French language

French
Français
Pronunciation	[fʁɑ̃sɛ]
Spoken in	28 countries (officially) plus seven where commonly used but not officially
Region	Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Oceania
Total speakers	85 million (native)[1], estimated 500 million francophones (2000)(total)[2] [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]
Ranking	14 (native), 4 (total) [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]
Language family	Indo-European Italic Romance Italo-Western Western Gallo-Iberian Gallo-Romance Gallo-Rhaetian Oïl French
Writing system	Latin alphabet (French variant)
Official status
Official language in	28 countries  Belgium  Benin  Burkina Faso  Burundi  Cameroon  Canada  Central African Republic  Chad  Comoros  Democratic Republic of the Congo  Côte d'Ivoire  Djibouti  Equatorial Guinea  France (Founder)  Gabon  Guinea  Haiti  Luxembourg  Madagascar  Mali  Monaco  Niger  Republic of the Congo  Senegal  Seychelles  Switzerland  Togo  Vanuatu 13 Dependent entities  Aosta Valley Clipperton  French Southern and Antarctic Lands French Polynesia  Guernsey  Jersey Mayotte New Caledonia Pondicherry  Saint Barthélemy  Saint Martin  Saint Pierre and Miquelon  Wallis and Futuna Numerous international organisations
Regulated by	Académie française (French Academy)
Language codes
ISO 639-1	fr
ISO 639-2	fre (B)	fra (T)
ISO 639-3	fra
States where it is mother tongue      States where it is official language      States where it is second language      Regions where it is a minority language
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

This article is part of the series on: French language

Langues d'Oïl Dialects Creoles Francophonie History Oaths of Strasbourg Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts Anglo-Norman Grammar Adverbs Articles and determiners Pronouns Personal Pronouns Verbs Conjugation Verb morphology Orthography Alphabet Reforms Use of the circumflex Phonology Elision Liaison Aspirated h

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French (français, French pronunciation: [fʁɑ̃sɛ]) is a Romance language globally spoken by about 77 to 85 million people^[14] as a first language (mother tongue). According to the Francophonie organization, there are 110 million people^[15] who frequently speak French (native speakers and frequent users combined). Around 190 million people speak French as a second language, third language, or as an acquired foreign language. French speaking comminities are present in 57 countries and territories.^[3] Most native speakers of the language live in France, where the language originated. The rest live essentially in Canada (particularly Quebec, but with speakers and dialects across Canada, especially in Ontario and New Brunswick), Belgium, (particularly Wallonia and Brussels), Switzerland (Cantons: Geneva, Vaud, Neuchâtel, Jura and also spoken in Fribourg,Valais, Bern), French-speaking Africa (31 countries, including Cameroon, Gabon, Côte d'Ivoire), Luxembourg, Monaco, and certain parts of the U.S. states of Louisiana and Maine. Most second-language speakers of French live in Francophone Africa, arguably exceeding the number of native speakers.^[16] The Democratic Republic of the Congo is the Francophone country with the largest population.

French is a descendant of the Latin language of the Roman Empire, as are national languages such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian and Catalan, and minority languages ranging from Occitan to Neapolitan and many more. Its closest relatives however are the other langues d'oïl and French-based creole languages. Its development was also influenced by the native Celtic languages of Roman Gaul and by the (Germanic) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders.

It is an official language in 28 countries, most of which form what is called, in French, La Francophonie, the community of French-speaking nations. It is an official language of all United Nations agencies and a large number of international organizations. According to the European Union, 129 million (26% of the 499,673,300) people in 27 member states speak French, of which 65 million (12%) are native speakers and 69 million (14%) claim to speak it either as a second language or as a foreign language, which makes it the third most spoken second language in the Union, after English (2nd rank) and German (1st rank). In addition, prior to the mid 20th century, French served as the pre-eminent language of diplomacy among European and colonial powers as well as a lingua franca among the educated classes of Europe.

As a result of France's extensive colonial ambitions between the 17th and 20th centuries, French was introduced to America, Africa, Polynesia, and the Caribbean.

