700 million French speakers by 2050, 80% of whom will be in Africa.
In a study published in March 2014 byForbes, the investment bankNatixissaid that French could become the world's most spoken language by 2050.
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,Brexithas rekindled discussions on whether or not French should again hold greater role within the institutions of the European Union.
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.In diplomacy, French is one of the six official languages of the United Nations (and one of theUN Secretariat's only two working languages), 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 Organizationand the least used of the three official languages in theNorth American Free Trade Agreementcountries. 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).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 asAlgeriaintermittently attempted to eradicate the use of French, and as of 2024 it was removed as an official language inMaliandBurkina Faso.
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 theAfrican Court on Human and Peoples' Rights, theCaribbean Court of Justice, theCourt of Justice for the Economic Community of West African States, theInter-American Court of Human Rights, theInternational Court of Justice, theInternational Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia,International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, theInternational Tribunal for the Law of the SeatheInternational Criminal Courtand theWorld Trade Organization Appellate Body. It is the sole internal working language of theCourt of Justice of the European Union, and makes with English theEuropean Court of Human Rights's two working languages.
In 1997, George Weber published, inLanguage Today, a comprehensive academic study entitled "The World's 10 most influential languages".In the article, Weber ranked French as, after English, the second-mostinfluentiallanguage 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 thelinguistic prestigeassociated 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 Businessweekranked French the third most useful language for business, after English andStandard 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.
Vowel phonemes in French
Although there are many French regional accents, foreign learners normally use only one variety of the language.
French pronunciation follows strict rules based on spelling, but French spelling is often based more on history than phonology. The rules for pronunciation vary between dialects, but the standard rules are:
French is written with the 26 letters of the basicLatin script, with four diacritics appearing on vowels (circumflexaccent,acute accent,grave accent,diaeresis) and thecedillaappearing in "ç".
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 theAZERTYkeyboard 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"):
French orthography ismorphophonemic. While it contains 130graphemesthat denote only 36phonemes, 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 howtomberandtombéboth end with the /e/ phoneme.Additionally, there are many variations in the pronunciation of consonants at the end of words, demonstrated by how thexinpaixis not pronounced though at the end ofAixit 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 foranimalwasanimals. The/als/sequence was unstable and was turned into a diphthong/aus/. This change was then reflected in the orthography:animaus. Theusending, very common in Latin, was then abbreviated by copyists (monks) by the letterx, resulting in a written formanimax. As the French language further evolved, the pronunciation ofauturned into/o/so that theuwas 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 forchevalpluralized aschevauxand many others. In addition,castelpl.castelsbecamechâteaupl.châteaux.
Some proposals exist to simplify the existing writing system, but they still fail to gather interest.
In 1990, areformaccepted 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.
French is a moderatelyinflectedlanguage.Nounsand mostpronounsare 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 pronounsand a few other pronouns, forperson, number, gender, andcase; andverbs, fortense,aspect,mood, and the person and number of theirsubjects. Case is primarily marked usingword orderandprepositions, 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.
French grammar shares several notable features with most other Romance languages, including
Every Frenchnounis 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 gendersoften correspond to that which they refer to. For example, a male teacher is anenseignantwhile 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 professeurorla professeure(the male or female teacher, professor) can be distinguished from the pluralles professeur(e)sbecausele/lə/,la/la/, andles/le(s)/ are all pronounced differently. Withenseignant, however, for both singular forms thele/labecomesl', 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 dentisterefers to a male dentist whilela dentisterefers to a female dentist. Furthermore, a few nouns' meanings depend on their gender. For example,un livre(masculine) refers to a book, whileune livrea (feminine) is a pound.
The French language consists of both finite and non-finite moods. The finite moods include theindicative mood(indicatif), thesubjunctive mood(subjonctif), theimperative mood(impératif), and theconditional mood(conditionnel). The non-finite moods include theinfinitivemood (infinitif), thepresent participle(participe présent), and thepast participle(participe passé).
The indicative mood makes use of eight tense-aspect forms. These include thepresent(présent), thesimple past(passé composéandpassé simple), thepast imperfective(imparfait), thepluperfect(plus-que-parfait), thesimple future(futur simple), thefuture perfect(futur antérieur), and thepast perfect(passé antérieur). Some forms are less commonly used today. In today's spoken French, thepassé composéis used while thepassé simpleis reserved for formal situations or for literary purposes. Similarly, theplus-que-parfaitis used for speaking rather than the olderpassé antérieurseen in literary works.
Within the indicative mood, thepassé composé,plus-que-parfait,futur antérieur, andpassé antérieurall use auxiliary verbs in their forms.
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.
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).
The conditional makes use of the present (présent) and the past (passé).
The passé uses auxiliary verbs in its forms.
French uses both theactive voiceand 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:
Example of the passive voice:
However, unless the subject of the sentence is specified, generally the pronounon"one" is used:
Word order issubject–verb–objectalthough a pronoun object precedes the verb. Some types of sentences allow for or require different word orders, in particularinversionof 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.
The majority of French words derive fromVulgar Latinor were constructed fromLatinorGreekroots. 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 toGalliciseLatin roots can be identified, whereas English conversely leans towards a more direct incorporation of the Latin:
There are also noun-noun and adjective-adjective pairs:
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 equivalentsto (mainly English) imported words, either by using existing vocabulary, extending its meaning or deriving a new word according to French morphological rules. The result is often two (or more) co-existing terms for describing the same phenomenon.
It is estimated that 12% (4,200) of common French words found in a typicaldictionarysuch as thePetit LarousseorMicro-Robert Plus(35,000 words) are of foreign origin (whereGreekandLatinlearned 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 ancientGermanic languages, 481 from otherGallo-Romance languages, 215 from Arabic, 164 from German, 160 fromCeltic languages, 159 from Spanish, 153 fromDutch, 112 fromPersianandSanskrit, 101 fromNative American languages, 89 from otherAsian languages, 56 from otherAfro-Asiatic languages, 55 fromBalto-Slavic languages, 10 fromBasqueand 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'slexical similarityto a selection of other Romance languages is 89% with Italian, 80% with Sardinian, 78% with Rhaeto-Romance, and 75% with Romanian, Spanish and Portuguese.
The numeral system used in the majority of Francophone countries employs bothdecimalandvigesimalcounting. 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 for75issoixante-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 Frenchas well as that used in theDemocratic Republic of the Congo,RwandaandBurundi, use different names for 70 and 90, namelyseptanteandnonante. In Switzerland, depending on the local dialect, 80 can bequatre-vingts(Geneva, Neuchâtel, Jura) orhuitante(Vaud, Valais, Fribourg). TheAosta Valleysimilarly useshuitantefor 80. Conversely, Belgium and in its former African colonies usequatre-vingtsfor 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,uitantefor 80, ornonantefor 90.
The termoctantewas historically used in Switzerland for 80, but is now considered archaic.
French, like most European languages, uses a space to separate thousands.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".
Article 1 of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rightsin French:
Article 1 of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rightsin English: