French language

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Not to be confused with Lingua franca.

French
français
Pronunciation
Francophone Africa, Canada, and other locations in the Francophonie
SpeakersL1: 74 million (2020)[1]
L2: 238 million (2022)[1]
Total: 310 million[1]
Early forms
French alphabet)
French Braille
Signed French
(français signé)
Official status
Official language in
27 countries

10 subnational

Non-official but administrative/cultural

Intergovernmental organizations
T)
ISO 639-3fra
fra
Glottologstan1290
Linguasphere51-AAA-i
  Countries and regions where French is the native language of the majority[a]
  Countries and territories where French is an official language but not a majority native language
  Countries, regions, and territories where French is an administrative or cultural language but with no official status
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.
Part of a series on the
French language
History
Grammar
Orthography
Phonology

French (français

influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the (Germanic) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to the French colonial empire, there are numerous French-based creole languages, most notably Haitian Creole
. A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French.

French is an

27 countries, as well as one of the most geographically widespread languages in the world, with about 50 countries and territories having it as a de jure or de facto official, administrative, or cultural language.[2] Most of these countries are members of the Organisation 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 the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick); Belgium (Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region); western Switzerland (specifically the cantons forming the Romandy region); parts of Luxembourg; parts of the United States (the states of Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont); Monaco; the Aosta Valley region of Italy; and various communities elsewhere.[3]

French is estimated to have about 310 million speakers, of which about 80 million are native speakers.[4] According to the OIF, approximately 321 million people worldwide are "able to speak the language" as of 2022,[5] without specifying the criteria for this estimation or whom it encompasses.[6]

French is increasingly being spoken as a native language in Francophone Africa, especially in regions like Abidjan,[7] Douala, Yaoundé,[8] Libreville,[9] Antananarivo,[10] and the Democratic Republic of Congo.[11][12][13]

In 2015, approximately 40% of the francophone population (including L2 and partial speakers) lived in Europe, 36% in sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas, and 1% in Asia and Oceania.[14] French is the second-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union.[15] Of Europeans who speak other languages natively, approximately one-fifth are able to speak French as a second language.[16] French is the second-most taught foreign language in the EU. All institutions of the EU use French as a working language along with English and German; in certain institutions, French is the sole working language (e.g. at the Court of Justice of the European Union).[17] French is also the 16th most natively spoken language in the world, sixth most spoken language by total number of speakers and is on the top five of the most studied languages worldwide (with about 120 million learners as of 2017).[18] As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from 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 the

North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the World Trade Organization, the International Olympic Committee, the General Conference on Weights and Measures, and the International Committee of the Red Cross
.

History

Main article: History of French

French is a

Romance language (meaning that it is descended primarily from Vulgar Latin) that evolved out of the Gallo-Romance dialects spoken in northern France. The language's early forms include Old French and Middle French
.

Vulgar Latin in Gaul

See also:
Gallo-Romance

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.

Arpitan
.

The evolution of Latin in Gaul was shaped by its coexistence for over half a millennium beside the native

Gaulish language, which did not go extinct until the late sixth century, long after the fall of the Western Roman Empire.[20] The population remained 90% indigenous in origin;[21][22] 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.[23] 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.[23]

The Gaulish language likely survived into the sixth century in France despite considerable

loanwords and calques (including oui,[24] the word for "yes"),[25] sound changes shaped by Gaulish influence,[26][27][28] and influences in conjugation and word order.[25][29][19] Recent computational studies suggest that early gender shifts may have been motivated by the gender of the corresponding word in Gaulish.[30]

The estimated number of French words that can be attributed to Gaulish is placed at 154 by the Petit Robert,[31] which is often viewed as representing standardized French, while if non-standard dialects are included, the number increases to 240.[32] Known Gaulish loans are skewed toward certain semantic fields, such as plant life (chêne, bille, etc.), animals (mouton, cheval, etc.), nature (boue, etc.), domestic activities (ex. berceau), farming and rural units of measure (arpent, lieue, borne, boisseau), weapons,[33] and products traded regionally rather than further afield.[34] This semantic distribution has been attributed to peasants being the last to hold onto Gaulish.[34][33]

Old French

Main article:
superstrate influence from the Germanic Frankish language, which non-exhaustively included the use in upper-class speech and higher registers of V2 word order,[37] a large percentage of the vocabulary (now at around 15% of modern French vocabulary[38]
) including the impersonal singular pronoun on (a calque of Germanic man), and the name of the language itself.