Geographic distribution

Europe

Legal status in France

According to the Constitution of France, French has been the official language since 1992.^[17] (although previous legal texts have made it official since 1539, see ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts). France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases (though these dispositions are often ignored) and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words.

In addition to French, there are also a variety of regional languages and dialects. France has signed the European Charter for Regional Languages, but has not ratified it since that would go against the 1958 Constitution.^{[citation needed]}

Switzerland

French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland (along with German, Italian and Romansh) and is spoken in the part of Switzerland called Romandie. French is the native language of about 20% of the Swiss population.

Most of Swiss French is mutually compatible with the standard French spoken in France, but it is often used with small differences, such as those involving some numbers.

Belgium

Bilingual signs in Brussels.

In Belgium, French is the official language of Wallonia (excluding the East Cantons, which are German-speaking) and one of the two official languages —along with Dutch— of the Brussels-Capital Region where it is spoken by the majority of the population, though often not as their primary language.^[18] French and German are not official languages nor recognized minority languages in the Flemish Region, although along borders with the Walloon and Brussels-Capital regions, there are a dozen municipalities with language facilities for French speakers. A mirror situation exists for the Walloon Region with respect to the Dutch and German languages. In total, native French speakers make up about 40% of the country's population, while the remaining 60% speak Dutch as a first language. Of the latter, 59% claim to speak French as a second language, meaning that about three quarters of the Belgian population can speak French.^[19][20]

Monaco and Andorra

Although Monégasque is the national language of the Principality of Monaco, French is the only official language, and French nationals make up some 47% of the population.

Catalan is the only official language of Andorra; however, French is commonly used because of the proximity to France. French nationals make up 7% of the population.

Knowledge of French in the European Union and candidate countries^[21]

Italy

French is also an official language, along with Italian, in the small region of Aosta Valley, Italy^[22], although most people speak Franco-Provençal and use French just to write. That is because the international recognition of Franco-Provençal as a separated language was quite recent.

Luxembourg

French is one of three official languages of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, alongside German and Luxembourgish, the natively spoken language of Luxembourg. Luxembourg's education system is trilingual: the first years of primary school are in Luxembourgish, before changing to German; while in secondary school, the language of instruction changes to French.

The United Kingdom and the Channel Islands

French is a large minority language and immigrant language in the UK, with over 300,000 French-born people in the UK. It is also the most popular foreign language. French is understood by 23% of the UK population.^[23]

A large portion of words of the English language (originating in Great Britain) are of French root or origin. This is partly due to the Norman Invasion, which led to Norman French becoming the language of administration for a period in history and the use of French by sections of the aristocracy and upper classes (while the peasants and lower classes spoke an Anglo-Saxon language).

French is an official language in Jersey and Guernsey, the two bailiwicks collectively referred to as the Channel Islands, although they are separate entities. Both use French to some degree, mostly in an administrative or ceremonial capacity. Jersey Legal French is the standardized variety used in Jersey. However, Norman is the historical vernacular langue d'Oïl of the islands.

Americas

Canada

An "arrêt" sign (French for "stop") in Quebec.

French is the second most common language in Canada, after English, and both are official languages at the federal level. French is the sole official language in the province of Quebec, being the mother tongue for some 6.8 million people, or almost 90% of the Province. Quebec is also home to the city of Montreal, which is the second largest French speaking city, by number of first language speakers. New Brunswick, where about a third of the population is francophone, is the only officially bilingual province. Portions of Eastern Ontario, Northeastern Ontario, Nova Scotia and Manitoba have sizable French minorities, but its prescription as an official language in those jurisdictions and the level of francophone services varies. Smaller pockets of French speakers exist in all other provinces. 10,170,000 Canadians can speak French as either a first or second language, or 30.6% of the country. Due to the increased bilingual school programs in English Canada, the portion of Canadians proficient in French has risen significantly in the past two decades, and is still rising.

In Quebec, where the majority of French-speaking Canadians live, the Office québécois de la langue française (English: Quebec Board of the French language) regulates Quebec French and ensures the Charter of the French Language (Bill 101) is respected. As Quebecois live near to English-speaking regions, they are more sensitive about the language situation than the European French speakers are, and many object to the use of English words in French (anglicisms). Thus, while the word "stop" is accepted in international French, the Government of Quebec has mandated the French translation "arrêt" for use on stop signs.

