French franais Pronunciation fs Spoken in see below Total speakers native speakers: 110 million1 total (both native and second language) speakers: 265 million-2 270 million3 Language family Indo-European Italic Romance Italo-Western Western Romance Gallo-Iberian Gallo-Romance Gallo-Rhaetian Ol French Writing system Latin alphabet (French variant) Official status Official language in 30 countries  Belgium  Benin  Burkina Faso  Burundi  Cameroon  Canada  Central African Republic  Chad  Comoros  Cte d'Ivoire  Democratic Republic of the Congo  Djibouti  Equatorial Guinea  France  Gabon  Guinea  Haiti  Luxembourg  Madagascar  Mali  Monaco  Niger  Republic of the Congo  Rwanda  Senegal  Seychelles  Switzerland  Togo  Vanuatu Administrative/cultural  Algeria  Morocco  Mauritius  Mauritania  Tunisia 14 dependent entities  Aosta Valley Clipperton  French Southern and Antarctic Lands  French Polynesia  Guernsey  Jersey  Mayotte  New Caledonia Puducherry  Saint-Barthlemy  Saint-Martin  Saint-Pierre and Miquelon  Wallis and Futuna Numerous international organisations Regulated by Acadmie franaise (French Academy) Language codes ISO 639-1 fr ISO 639-2 fre (B)  fra (T) ISO 639-3 fra Linguasphere 51-AAA-i   Regions where it is mother tongue   Regions where it is official language   Regions where it is second language   Regions where it is a minority language Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

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French language Langues d'Ol Dialects Creoles Francophonie History Oaths of Strasbourg Ordinance of Villers-Cotterts 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 Wikipedia IPA for French This box: view talk

French (franais IPA: fs) is a Romance language spoken as a first language by most people from France French-speaking Switzerland Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium Monaco and the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada as well as minorities elsewhere. Second language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts of the world the largest numbers of which reside in Francophone Africa4 and the highest proportions being situated in Gabon (80%)4 Mauritius (72.7%)4 and Cte d'Ivoire (70%).4 French is estimated as having 110 million1 native speakers and 190 million second language speakers.2 Additionally French is the second-most studied foreign language in the world after English.

French is a descendant of the spoken Latin language of the Roman Empire as are languages such as Italian Portuguese Spanish Romanian Sardinian and Catalan. Its closest relatives however are the other langues d'ol 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 30 countries most of which form what is called in French La Francophonie the community of French-speaking countries. It is an official language of all United Nations agencies and a large number of international organizations. According to the European Union 129 million (or 26% of the Union's total population) in 27 member states speak French of whom 65 million are native speakers and 69 million claim to be able to speak French either as a second language or as a foreign language making it the third language in the European Union that people say they are able to speak after English and German. Twenty-percent of non-Francophone Europeans know how to speak French totaling roughly 145.6 million people in Europe alone.5

From the 17th century to the mid-20th century French served as the pre-eminent international language of diplomacy and international affairs as well as a lingua franca among the educated classes of Europe. The dominant position of the French language has only recently been overshadowed by English.678 As a result of extensive colonial ambitions of France and Belgium (at that time governed by a French-speaking elite) between the 17th and 20th centuries French was introduced to the Americas Africa Polynesia Southeast Asia and the Caribbean.

According to a recent demographic projections led by the Universit Laval and the Rseau Dmographie de l'Agence universitaire de la francophonie the french language will be represented by approximately 500 million people in 2025 and 650 million in 2050 or approximately 7% of the world population. 9 Contents 1 Geographic distribution 1.1 Europe 1.1.1 Legal status in France 1.1.2 Switzerland 1.1.3 Belgium 1.1.4 Monaco and Andorra 1.1.5 Luxembourg 1.1.6 Italy 1.1.7 The United Kingdom and the Channel Islands 1.2 North & South America 1.2.1 Canada 1.2.2 Haiti 1.2.3 French overseas departments and territories in the Americas 1.2.4 The United States 1.2.5 Brazil 1.3 Africa 1.3.1 Algeria 1.3.2 Egypt 1.3.3 French overseas departments and territories in Africa 1.4 Asia 1.4.1 Southwest Asia 1.4.2 Southeast Asia 1.4.3 India 1.5 Oceania/Australasia 2 Dialects 3 History 4 Phonology 5 Writing system 5.1 Alphabet 5.2 Orthography 6 Grammar 7 Vocabulary 7.1 Numerals 8 Examples 9 See also 10 References 11 External links 11.1 Courses and tutorials 11.2 Online dictionaries 11.3 Vocabulary Geographic distribution Europe

French is the fourth most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union.10 It is also the third most widely understood language in the EU after English and German. Legal status in France See also: Toubon Law and Languages of France