Up until its later stages,

case system of Latin longer than most other Romance languages (with the notable exception of Romanian which still currently maintains a case distinction), differentiating between an oblique case and a nominative case. The phonology was characterized by heavy syllabic stress, which led to the emergence of various complicated diphthongs such as -eau which would later be leveled to monophthongs.[citation needed
]

The earliest evidence of what became Old French can be seen in the

a cycle focused on William of Orange.[citation needed
]

It was during the period of the Crusades in which French became so dominant in the Mediterranean Sea that became a lingua franca ("Frankish language"), and because of increased contact with the Arabs during the Crusades who referred to them as Franj, numerous Arabic loanwords entered French, such as amiral (admiral), alcool (alcohol), coton (cotton) and sirop (syrop), as well as scientific terms such as algébre (algebra), alchimie (alchemy) and zéro (zero).[39]

Middle French

Main article: Middle French

Within Old French many dialects emerged but the Francien dialect is one that not only continued but also thrived during the Middle French period (14th–17th centuries).[35] Modern French grew out of this Francien dialect.[35] 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.[40] Politically, the first government authority to adopt Modern French as official was the Aosta Valley in 1536, while the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539) named French the language of law in the Kingdom of France.

Modern French

During the 17th century, French replaced

Second World War.[41][42] Stanley Meisler of the Los Angeles Times said that the fact that the Treaty of Versailles was written in English as well as French was the "first diplomatic blow" against the language.[43]

During the

Académie française
to protect the French language. By the early 1800s, Parisian French had become the primary language of the aristocracy in France.

Near the beginning of the 19th century, the

French Basque Country wrote in 1846: "Our schools in the Basque Country are particularly meant to replace the Basque language with French..."[45] Students were taught that their ancestral languages were inferior and they should be ashamed of them; this process was known in the Occitan-speaking region as Vergonha.[46]

Geographic distribution

Main articles: Francophonie and Geographical distribution of French speakers

Europe

Main article: European French
Knowledge of French in the European Union and candidate countries[47]

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.[15][48]

Under the Constitution of France, French has been the official language of the Republic since 1992,[49] although the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts made it mandatory for legal documents in 1539. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words.

In Belgium, French is an official language at the federal level along with Dutch and German. At the regional level, French is the sole official language of

Brussels-Capital Region, where it is spoken by the majority of the population (approx. 80%), often as their primary language.[50]

French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland, along with German, Italian, and

Valais, Fribourg and Bern. French is the native language of about 23% of the Swiss population, and is spoken by 50%[51]
of the population.

Along with Luxembourgish and German, French is one of the three official languages of Luxembourg, where it is generally the preferred language of business as well as of the different public administrations. It is also the official language of Monaco.

At a regional level, French is acknowledged as an official language in the Aosta Valley region of Italy where it is the first language of approximately 50% of the population,[52] while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. It is also spoken in Andorra and is the main language after Catalan in El Pas de la Casa. The language is taught as the primary second language in the German state of Saarland, with French being taught from pre-school and over 43% of citizens being able to speak French.[53][54]

Distribution of native French speakers in 6 countries in 2023

Africa

Main article: African French
  Countries usually considered part of Francophone Africa
Their population was 487.6 million in 2023,[55] and it is forecast to reach between 870 million[56] and 879 million[55] in 2050.
  Countries sometimes considered as Francophone Africa
  Countries that are not Francophone but are Members or Observers of the OIF
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. According to a 2023 estimate from the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, an estimated 167 million African people spread across 35 countries and territories[b] can speak French as either a first or a second language.[57][58] 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.[59] French is the fastest growing language on the continent (in terms of either official or foreign languages).[60][61]

French is mostly a second language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast,[62] Libreville, Gabon,[63] and Antananarivo.[10]

There is not a single

African languages.[64]

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.[65] It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years.[66][67] Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries,[68] but written forms of the language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world.