Haiti

French is an official language of Haiti, although it is mostly spoken by the upper class, while Haitian Creole (a French-based creole language) is more widely spoken as a mother tongue.

French overseas territories

French is also the official language in France's overseas territories of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Barthélemy, St. Martin and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon.

The United States

French language spread in the United States. Counties marked in yellow are those where 6–12% of the population speak French at home; brown, 12–18%; red, over 18%. French-based creole languages are not included.

French is the fourth^[24][25] most-spoken language in the United States, after English, Spanish and Chinese, and the second most-spoken in the states of Louisiana, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. Louisiana is home to many distinct dialects, of which Cajun French has the largest number of speakers. According to the 2000 US Census, there are over 194,000 people in Louisiana who speak French at home, the most of any state if Creole French is excluded.^[25]

Brazil

The French language in Brazil was spoken in brief period at the colonial attempts in France antarctique and France ecquinociale. Also, the language was used by the small community of French immigrants and expatriates in the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries.

Today the Karipuna indigenous community (nearly 30,000 people) of Amapá in North Brazil speaks a French creole, the Lanc-Patuá, possibly related to the French Guiana Creole.

Africa

Supermarket sign in French in Dakar, Senegal.

     Countries usually considered as Francophone Africa. These countries had a population of 335 million in 2009.^[26] Their population is projected to reach between 684 million^[27] and 719 million^[26] in 2050.      Countries sometimes considered as Francophone Africa

A majority of the world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to the 2007 report by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, an estimated 115 million African people spread across 31 Francophone African countries can speak French as either a first or a second language.^[16]

French is mostly a second language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire^[28] and in Libreville, Gabon.^[29] It is not possible to speak of a single form of African French, but rather of diverse forms of African French which have developed because of the contact with many indigenous African languages.^[30]

In the territories of the Indian Ocean, the French language is often spoken alongside French-derived creole languages, the major exception being Madagascar. There, a Malayo-Polynesian language (Malagasy) is spoken alongside French.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid demographic growth.^[31] It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years.^[32][33] Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries,^[34] but written forms of the language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world.

French is an official language in many African countries, most of them former French or Belgian colonies:

In addition, French is an administrative language and commonly used, though not on an official basis, in Mauritius and in the Maghreb states:

• Algeria
• Mauritania
• Morocco
• Tunisia

In Algeria, various reforms have been implemented in recent decades to improve the status of Arabic in relation to French, especially in education.

While the predominant European language in Egypt is English, French is learned by some elements of the Egyptian upper and upper-middle classes;^{[citation needed]} for this reason, a typical educated Egyptian will learn French in addition to English at some point in his or her education. Egypt participates in La Francophonie.

French overseas territories

French is also the official language of Mayotte and Réunion, two overseas territories of France located in the southwest Indian Ocean.

Asia

Lebanon

A Lebanese "mille livres" (thousand-pound) bank note

French is the official language in Lebanon, along with Arabic. It is considered an official language by the Lebanese people and is used on bank notes (along with Arabic) and on official buildings. French is widely used by the Lebanese, especially for administrative purposes, and is taught in many schools as a primary language along with Arabic.

Syria

Like Lebanon, French was official in Syria until 1943. But in contrast to Lebanon, the language is not official, but still spoken by educated groups, both elite and middle-class.

Israel

There are a significant number of second-language French-speakers in Israel who trace their origins to the Jewish communities of North Africa and Romania. Also, there has been considerable immigration of native French speakers from France in recent years.

Southeast Asia

French is an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent years.^[35] In colonial Vietnam, the elites spoke French, and many who worked for the French spoke a French creole known as "Tây Bồi" (now extinct). The language was also spoken by the elite in the leased territory Guangzhouwan in southern China. (See also: French Indochina)

India

French has de-jure official status in the Indian Union Territory of Pondicherry, along with the regional languages Tamil and Telugu. Some students of Tamil Nadu opt for French as their second or third language (usually behind English and Tamil).

