Name used by its speakers (Endonym): Français
Native speakers (estimated): 100-111 million
Total speakers, including second-language (estimated): 312 million
Where it’s spoken:
Besides being the national language of France, French is an official language in 26 other countries; in 11 of these it is the only language with official status. In another 16 countries it is a co-official language, including in Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Haiti, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, adding another 33 million native French speakers combined. In Canada it is the second most common after English; in Belgium the second after Dutch (or Flemish); in Switzerland the second after German; and in Haiti the second after Haitian Creole. It is also the second most spoken native language within the EU.
Other countries with French as an official or co-official language include Luxembourg, Monaco, 19 countries in Africa, and one (Vanuatu) in the South Pacific. Regionally, French has recognized regional status in Val d’Aosta, Italy and in Puducherry, India. French is spoken in its several overseas regions: French Guiana (South America) and the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon (North Atlantic), Guadeloupe and Martinique (Caribbean), Reunion (Indian Ocean), and Tahiti and New Caledonia (South Pacific). Finally, French is an unofficial but widely spoken second language in several additional countries including Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Lebanon, and Syria. It was introduced to the former French Southeast Asian colonies of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, but few people in the region speak it today.
In the United States, historically French has been spoken by the Cajun people of Louisiana, but good luck hearing much there if you visit. Of course, French remains perennially popular as a language to learn—depending on methodology, it’s been ranked as between the second and fourth most widely studied foreign language in the world, thanks now much more to its cultural associations than its diplomatic utility. Vive le français!
Language family: Indo-European, Romance branch. French is the second most widely spoken Romance language, after Spanish.
Related languages include: Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romansh, other regional languages derived from Latin (e.g. Catalan, Occitan/Provençal), and Haitian Creole.
Writing and pronunciation tips: Like all other Romance languages, French uses the letters of the Latin alphabet, though W appears rarely and only in borrowed words. There are four types of accent marks used above vowels (for example, é – è – ê – ë) of which the first one appears only on E (as in ‘café’) and the second mostly on E or A (as in ‘ à la mode’). The cedille can also appear under the C to make the pronunciation “soft” when it otherwise wouldn’t be (as in ‘garçon’). French and English spelling share the characteristic of being spelled historically, not phonetically, and thus are full of inconsistent spelling rules and odd silent letters. For instance, in French the sentence ‘Six hommes aiment dix filles’ (odd to say, but grammatically correct) is pronounced ‘Si zum em di fi’.
Words exported to English:
In the unique case of French, “exported” to English is not even the correct term for most words. For centuries after the Norman conquest of England in 1066, French was the language of not only the King but the whole of the nobility. Thousands of words were thus incorporated into the English language, touching upon all aspects of life and society; it’s been estimated that one-third to half of the modern English vocabulary comes from French, even though it remains Germanic at its grammatical core. For example, most words ending in “-ion” (e.g. question, nation, vision, decision), or ending in “-ty” (e.g. city, liberty, unity, quality) derive from French.
One effect of this great influx of words was to enrich the English language, leaving it chock full of synonyms; but since French was the language of the upper class for so long, the Latinate words have always been considered slightly more refined—for instance, the French-derived words ‘nation’, ‘vision’, ‘liberty’ and ‘quality’ from the list above all sound fancier than their Germanic counterparts, ‘land’, ‘seeing’, ‘freedom’ and ‘goodness’. Also, English is somewhat unique among world languages in that we use one set of words (Germanic) for certain animals while they’re alive (‘cow , ‘calf’, ‘sheep’, ‘pig’, ‘deer’) but another set entirely, derived from French, once we cook and eat them (‘beef’, ‘veal’, ‘mutton’, and ‘pork’ come straight from the French animal names; ‘venison’ comes from a Norman French word for ‘hunting’).
English-speaking royalty took over once again by the 15th century, stemming the flow of French vocabulary. Borrowings from French into English (and other languages) include:
FOOD & DRINK: Cuisine, chef, sauce, mayonnaise, café, soufflé, sauté, puree, casserole, baguette, omelette, croissant, vinegar, vinaigrette, rotisserie, charcuterie, filet mignon, foie gras, ratatouille, champagne, rosé, bonbon, éclair, tart, crème brûlée, à la carte, à la mode. Special mention goes to the words hotel, restaurant, and menu—each of which has been borrowed into scores of languages besides English.