Americas

Further information: Languages of North America, Languages of South America, Languages of the Caribbean, and French language in Canada

Canada

French language distribution in Canada
  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 province of Québec, Canada while the English stop, which is also a valid French word, is used in France and other French-speaking countries and regions.

French is the second-most common language in Canada, after English, and both are official languages at the federal level. It is the first language of 9.5 million people or 29% and the second language for 2.07 million or 6% of the entire population of Canada.[69] French is the sole official language in the province of Quebec, being the mother tongue for some 7 million people, or almost 80% (2006 Census) of the province[citation needed]. About 95% of the people of Quebec speak French as either their first or second language, and for some as their third language. Quebec is also home to the city of Montreal, which is the world's fourth-largest French-speaking city, by number of first language speakers.[citation needed] New Brunswick and Manitoba are the only officially bilingual provinces, though full bilingualism is enacted only in New Brunswick, where about one third of the population is Francophone. French is also an official language of all of the territories (Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon). Out of the three, Yukon has the most French speakers, making up just under 4% of the population.[70] Furthermore, while French is not an official language in Ontario, the French Language Services Act ensures that provincial services are to be available in the language. The Act applies to areas of the province where there are significant Francophone communities, namely Eastern Ontario and Northern Ontario. Elsewhere, sizable French-speaking minorities are found in southern Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and the Port au Port Peninsula in Newfoundland and Labrador, where the unique Newfoundland French dialect was historically spoken. Smaller pockets of French speakers exist in all other provinces. The Ontarian city of Ottawa, the Canadian capital, is also effectively bilingual, as it has a large population of federal government workers, who are required to offer services in both French and English, and is across a river from Quebec, opposite the major city of Gatineau with which it forms a single metropolitan area.[citation needed]

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 the

Lower Louisiana, such as Mon Louis Island, Alabama and DeLisle, Mississippi
(the latter only being discovered by linguists in the 1990s) but these varieties are severely endangered or presumed extinct.

Caribbean

French is one of two official languages in Haiti alongside Haitian Creole. It is the principal language of education, administration, business, and public signage and is spoken by all educated Haitians. It is also used for ceremonial events such as weddings, graduations, and church masses. The vast majority of the population speaks Haitian Creole as their first language; the rest largely speak French as a first language.[74] As a French Creole language, Haitian Creole draws the large majority of its vocabulary from French, with influences from West African languages, as well as several European languages. It is closely related to Louisiana Creole and the creole from the Lesser Antilles.[75]

French is the sole official language of all the overseas territories of France in the Caribbean that are collectively referred to as the French West Indies, namely Guadeloupe, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin, and Martinique.

Other territories

French is the official language of both French Guiana on the South American continent,[76] and of Saint Pierre and Miquelon,[77] an archipelago off the coast of Newfoundland in North America.

Asia

Southeast Asia

See also: French language in Vietnam, French language in Laos, and French language in Cambodia

French was the official language of the colony of French Indochina, comprising modern-day Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. It continues to be an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent decades.[78] 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.[79] However, since the Fall of Saigon and the opening of a unified Vietnam's economy, French has gradually been effectively displaced as the first foreign language of choice by English in Vietnam. Nevertheless, it continues to be taught as the other main foreign language in the Vietnamese educational system and is regarded as a cultural language.[80] All three countries are full members of La Francophonie (OIF).