French is commonly taught as a third language in secondary schools in most cities of Maharashtra, including Mumbai (Bombay), as part of the preparation for secondary school (X-SSC) and higher secondary school (XII-HSC) certificate examinations. Certain high-profile schools affiliated with the CBSE in the NCR offer French as an option as early as grade 4. In grade 9, students are asked to drop either French or Hindi, which is their native language.

French is also taught in schools in Chandannagar (a former French colony in West Bengal). Students also have the option for having French as an additional subject in the secondary school (WBBSE) and higher secondary school (WBCHSE) certificate examinations. See also: French India

Oceania

French is an official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu where 45% of the population can speak French.^[36] In the French territory of New Caledonia, 97% of the population can speak, read and write French, whereas only 1% have no knowledge of French.^[37] In French Polynesia, 95% of the population can speak, read and write French, whereas only 2% have no knowledge of French.^[38] In the French territory of Wallis and Futuna, 78% of the population can speak, read and write French, whereas 17% have no knowledge of French.^[39]

Dialects

History

Phonology

Although there are many French regional accents, foreign learners normally study only one version of the language, which has no commonly used special name.

• There are 16 vowels in French, not all of which are used in every dialect: /a/, /ɑ/, /e/, /ɛ/, /ə/, /i/, /o/, /ɔ/, /y/, /u/, /œ/, /ø/, plus the nasalized vowels /ɑ̃/, /ɛ̃/, /ɔ̃/ and /œ̃/. In France, the vowels /ɑ/ and /œ̃/ are tending to be replaced by /a/ and /ɛ̃/ in many people's speech.
• Voiced stops (i.e. /b d ɡ/) are typically produced fully voiced throughout.
• Voiceless stops (i.e. /p t k/) are unaspirated.
• Nasals: The velar nasal /ŋ/ occurs only in final position in borrowed (usually English) words: parking, camping, swing. The palatal nasal /ɲ/ 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).
• Fricatives: French has three pairs of homorganic fricatives distinguished by voicing, i.e. labiodental /f/–/v/, dental /s/–/z/, and palato-alveolar /ʃ/–/ʒ/. Notice that /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.
• 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".

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 consonants: Final single consonants, in particular s, x, z, t, d, n and m, are normally silent. (The final letters c, r, f and l, however, are normally pronounced.)
  • When the following word begins with a vowel, however, a silent consonant may once again be pronounced, to provide a liaison or "link" between the two words. Some liaisons are mandatory, for example the s in les amants or vous avez; some are optional, depending on dialect and register, for example the first s in deux cents euros or euros irlandais; and some are forbidden, for example the s in beaucoup d'hommes aiment. The t of et is never pronounced and the silent final consonant of a noun is only pronounced in the plural and in set phrases like pied-à-terre.
  • Doubling a final n and adding a silent e at the end of a word (e.g. chien → chienne) makes it clearly pronounced. Doubling a final l and adding a silent e (e.g. gentil → gentille) adds a [j] sound if the l is preceded by the letter i.
• elision or vowel dropping: 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.

Orthography

• 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.
• Digraphs: French uses not only diacritics to specify its large range of vowel sounds and diphthongs, but also specific combinations of vowels, sometimes with following consonants, to show which sound is intended.
• 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]. But 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 for 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 late 19th century, the circumflex was used in place of s after a vowel, where that letter s was not to be pronounced. Thus, forest became forêt and hospital became hôpital.
    • The diaeresis (le tréma) (e.g. naïf—foolish, Noël—Christmas) as in English, specifies that this vowel is pronounced separately from the preceding one, not combined, and is not a schwa.
    • The cedilla (la cédille) ç (e.g. garçon—boy) means that the letter ç is pronounced /s/ in front of the hard vowels a, o and u (c is otherwise /k/ before a hard vowel). C is always pronounced /s/ in front of the soft vowels e, i, and y, thus ç is never found in front of soft vowels.
  • Accents with no pronunciation effect
    • The circumflex does not affect the pronunciation of the letters i or u, and in most dialects, a as well. It usually indicates that an s came after it long ago, as in île (island, compare with English isle).
    • 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" fem. sing.) and the conjunction ou ("or") respectively.