ARCHITECTURE & BUILDING: Chateau, chalet, aisle, arcade, façade, terrace, ambiance, décor, chandelier, chaise lounge, pied-à-terre, garage, cul-de-sac, avenue, promenade, garage.
NATURE, SCIENCE & ENGINEERING: Glacier, ravine, reservoir; piston, turbine, chassis, fuselage, aileron, canard, parachute, sedan, limousine. Many modern scientific terms are based on Greek or Latin roots but were first coined by French-speaking scientists and inventors: Hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, chlorophyll, lactose, thermometer, stratosphere, stethoscope, cinema, helicopter. Though he didn’t invent the device himself, Russian scientist Constantin Perskyi first used the word ‘télévision’ in a paper presented at the 1900 Paris World’s Fair.
ART & DESIGN: Gallery, portrait, montage, collage, tableau, papier-mâché, avant-garde, genre, critique, homage, connoisseur, gazette, exposé, matinée, cabaret, ballet, repertoire, haute couture, chic, faux, premiere, cinema, film noir.
POLITICS & DIPLOMACY: Accord, passport, attaché, chargé d’affaires, envoy, mayor, communiqué, détente, espionage, liaison, rapprochement, federal, bureau, bureaucracy, parliament, constitution, regime, coup d’état.
BUSINESS & LAW: Arbitrage, dossier, entrepreneur, financier, millionaire, personnel, laissez-faire, bourgeoisie, tenant, mortgage, lien, tort, assault, indict, verdict, plaintiff, bailiff, defendant, force majeure, voir dire. The words “Oyez, oyez, oyez” are still used in the opening of each US Supreme Court session; they come from the archaic French command for “Hear!” (similar to the modern Spanish “¡Oye!”).
MILITARY: Artillery, ammunition, battery, barrage, corps, cavalry, infantry, fusilier, grenadier, musketeer, cadet, officer, commandant, legionnaire, morale, materiel, depot, latrine, camouflage, sabotage, rendezvous, reconnaissance, terrain, surveillance, siege, sortie, ricochet, parachute. Most names for military ranks and organization come from French: general, admiral, colonel, captain, lieutenant, ensign, sergeant, corporal; corps, division, brigade, regiment, battalion, company, platoon (related to the word ‘peloton’, which in English refers to cycling, not the military).
MISCELLANEOUS: Religion: abbey, cloister, parish. History: baron, count, dame, duke, liege, marquis, chivalry, dungeon, rampart. Brochure, camaraderie, catalogue, chauffeur, cliché, debris, déjà vu, detour, élite, en route, enfant terrible, ennui, entourage, faux pas, femme fatale, fiancé(e), lingerie, massage, menagerie, mirage, panache, rapport, risqué, savoir-faire, silhouette, souvenir, technique, tête-à-tête. Several French greetings and phrases are widely recognized even by non-French speakers: Bonjour, au revoir, adieu, bon voyage, bon appetit!
Culture & Pop Culture:
French has made significant contributions to world culture in the fields of music (Debussy, Ravel, Berlioz), painting and sculpture (Rodin, Degas, Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, Gaugin, and Matisse). Pablo Picasso, while Spanish by birth, spent most of his life and career in France and most of his works were named in French. Notable thinkers include Protestant reformer John (Jean) Calvin and Enlightenment philosophers Voltaire and Rousseau. Key figures in French literature include Victor Hugo (“Les Misérables”); Gustave Flaubert (“Madame Bovary”); Alexandre Dumas (“The Three Musketeers”); science-fiction pioneer Jules Verne; poet Charles Baudelaire; novelist George Sand; and in the 20th century, writer-philosophers Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre (both winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature) and novelist-playwright-screenwriter Marguerite Duras.
Science: René Descartes and Blaise Pascal made foundational contributions to math and physics. Naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck was an early proponent of evolution. Microbiology and public health pioneer Louis Pasteur invented the procedure which bears his name. Pierre and Marie Curie shared the Nobel Prize in physics for their work in radioactivity. Oceanographer, filmmaker, and TV star Jacques Cousteau was also co-inventor of the first apparatus for scuba diving.