India

See also:
Indian French

French was the official language of French India, consisting of the geographically separate enclaves referred to as Puducherry. It continued to be an official language of the territory even after its cession to India in 1956 until 1965.[81] A small number of older locals still retain knowledge of the language, although it has now given way to Tamil and English.[81][82]

Lebanon

See also: French language in Lebanon
Town sign in Standard Arabic and French at the entrance of Rechmaya in Lebanon

A former French

mandate, Lebanon designates Arabic as the sole official language, while a special law regulates cases when French can be publicly used. Article 11 of Lebanon's Constitution states that "Arabic is the official national language. A law determines the cases in which the French language is to be used".[83] The French language in Lebanon is a widespread second language among the Lebanese people, and is taught in many schools along with Arabic and English. French is used on Lebanese pound banknotes, on road signs, on Lebanese license plates
, and on official buildings (alongside Arabic).

Today, French and English are secondary languages of

Francophone and 40% Anglophone.[84] 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.[85] 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.[86]

Oceania and Australasia

A 500-CFP franc (€4.20; US$5.00) banknote, used in French Polynesia, New Caledonia and Wallis and Futuna

French is an official language of the

Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu, where 31% of the population was estimated to speak it in 2023.[58] In the French special collectivity of New Caledonia, 97% of the population can speak, read and write French[87] while in French Polynesia this figure is 95%,[88] and in the French collectivity of Wallis and Futuna, it is 84%.[89]

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.[90][88] 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.[89][91]

Future

According to a demographic projection led by the Université Laval and the Réseau Démographie de l'Agence universitaire de la Francophonie, the total number of French speakers will reach approximately 500 million in 2025 and 650 million by 2050, largely due to rapid population growth in sub-Saharan Africa.[92] OIF estimates 700 million French speakers by 2050, 80% of whom will be in Africa.[14]

In a study published in March 2014 by

better source needed
]

In the European Union, French was the dominant language within all institutions until the 1990s. After several enlargements of the EU (1995, 2004), French significantly lost ground in favour of English, which is more widely spoken and taught in most EU countries. French currently remains one of the three working languages, or "procedural languages", of the EU, along with English and German. It is the second-most widely used language within EU institutions after English, but remains the preferred language of certain institutions or administrations such as the Court of Justice of the European Union, where it is the sole internal working language, or the Directorate-General for Agriculture. Since 2016, Brexit has rekindled discussions on whether or not French should again hold greater role within the institutions of the European Union.[94]

Varieties

Main article: Varieties of French
Varieties of the French language in the world

Current status and importance

A leading world language, French is taught in universities around the world, and is one of the world's most influential languages because of its wide use in the worlds of journalism, jurisprudence, education, and diplomacy.[95] In diplomacy, French is one of the six official languages of the United Nations (and one of the

Médecins sans Frontières (used alongside English, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic), and Médecins du Monde (used alongside English).[97] 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".[98]

Significant as a judicial language, French is one of the official languages of such major international and regional courts, tribunals, and dispute-settlement bodies as the

Court of Justice for the Economic Community of West African States, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea the International Criminal Court and the World Trade Organization Appellate Body. It is the sole internal working language of the Court of Justice of the European Union, and makes with English the European Court of Human Rights's two working languages.[99]

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

linguistic prestige associated with the mastery of the language (Weber highlighted that French in particular enjoys considerable linguistic prestige).[100] In a 2008 reassessment of his article, Weber concluded that his findings were still correct since "the situation among the top ten remains unchanged."[100]

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%).[101] MIT economist Albert Saiz calculated a 2.3% premium for those who have French as a foreign language in the workplace.[102]

In 2011,

Standard Mandarin Chinese.[103]

In English-speaking Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland, French is the first foreign language taught and in number of pupils is far ahead of other languages. In the United States, French is the second-most commonly taught foreign language in schools and universities, although well behind Spanish. In some areas of the country near French-speaking Quebec, however, it is the foreign language more commonly taught.