Writing system

French is written with the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, as well as five diacritics (the circumflex accent, acute accent, grave accent, diaeresis, and cedilla) and the two ligatures (œ) and (æ).

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:

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

As a result, it is difficult to predict the spelling based on the sound alone. Final consonants are generally silent, except when the following word begins with a vowel. For example, all of these 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.

On the other hand, a given spelling will usually lead to a predictable sound, and the Académie française works hard to enforce and update this correspondence. In particular, a given vowel combination or diacritic predictably leads to one phoneme.

The diacritics have phonetic, semantic, and etymological significance.

• acute accent (é): Over an e, indicates the sound of a short ai in English, with no diphthong. An é in modern French is often used where a combination of e and a consonant, usually s, would have been used formerly: écouter < escouter. This type of accent mark is called accent aigu in French.
• grave accent (à, è, ù): Over a or u, used only to distinguish homophones: à ("to") vs. a ("has"), ou ("or") vs. où ("where"). Over an e, indicates the sound /ɛ/.
• circumflex (â, ê, î, ô, û): Over an a, e or o, indicates the sound /ɑ/, /ɛ/ or /o/, respectively (the distinction a /a/ vs. â /ɑ/ tends to disappear in many dialects). Most often indicates the historical deletion of an adjacent letter (usually an s or a vowel): château < castel, fête < feste, sûr < seur, dîner < disner. It has also come to be used to distinguish homophones: du ("of the") vs. dû (past participle of devoir "to have to do something (pertaining to an act)"; note that dû is in fact written thus because of a dropped e: deu). (See Use of the circumflex in French) Since the 1990 orthographic rectifications, the circumflex on most i and u may be dropped as there is no change in pronouciation.
• diaeresis or tréma (ë, ï, ü, ÿ): Indicates that a vowel is to be pronounced separately from the preceding one: naïve, Noël. A diaeresis on y only occurs in some proper names and in modern editions of old French texts. Some proper names in which ÿ appears include Aÿ (commune in canton de la Marne formerly Aÿ-Champagne), Rue des Cloÿs (alley in the 18th arrondissement of Paris), Croÿ (family name and hotel on the Boulevard Raspail, Paris), Château du Feÿ (near Joigny), Ghÿs (name of Flemish origin spelt Ghijs where ij in handwriting looked like ÿ to French clerks), l'Haÿ-les-Roses (commune between Paris and Orly airport), Pierre Louÿs (author), Moÿ (place in commune de l'Aisne and family name), and Le Blanc de Nicolaÿ (an insurance company in eastern France). The diaeresis on u appears only in the biblical proper names Archélaüs, Capharnaüm, Emmaüs, Ésaü and Saül. Nevertheless, since the 1990 orthographic rectifications, the diaeresis in words containing guë (such as aiguë or ciguë) may be moved onto the u: aigüe, cigüe.
• umlaut: Words coming from German retain the old Umlaut (ä, ö and ü) if applicable but use French pronunciation, such as Kärcher (trade mark of a pressure washer).
• cedilla (ç): Indicates that an etymological c is pronounced /s/ when it would otherwise be pronounced /k/. Thus je lance "I throw" (with c = [s] before e), je lançais "I was throwing" (c would be pronounced [k] before a without the cedilla). The c cedilla (ç) softens the hard /k/ sound to /s/ before the vowels a, o or u, for example ça /sa/. C cedilla is never used before the vowels e or i since these two vowels always produce a soft /s/ sound (ce, ci).