According to the Constitution of France French has been the official language since 199211 (although previous legal texts have made it official since 1539 see ordinance of Villers-Cotterts). 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 its 1958 Constitution.12 Switzerland Further information: Languages of Switzerland Swiss French and Romandie French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland (along with German Italian and Romansh) and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland called Romandie of which Geneva is the largest city. The language divisions in Switzerland do not coincide with political subdivisions and some cantons enjoy bilingual status for example parts of Biel/Bienne as well as parts of Neuchtel squaids. French is the native language of about 20% of the Swiss population and is spoken by 50.4%13 of the 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 numbers after 69 there are also slight differences in other vocabulary terms. Belgium Further information: Languages of Belgium and Belgian French 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 languagesalong with Dutchof the Brussels-Capital Region where it is spoken by the majority of the population though often not as their primary language.14 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 French as a second or third language meaning that about three quarters of the Belgian population can speak French.1516 Monaco and Andorra Further information: Languages of Monaco and Languages of Andorra Although Mongasque 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 and the fact that France is with the Urgel's Bishop part of the government. French nationals make up 7% of the population. Knowledge of French in the European Union and candidate countries17 (Note that around 40% of Belgium's population are native French speakers18 totalling 88%19 of the country's population.) Luxembourg Further information: Languages of Luxembourg and Multilingualism in Luxembourg French is one of three official languages of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg alongside German and Luxembourgish the natively spoken language of Luxembourg. French is primarily used for administrative purposes by the government and is also the language used to converse with foreigners. 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. French is spoken by 97.8% of the population.citation needed Italy Further information: Languages of Italy French is also an official language in the small region of Aosta Valley Italy.20 Though most non-Italophone people in the region speak Franco-Provenal21 they use standard French to write. That is because the international recognition of Franco-Provenal as a separate language (as opposed to a dialect or patois of French) was quite recent. The United Kingdom and the Channel Islands Further information: Languages of Jersey Languages of Guernsey and Languages of the United Kingdom French is a large minority language and immigrant language in the United Kingdom with over 300000 French-born people in the UK. It is also the most popular foreign language. French is spoken and understood by 23% of the UK population.22 Modern and Middle English reflect a mixture of Ol and Old English lexicons after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 when a Norman-speaking aristocracy took control of a population whose mother tongue was Germanic in origin. As a result of the intertwined histories of England and continental possessions of the English Crown many formal and legal words from Modern English have French roots. Thus whilst words such as buy and sell are of Germanic origin purchase and vend are from Old French. French is an official language in both Jersey and Guernsey. 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 (in its local forms Guernsiais and Jrriais) is the historical vernacular of the islands. North & South America Canada See also: Canadian French French language in Canada Spoken languages of Canada and Official bilingualism in Canada The "arrt" signs (French for "stop") are used in Quebec while the international stop which is also a valid French word is used in France as well as 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. French is the sole official language in the province of Quebec being the mother tongue for some 6 million people or almost 80.1% (2006 Census) of the Province. About 95.0% 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 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 Newfoundland and Labrador Alberta and Manitoba have sizable French minorities and many provinces provide service in French for its linguistic minorities. Smaller pockets of French speakers exist in all other provinces. About 9487500 of Canadians speak French as their first language or around 30% of the country2324 with 2065300 constituting secondary speakers.25 Due to the increased bilingual school programs and French Immersion Classes in English Canada the portion of Canadians proficient in French has risen significantly in the past two decades and is still rising. The difference between French spoken in Quebec and French spoken in France is similar in degree to that between American and British English. In Quebec where the majority of French-speaking Canadians live the Office qubcois de la langue franaise (English: Quebec Board of the French language) regulates Quebec French and ensures the Charter of the French Language (Bill 101 & 104) is respected. The Office qubcois de la langue franaise determined that "stop" is a valid French word however it is observed that stop signs reading "ARRT" predominate in French-speaking areas and "STOP" can be found in majority English-speaking areas. Haiti French is one of Haiti's two official languages. It is the principal language of writing school instruction and administrative use. It is spoken by all educated Haitians and is used in the business sector. It is also used in ceremonial events such as weddings graduations and church masses. About 10-15% of the country's population have French as their first language; the rest speak it as a secondary language in varying degrees of proficiency from basic level to fluent. The second official language is the recently standardized Haitian Creole which is spoken by virtually the entire population of Haiti. Haitian Creole is one of the French-based creole languages drawing the large majority of its vocabulary from French with influences from West African languages as well as several European languages. Haitian Creole is closely related to Louisiana Creole and all other French creoles. French overseas departments and territories in the Americas French is also the official language in France's overseas departments and territories of French Guiana Guadeloupe Martinique Saint Barthlemy St. Martin and Saint-Pierre et Miquelon. The United States See also: French in the United States Cajun French and Louisiana Creole French French language spread in the United States. Counties marked in yellow are those where 612% of the population speak French at home; brown 1218%; red over 18%. French-based creole languages are not included. French is the fourth2627 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 mostly in Acadiana. According to the 2000 US Census there are over 194000 people in Louisiana who speak French at home the most of any state if Creole French is excluded.27 Brazil The French language was spoken in Brazil for a brief period during the colonial attempts of France Antarctique and France Ecquinociale. Also the language was used by the community of French immigrants and expatriates in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and by the Brazilian public education system. Today the Karipuna indigenous community (nearly 30000 people) of Amap in North Brazil speaks a French creole the Lanc-Patu possibly related to the French Guiana Creole. Africa Main articles: African French and Maghreb French Supermarket sign in French in Dakar Senegal.   