Phonology

Main article: French phonology
Spoken French (Africa)
Consonant phonemes in French
Labial Dental/
Alveolar 		Palatal/
Postalveolar 		Velar/
Uvular
Nasal m
n
 		ɲ (ŋ)
Stop
 voiceless p
t
 		k
voiced b
d
 		ɡ
Fricative
 voiceless f s ʃ ʁ
voiced v z ʒ
Approximant
 plain
l
 		j
labial ɥ w

Vowel phonemes in French

Oral
Front Central Back
unrounded rounded
Close i y u
Close-mid e ø (ə) o
Open-mid ɛ/(ɛː) œ ɔ
Open a (ɑ)
Nasal
Front Back
unrounded rounded
Open-mid ɛ̃ (œ̃) ɔ̃
Open ɑ̃

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 in Meridional 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 a voiced 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 few minimal 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 be delateralised when word- or morpheme-final and preceded by /i/, such as in /tʁavaj/ travail, "work", or when a word ending in ⟨al⟩ is pluralised, giving ⟨aux⟩ /o/.

French pronunciation follows strict rules based on spelling, but French spelling is often based more on history than phonology. The rules for pronunciation vary between dialects, but the standard rules are:

  • Final single consonants, in particular s, x, z, t, d, n, p and g, are normally silent. (A consonant is considered "final" when no vowel follows it even if one or more consonants follow it.) The final letters f, k, q, and l, however, are normally pronounced. The final c is sometimes pronounced like in bac, sac, roc but can also be silent like in blanc or estomac. The final r is usually silent when it follows an e in a word of two or more syllables, but it is pronounced in some words (hiver, super, cancer etc.).
    • When the following word begins with a vowel, however, a silent consonant may once again be pronounced, to provide a
      set phrases
      like pied-à-terre.
    • Doubling a final n and adding a silent e at the end of a word (e.g., chien → chienne) makes it clearly pronounced. Doubling a final l and adding a silent e (e.g., gentil → gentille) adds a [j] sound if the l is preceded by the letter i.
  • Some monosyllabic function words ending in a or e, such as je and que, drop their final vowel when placed before a word that begins with a vowel sound (thus avoiding a
    hiatus). The missing vowel is replaced by an apostrophe. (e.g., *je ai is instead pronounced and spelled → j'ai). This gives, for example, the same pronunciation for l'homme qu'il a vu ("the man whom he saw") and l'homme qui l'a vu ("the man who saw him"). However, for Belgian French the sentences are pronounced differently; in the first sentence the syllable break is as "qu'il-a", while the second breaks as "qui-l'a". It can also be noted that, in Quebec French
    , the second example (l'homme qui l'a vu) is more emphasized on l'a vu.

Writing system

Alphabet

Main articles:
French braille

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

There are two

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

Orthography

Main articles: French orthography and Reforms of French orthography

French spelling, like English spelling, tends to preserve obsolete pronunciation rules. This is mainly due to extreme phonetic changes since the Old French period, without a corresponding change in spelling. Moreover, some conscious changes were made to restore Latin orthography (as with some English words such as "debt"):

  • Old French doit > French doigt "finger" (Latin digitus)
  • Old French pie > French pied "foot" [Latin pes (stem: ped-)]

French orthography is

morphophonemic. While it contains 130 graphemes that denote only 36 phonemes, many of its spelling rules are likely due to a consistency in morphemic patterns such as adding suffixes and prefixes.[104] Many given spellings of common morphemes usually lead to a predictable sound. In particular, a given vowel combination or diacritic generally leads to one phoneme. However, there is not a one-to-one relation of a phoneme and a single related grapheme, which can be seen in how tomber and tombé both end with the /e/ phoneme.[105]
Additionally, there are many variations in the pronunciation of consonants at the end of words, demonstrated by how the x in paix is not pronounced though at the end of Aix it is.