There are two ligatures, which have various origins:

• The ligature œ is a mandatory contraction of oe in certain words. Some of these are native French words, with the pronunciation /œ/ or /ø/, e.g. sœur "sister" /sœʁ/, œuvre "work (of art)" /œvʁ/. Note that it usually appears in the combination œu; œil is an exception. Many of these words were originally written with the digraph eu; the o in the ligature represents a sometimes artificial attempt to imitate the Latin spelling: Latin bovem > Old French buef/beuf > Modern French bœuf. Œ is also used in words of Greek origin, as the Latin rendering of the Greek diphthong οι, e.g. cœlacanthe "coelacanth". These words used to be pronounced with the vowel /e/, but in recent years a spelling pronunciation with /ø/ has taken hold, e.g. œsophage /ezɔfaʒ/ or /øzɔfaʒ/. The pronunciation with /e/ is often seen to be more correct. The ligature œ is not used in some occurrences of the letter combination oe, for example, when o is part of a prefix (coexister).
• The ligature æ is rare and appears in some words of Latin and Greek origin like ægosome, ægyrine, æschne, cæcum, nævus or uræus.^[40] The vowel quality is identical to é /e/.

French writing, as with any language, is affected by the spoken language. In Old French, the plural for animal was animals. Common speakers pronounced a u before a word ending in l as the plural. This resulted in animauls. As the French language evolved, this vanished and the form animaux (aux pronounced /o/) was admitted. The same is true for cheval pluralized as chevaux and many others. In addition, castel pl. castels became château pl. châteaux.

Some proposals exist to simplify the existing writing system, but they still fail to gather interest. ^{[41] [42] [43]}

Grammar

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

• the loss of Latin's declensions
• only two grammatical genders
• the development of grammatical articles from Latin demonstratives
• new tenses formed from auxiliaries

French word order is Subject Verb Object, except when the object is a pronoun, in which case the word order is Subject Object Verb. Some rare archaisms allow for different word orders.

Vocabulary

The majority of French words derive from Vulgar Latin or were constructed from Latin or Greek roots. There are often pairs of words, one form being "popular" (noun), derived from Vulgar Latin, and the other one "savant" (adjective), borrowed from Classical Latin. Example:

• brother: frère / fraternel < from Latin frater
• finger: doigt / digital < from Latin digitum
• faith: foi / fidèle < from Latin fidem
• cold: froid / frigide < from Latin frigidum
• eye: œil / occulaire < from Latin oculum

There are also some similar examples with double nouns, where there is a common word from Vulgar Latin and a more savant word borrowed directly from Medieval Latin or Ancient Greek.

• cheval—Concours équestre—Hippodrome
• chose - cause < from Latin causa

The French words which have developed from Latin are usually less recognisable than Italian words of Latin origin because as French evolved from Vulgar Latin, the unstressed final syllable of many words was dropped or elided into the following word.

It is estimated that 12% (4,200) of common French words found in a typical dictionary such as the Petit Larousse or Micro-Robert Plus (35,000 words) are of foreign origin (where Greek and Latin savant words are not seen as foreign). About 25% (1,054) of these foreign words come from English and are fairly recent borrowings. The others are some 707 words from Italian, 550 from ancient Germanic languages, 481 from ancient Gallo-Romance languages, 215 from Arabic, 164 from German, 160 from Celtic languages, 159 from Spanish, 153 from Dutch, 112 from Persian and Sanskrit, 101 from Native American languages, 89 from other Asian languages, 56 from other Afro-Asiatic languages, 55 from Slavic languages and Baltic languages, 10 from Basque and 144 — about three percent — from other languages.^[44]

Numerals

The French counting system is partially vigesimal: twenty (vingt) is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 60 to 99. The French word for eighty, for example, is quatre-vingts, which literally means "four twenties", and soixante-quinze (literally "sixty-fifteen") means 75. This reform arose after the French Revolution to unify the different counting systems (mostly vigesimal near the coast, because of Celtic (via Breton) and Viking influences). This system is comparable to the archaic English use of score, as in "fourscore and seven" (87), or "threescore and ten" (70). 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.^[45]

Belgian French, Swiss French and the French used in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi are different in this respect. In Belgium and Switzerland 70 and 90 are septante and nonante. In Switzerland, depending on the local dialect, 80 can be quatre-vingts (Geneva, Neuchâtel, Jura) or huitante (Vaud, Valais, Fribourg). Octante had been used in Switzerland in the past, but is now considered archaic.^[46] In Belgium and in its former African colonies, however, quatre-vingts is universally used.

