Concept

French language

Overview

French (français [fʁɑ̃sɛ] or langue française [lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛːz] ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, French and its closest relatives—the langues d'oïl, historically spoken in northern France and southern Belgium—descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. It was influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul and by the Germanic Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Over time, French largely supplanted most regional Romance varieties across France, Belgium and Switzerland. As a result of French and later Belgian colonialism, it was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, and Asia, and numerous French-based creole languages, most notably Haitian Creole, were developed. A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French.

French is the 22nd most natively spoken language in the world, the sixth most spoken language by total number of speakers, and is among the top five most studied languages worldwide, with about 120 million learners as of 2017. It is estimated to have about 310 million speakers, of which about 74 million are native speakers; it is spoken as a first language (in descending order of the number of speakers) in France, Canada (Quebec), Belgium (Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region), western Switzerland (Romandy region), Luxembourg, and Monaco. Meanwhile, in Francophone Africa it is spoken mainly as a second language or lingua franca, though it has also become a native language in a several urban areas. In some North African countries like Algeria and Morocco, it is the primary language for the elite (alongside Arabic) while being an auxiliary language for the general population.

French is an official language in 26 countries, as well as one of the most geographically widespread languages in the world, with speakers in about 50 countries. Most of these countries are members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), the community of 54 member states which share the use or teaching of French.

In 2025, approximately 50% of the Francophone population lived in sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean, 30% lived in Europe, 15% in North Africa, 7% in the Americas, and a small percent in Asia and Oceania. French is the second most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union. Of Europeans who speak other languages natively, approximately one-fifth are able to speak French as a second language.

French has a long history as an international language of literature, diplomacy and science and is a primary or second language of many international organizations including the United Nations, the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the World Trade Organization, the International Olympic Committee, the General Conference on Weights and Measures, and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Many institutions of the EU use French as a working language along with English, German and Italian; in some institutions, French is the sole working language (e.g. at the Court of Justice of the European Union).

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

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to these for they have the Germans to the east and north, on the west they are bounded by the English sea, and the mountains of Arragon, and on the south by the people of Provence and the declivity of the Apennine.” Ibid. c. x. “Each of these three,” he observes, “has its own claims to distinction The excellency of the French language consists in its being best adapted, on account of its facility and agreeableness…
Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy, Cary's Translation, Complete
States what French language is; names French language.
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The French language did not begin to have any form until towards the tenth century; it was born from the ruins of Latin and Celtic, mixed with a few Germanic words. This language was first of all the _romanum rusticum_, rustic Roman, and the Germanic language was the court language up to the time of Charles the Bald; Germanic remained the sole language of Germany after the great…
Voltaire, Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary
Opens on French language; names French language.
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English words, how to divide, 53-4. En rules, when to use, 69-70. Erratum and Errata, when to print, 33. ETC., ETC., &c., when to use, 43. Exclamation, the note of, 60. Extracts, how to print, 50. Figures, commas with, 68-9. First line of chapter, 48. Footnotes, abbreviations in, 43, 51. superior figures to refer to, 67, 70. Foreign words and phrases, 35-7. in roman, 35-6. in italic, 36-7. Foreign words, formation…
Oxford University Press, Rules for compositors and readers at the University Press, Oxford
Opens on French language; names French language.
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French language

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