As a result, it can be difficult to predict the spelling of a word based on the sound. Final consonants are generally silent, except when the following word begins with a vowel (see Liaison (French)). For example, the following words end in a vowel sound: pied, aller, les, 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 for animal was animals. The /als/ sequence was unstable and was turned into a diphthong /aus/. This change was then reflected in the orthography: animaus. The us ending, very common in Latin, was then abbreviated by copyists (monks) by the letter x, resulting in a written form animax. As the French language further evolved, the pronunciation of au turned into /o/ so that the u was reestablished in orthography for consistency, resulting in modern French animaux (pronounced first /animos/ before the final /s/ was dropped in contemporary French). The same is true for cheval pluralized as chevaux and many others. In addition, castel pl. castels became château pl. châteaux.

  • Nasal: n and m. When n or m follows a vowel or diphthong, the n or m becomes silent and causes the preceding vowel to become nasalized (i.e., pronounced with the soft palate extended downward so as to allow part of the air to leave through the nostrils). Exceptions are when the n or m is doubled, or immediately followed by a vowel. The prefixes en- and em- are always nasalized. The rules are more complex than this but may vary between dialects.
  • diphthongs
    , 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], whereas une 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
      • The acute accent (l'accent aigu) é (e.g., école—school) means that the vowel is pronounced /e/ instead of the default /ə/.
      • The grave accent (l'accent grave) è (e.g., élève—pupil) means that the vowel is pronounced /ɛ/ instead of the default /ə/.
      • The circumflex (l'accent circonflexe) ê (e.g. forêt—forest) shows that an e is pronounced /ɛ/ and that an ô is pronounced /o/. In standard French, it also signifies a pronunciation of /ɑ/ for the letter â, but this differentiation is disappearing. In the mid-18th century, the circumflex was used in place of s after a vowel, where that letter s was not pronounced. Thus, forest became forêt, hospital became hôpital, and hostel became hôtel.
      • Diaeresis or tréma (ë, ï, ü, ÿ): over e, i, u or y, indicates that a vowel is to be pronounced separately from the preceding one: naïve, Noël.
      • The cedilla (la cédille) ç (e.g., garçon—boy) means that the letter ç is pronounced /s/ in front of the back vowels a, o and u (c is otherwise /k/ before a back vowel). C is always pronounced /s/ in front of the front vowels e, i, and y, thus ç is never found in front of front vowels. This letter is used when a front vowel after ⟨c⟩, such as in France or placer, is replaced with a back vowel. To retain the pronunciation of the ⟨c⟩, it is given a cedilla, as in français or plaçons.
    • Accents with no pronunciation effect
      • The circumflex does not affect the pronunciation of the letters i or u, nor, in most dialects, a. It usually indicates that an s came after it long ago, as in île (from former isle, compare with English word "isle"). The explanation is that some words share the same orthography, so the circumflex is put here to mark the difference between the two words. For example, dites (you say) / dîtes (you said), or even du (of the) / dû (past participle for the verb devoir = must, have to, owe; in this case, the circumflex disappears in the plural and the feminine).
      • All other accents are used only to distinguish similar words, as in the case of distinguishing the adverbs là and où ("there", "where") from the article la ("the" feminine singular) and the conjunction ou ("or"), respectively.

Some proposals exist to simplify the existing writing system, but they still fail to gather interest.[106][107][108][109]

In 1990, a reform accepted some changes to French orthography. At the time the proposed changes were considered to be suggestions. In 2016, schoolbooks in France began to use the newer recommended spellings, with instruction to teachers that both old and new spellings be deemed correct.[110]

Grammar

Main article: French grammar

French is a moderately

prepositions, while certain verb features are marked using auxiliary verbs. According to the French lexicogrammatical system, French has a rank-scale hierarchy with clause as the top rank, which is followed by group rank, word rank, and morpheme rank. A French clause is made up of groups, groups are made up of words, and lastly, words are made up of morphemes.[111]

French grammar shares several notable features with most other Romance languages, including

Nouns

Every French

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

Verbs

Main article: French verbs

Moods and tense-aspect forms

The French language consists of both finite and non-finite moods. The finite moods include the

past participle
(participe passé).