It should also be noted that French uses a period (also called a full stop) or a space to separate thousands where English uses a comma or (more recently) a space. The comma is used in French numbers as a decimal point: 2,5 = deux virgule cinq.

Cardinal numbers in French from 1 to 20 are as follows:

• One: un/une /œ̃/ - /yn/
• Two: deux /dø/
• Three: trois /tʁwa/
• Four: quatre /katʁ/
• Five: cinq /sɛ̃k/
• Six: six /sis/
• Seven: sept /sɛt/
• Eight: huit /ʔɥɪt/
• Nine: neuf /nœf/
• Ten: dix /dis/
• Eleven: onze /ɔ̃z/
• Twelve: douze /duz/
• Thirteen: treize /tʁɛz/
• Fourteen: quatorze /katɔʁz/
• Fifteen: quinze /kɛ̃z/
• Sixteen: seize /sɛz/
• Seventeen: dix-sept /dis.sɛt/
• Eighteen: dix-huit /di.z‿ɥit/
• Nineteen: dix-neuf /diz.nœf/
• Twenty: vingt /vɛ̃/

Examples

This section includes inline links to audio files. If you have trouble playing the files, see Wikipedia Media help.

The "Canadian" audio samples here are not necessarily from speakers of Quebec French, which has distinct regional pronunciations of certain words.^{references needed}

Look up French in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Look up :Category:French language in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

English	French	IPA pronunciation (Canadian accent)	IPA pronunciation (French accent)
French	Français	/fʀɑ̃ˈsɛ/	/fʁɑ̃se/
English	Anglais	/ɑ̃ɡlɛ/	/ɑ̃ɡle/
Yes	Oui (si when countering an assertion or a question expressed in the negative)	/wi/	/wi/
No	Non	/nɔ̃/	/nɔ̃/
Hello!	Bonjour ! (formal) or Salut ! (informal) or "Allô" (Canada or when answering on the telephone)	/bɔ̃ˈʒuːʀ/	/bɔ̃ʒuʁ/
Good evening!	Bonsoir !	/bɔ̃swɑːʀ/	/bɔ̃swaːʁ/
Good night!	Bonne nuit !	/bɔnnɥi/	/bɔn nɥi/
Goodbye!	Au revoir !	/ɔʀˈvwɑːʀ/	/ɔʁ vwa/
Have a nice day!	Bonne journée !	/bɔn ʒuʀˈne/	/bɔn ʒuʁne/
Please	S’il vous plaît (formal) or S’il te plaît (informal)	/sɪlvuplɛ/	/sil vu plɛ/
Thank you	Merci	/mɛʀˈsi/	/mɛʁsi/
You are welcome	De rien (informal) or Ce n’est rien (formal) ("it is nothing") or Je vous en prie (formal) or Je t’en prie (informal)		/də ʁiɛ̃/
I am sorry	Pardon or Je suis désolé (if male) / Je suis désolée (if female) or Excuse-moi (informal) / Excusez-moi (formal)	/paʁdɔ̃/ / /dezɔle/	/paʁdɔ̃/ / /dezɔle/
Who?	Qui ?	/ki/	/ki/
What?	Quoi ? (←informal; used as "What?" in English)) or Comment ? (←formal; used the same as "Pardon me?" in English)	/kwa/	/kwa/
When?	Quand ?	/kɑ̃/	/kɑ̃/
Where?	Où ?	/u/	/u/
Why?	Pourquoi ?	/puʀkwa/	/puʁkwɑ/
What is your name?	Comment vous appelez-vous ? (formal) or Comment t’appelles-tu ? (informal)		/kɔmɑ̃ vu‿zap le vu/
Because	Parce que / "À cause de" — literally "because of" or "due to"	/paʀs(ə)kə/	/paʁs kǝ/
For (when used as "because")	Car		/kaʁ/
Therefore	Donc	/dɔñk/	/dɔ̃k/
How?	Comment ?	/kɔmɑ̃/	/kɔmɑ̃/
How much?	Combien ?	/kɔ̃ˈbjɛ̃/	/kɔ̃ bjɛ̃/
I do not understand.	Je ne comprends pas.	/ʒə nə kɔ̃pʀɑ̃ pɑ/	/ʒə nə kɔ̃pʁɑ̃ pa/
Yes, I understand.	Oui, je comprends. Except when responding to a negatively posed question, in which case Si is used preferentially over Oui	/wi ʒə kɔ̃pʀɑ̃/	/wi, ʒə kɔ̃ pʁɑ̃/
I agree	Je suis d’accord. D’accord can be used without je suis.
Help!	Au secours ! (à l’aide !)	/o səˈkuʀ/	/o səku:ʁ/
Can you help me please?	Pouvez-vous m’aider s’il vous plaît ? / Pourriez-vous m’aider s’il vous plaît ? (formal) or Peux-tu m’aider s’il te plaît ? / Pourrais-tu m’aider s’il te plaît (informal)
Where are the toilets?	Où sont les toilettes ?	/u sɔ̃ le twalɛt/	/u sɔ̃ le twa.lɛt/
Do you speak English?	Parlez-vous anglais ?	/paʀle vu ɑ̃ɡlɛ/	/paʁ le vu ɑ̃ɡ lɛ/
I do not speak French.	Je ne parle pas français.	/ʒə nə paʀlə pɑ fʀɑ̃sɛ/	/ʒə nə paʁl pa fʁɑ̃sɛ/
I do not know.	Je ne sais pas.		/ʒə (nə) se pa/
I know.	Je sais.		/ʒə sɛ/
I am thirsty.	J’ai soif. (literally, "I have thirst")		/ʒe swaf/
I am hungry.	J’ai faim. (literally, "I have hunger")		/ʒe fɛ̃/
How are you? / How are things going? / How is everything?	Comment allez-vous? (formal) or Ça va? / Comment ça va ? (informal)
I am (very) well / Things are going (very) well // Everything is (very) well	Je vais (très) bien (formal) or Ça va (très) bien. / Tout va (très) bien (informal)
I am (very) bad / Things are (very) bad / Everything is (very) bad	Je vais (très) mal (formal) or Ça va (très) mal / Tout va (très) mal (informal)
I am all right/so-so / Everything is all right/so-so	Assez bien or Ça va comme ci, comme ça or simply Ça va.. (Sometimes said: « Couci, couça. », informal: "bof") i.e. « Comme ci, comme ça. »)
I am fine.	Je vais bien.		/ʒə vɛ bjɛ̃/