Comics: Though graphic novels are popular today, ‘bande dessinée’–or comics in book form—have long been an enormously popular genre of literature in French-speaking countries, particularly France and Belgium. Astérix and Obélix, Tintin, and the Smurfs (originally ‘Les Schtroumpfs’) have all found success in multiple languages, including adaptation into TV series and feature films.
Modern music: French popular music in the mid-20th century was best known for chanson (meaning ‘song’), a simple and lyric-centered style typified by Jacques Brel and Édith Piaf (“La Vie En Rose”). Artists of note in the 60s and 70s include pop singer-songwriters Serge Gainsbourg and Barbara and the rock band Téléphone. France has long had an active world music scene, often featuring West and North African musicians like Senegalese band Touré Kunda and Algerian rai singer Cheb Mami; many French rappers also come from Arab or African backgrounds, like Senegal-born MC Solaar. The band Gipsy Kings are from France though sing mostly in Spanish. Québecois superstar Céline Dion is both the best-selling Canadian and French-language recording artist, though (as we all know) she also sings in English. Other contemporary artists include EDM stars Daft Punk, DJ Snake, and producer David Guetta, and pop singers Vanessa Paradis and French-Malian Aya Nakamura, featured in the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics. Some French singers are also famous for more than one reason: pop singer Yannick Noah was a tennis champion in his first career, while singer-songwriter Carla Bruni also became First Lady of France.
Film and TV: French cinema has a long history, including the original “Beauty and the Beast” (1946), a surreal fantasy film that was directed by filmmaker-poet(!) Jean Cocteau and not at all like the Disney musical version. The French New Wave of the 50s and 60s was created by directors like François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard. Films of the 80s include the period dramas “The Return of Martin Guerre” (1982) and “Jean de Florette” (1986), both starring Gérard Depardieu, and stylish thrillers “Diva” (1981) and “Subway” (1985). The acclaimed “Three Colours” trilogy (1993-1994) by Krzysztof Kieślowski—“Blue”, “White”, and “Red”—was named after the colors of the French flag. Other notable films in recent decades include the urban social drama “Hate” (1995) by Matthieu Kassovitz; the romantic comedy “Amélie” (2001); the graphic novel-based “Persepolis” (2007); and provocative romantic dramas “Blue is the Warmest Color” (2013) and “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” (2019). The quietly charming 2021 drama “Petite Maman” (Little Mother) involves both family bonding and time travel. Legal drama “Anatomy of a Fall” (2023) won top prize at France’s César Awards and was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. Recent French-language series include supernatural drama “The Returned” (on Prime—not to be confused with its inferior English-language remake); WWI drama “Women at War”; science-fiction series “Osmosis”; crime thriller “Lupin”; and Emmy-winning comedy “Call My Agent!” (all on Netflix.)
Other fun facts:
In contrast with Germany, in which there are multiple completely different names for the country and its language in use around the world, nearly all names for France derive from the same source, the Kingdom of the Franks (Latin Francia, German Frankreich). Thus in most modern languages France begins with ‘F’, though in some the sound is either rare or nonexistent so ‘P’ is used instead, as in Lithuanian (Prancūzija), Malay (Perancis), and Korean (Peulangseu, because Korean also lacks the letter R). The name of the Gauls—original Celtic-speaking inhabitants of present-day France—persists in French pop culture (see Astérix), the English adjective ‘Gallic’, and the Greek name for France (‘Gallia’).
At least three languages are outliers: In Hebrew, the word for France is ‘tzarfat’ or ‘tzarefat’; this refers to the Biblical city of Sarepta (or Zarephath) in modern-day Lebanon. Medieval Jews living along the Rhine River, looking back to their ancestral Middle East, perhaps nostalgically named the land on the west bank of the Rhine ‘Tzarfat’ and the name stuck. Memorably, the Māori name for France is ‘Wīwī’—derived from, you guessed it, the phrase “Oui, oui” (Yes, yes). Finally, in Inuktitut the name for the French language is ‘uiviititut’—I haven’t been able to confirm why, but can’t help noticing that ‘Uivii’ also sounds similar to… “Oui, oui.”
The signs for France and the French language in both ASL and French Sign Language (LSF)—unlike those for, say, Germany—do not represent iconic national images. Instead, they are both based on the hand sign for the letter “F” …which makes sense, for all the reasons described above.