Finite moods
Indicative (indicatif)

The indicative mood makes use of eight tense-aspect forms. These include the

past perfect
(passé antérieur). Some forms are less commonly used today. In today's spoken French, the passé composé is used while the passé simple is reserved for formal situations or for literary purposes. Similarly, the plus-que-parfait is used for speaking rather than the older passé antérieur seen in literary works.

Within the indicative mood, the passé composé, plus-que-parfait, futur antérieur, and passé antérieur all use auxiliary verbs in their forms.

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 the active voice and the passive voice. The active voice is unmarked while the passive voice is formed by using a form of verb être ("to be") and the past participle.

Example of the active voice:

  • "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 pronoun on "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 is

object–subject–verb (OSV) word order. OSV word order is not used often and VOS is reserved for formal writings.[36]

Vocabulary

Root languages of

loanwords[112]

  
Afro-Asiatic (6.45%)
  Balto-Slavic (1.31%)
  Basque
(0.24%)
  Other languages (3.43%)

The majority of French words derive from Vulgar Latin or were constructed from Latin or Greek roots. In many cases, a single etymological root appears in French in a "popular" or native form, inherited from Vulgar Latin, and a learned form, borrowed later from Classical Latin. The following pairs consist of a native noun and a learned adjective:

However, a historical tendency to Gallicise Latin 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 from Vulgar Latin, unstressed syllables were severely reduced and the remaining vowels and consonants underwent significant modifications.

More recently (1994) the linguistic policy (Toubon Law) of the French language academies of France and Quebec has been to provide French equivalents[113] to (mainly English) imported words, either by using existing vocabulary, extending its meaning or deriving a new word according to French morphological rules. The result is often two (or more) co-existing terms for describing the same phenomenon.

  • mercatique / marketing
  • finance fantôme / shadow banking
  • bloc-notes / notepad
  • ailière / wingsuit
  • tiers-lieu / coworking

It is estimated that 12% (4,200) of common French words found in a typical

Afro-Asiatic languages, 55 from Balto-Slavic languages, 10 from Basque and 144 (about 3%) from other languages.[112]

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.[114] Lexical similarity is 89% with Italian, 80% with Sardinian, 78% with Rhaeto-Romance, and 75% with Romanian, Spanish and Portuguese.[115][1]

Numerals

The numeral system used in the majority of Francophone countries employs both decimal and vigesimal counting. After the use of unique names for the numbers 1–16, those from 17 to 69 are counted by tens, while twenty (vingt) is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 70 to 99. The French word for 80 is quatre-vingts, literally "four twenties", and the word for 75 is soixante-quinze, literally "sixty-fifteen". The vigesimal method of counting is analogous to the archaic English use of score, as in "fourscore and seven" (87), or "threescore and ten" (70).

Belgian, Swiss, and Aostan French[116] as well as that used in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi, use different names for 70 and 90, namely septante and nonante. In Switzerland, depending on the local dialect, 80 can be quatre-vingts (Geneva, Neuchâtel, Jura) or huitante (Vaud, Valais, Fribourg). The Aosta Valley similarly uses huitante[116] for 80. Conversely, Belgium and in its former African colonies use quatre-vingts for 80.

In Old French (during the Middle Ages), all numbers from 30 to 99 could be said in either base 10 or base 20, e.g. vint et doze (twenty and twelve) for 32, dous vinz et diz (two twenties and ten) for 50, uitante for 80, or nonante for 90.[117]

The term octante was historically used in Switzerland for 80, but is now considered archaic.[118]

French, like most European languages, uses a space to separate thousands.[119] The comma (French: virgule) is used in French numbers as a decimal point, i.e. "2,5" instead of "2.5". In the case of currencies, the currency markers are substituted for decimal point, i.e. "5$7" for "5 dollars and 7 cents".

Example text

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

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.[120]

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.[121]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Dots: cities with native transmission, typically a minority.
  2. Gambia and Mozambique.
    One country not member or observer of the OIF: Algeria.
    Two French territories in Africa: Réunion and Mayotte
    .

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