See also

• Académie française
• Alliance française
• Francophonie
• French language in Canada
• French language in the United States
• French proverbs
• French-based creole languages
• History of French
• List of countries where French is an official language
• List of English words of French origin
• List of French loanwords in Persian
• List of French words and phrases used by English speakers
• List of pseudo-French words adapted to English
• Louchébem
• Office québécois de la langue française
• Quebec French
• Reforms of French orthography
• Varieties of French
• Verlan

References

External links

Wikiversity has learning materials about French language

French language edition of Wiktionary, the free dictionary/thesaurus

French language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

French language edition of Wikisource, the free-content library

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: French

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of French

Courses and tutorials

• French language resources and broadcasts in simplified French at Radio France Internationale (RFI) website
• Learn French BBC
• Learn French at About (including French gestures)
• Learn the basic rules of French (easy tables)
• French lessons at Target Language (extensive)
• French Language Course (basic och first (1994) online course)
• École Interculturelle de Français, French language school in France
• The French Tutorial
• Flexible French Language Tuition

Online dictionaries

• English - French Dictionary
• Collins French Dictionary
• English <-> French Dictionary with gender and type of words
• Grand dictionnaire terminologique
• Le Dictionnaire
• LookWAYup French English Dictionary
• WordReference.com English-French dictionary
• Dictionnaire-Libre.fr - dictionnaire gratuit de 24 langues

Vocabulary

• Swadesh list in English and French
• A Two-Page PDF Reference Guide of the 681 Most Common French/English Verbs
• French vocabulary, with audio
• Questions and answers

Audio

• Free Audio base of French Words
• French audio files of the Shtooka.net project

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