Countries usually considered as Francophone Africa. These countries had a population of 344 million in 2010.28 Their population is projected to reach between 684 million29 and 732 million28 in 2050.   Countries sometimes considered as Francophone Africa   Countries that are not Francophone but are Members or Observers of the OIF 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.4 This number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language.4 Due to the rise of French in Africa the total French-speaking population is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050.30 French is mostly a second language in Africa but it has become a first language in some areas such as the region of Abidjan Cte d'Ivoire31 and in Libreville Gabon.32 The classification of French as a second language in Francophone Africa is debatable because it is often the only language spoken and written in schools administrations radio TV and the Internet. This prevalence of French is noticeable in popular music in which French is often mixed with the language of the song. 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.33 In fact the term African French is a misnomer as forms are different from country to country and the root of the French spoken in a particular country depends on its former colonial empire. French spoken in the Benin for example is closer to that spoken in France than to French spoken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo which is rooted in Belgian French. 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.34 It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years.3536 Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries37 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:  Benin  Burkina Faso  Burundi  Cameroon  Central African Republic  Chad  Comoros  Congo Republic of the  Cte d'Ivoire  Democratic Republic of the Congo  Djibouti  Equatorial Guinea (former colony of Spain)  Gabon  Guinea  Madagascar  Mali  Niger  Rwanda  Senegal  Seychelles  Togo In addition French is an administrative language and commonly used though not on an official basis in Mauritius and in the Maghreb states:  Algeria (see also languages of Algeria)  Mauritania (see also languages of Mauritania)  Morocco (see also languages of Morocco)  Tunisia (see also languages of Tunisia) Algeria Most urban Algerians have some working knowledge of French and a high (though unknown) percentage speak it fluently. However because of the country's colonial past the predominance of French has long been politically fraught. Numerous reforms have been implemented in recent decades to improve the status of Arabic in relation to French especially in education. For this reason although Algeria is certainly one of the most Francophone countries in the world outside of France and has perhaps the largest number of French speakers it does not participate in the Francophonie association. Egypt Bilingual Arabic-French street sign in Alexandria Egypt. The official language in Egypt is literary Arabic and it is mandatory in all schools. The most used second languages in Egypt are English and French which are learned by some elements of the Egyptian upper and upper-middle classes; most Egyptians will mostly learn English and French in addition to Arabic. Private schools have either English or French as the main language of instruction. Egypt participates in the Francophonie. There are two French-speaking universities in the country the Universit Franaise d'gypte and the Universit Senghor. instructive French overseas departments and territories in Africa French is also the official language of Mayotte and Runion two overseas territories of France located in the southwest Indian Ocean. Asia Southwest Asia A Lebanese "mille livres" (thousand-pound) bank note Arabic is the official language of Lebanon where a special law regulates the use of French. French is considered a second 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 secondary language along with Arabic and English. See further languages of Lebanon. As in Lebanon French was official in Syria until 1943. In contrast to the situation in Lebanon the French language is less used but it is still spoken to some degree by educated groups both in the lite and in the middle-class. See further languages of Syria. There are also a significant number of native and second-language French-speakers in Israel who trace their origins to the francocized Jewish communities of North Africa (see Maghrebi Jews) and Romania. See further: languages of Israel. Southeast Asia French is an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia although its influence has waned in recent years.38 In colonial Vietnam the elites spoke French and many who worked for the French spoke a French creole known as "Ty Bi" (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 Puducherry 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. French is also taught in schools in Chandannagar (a former French colony in West Bengal). Students also have the option of having French as an additional subject in the secondary school (WBBSE) and higher secondary school (WBCHSE) certificate examinations. Nevertheless French is taught throughout India as an optional foreign language and is a very popular subject among students. See also: French India Oceania/Australasia French is an official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu where 45% of the population can speak French.39 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.40 In French Polynesia 95% of the population can speak read and write French whereas only 2% have no knowledge of French.41 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.42 Dialects Main article: Dialects of the French language Acadian French African French Aostan French Belgian French Cajun French Cambodian French Canadian French French-based creole languages Guyana French Indian French Jersey Legal French Lao French Louisiana Creole French Mauritian Creole Maghreb French (North African French) Meridional French Metropolitan French Missouri French New Caledonian French Newfoundland French Quebec French South East Asian French Swiss French Vietnamese French West Indian French French Colonial Empire 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 discussion of the history of a language is typically divided into "external history" describing the ethnic political social technological and other changes that impacted the languages and "internal history" describing the phonological and grammatical changes undergone by the language itself. Phonology Main article: French phonology This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support you may see question marks boxes or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. 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/ // /e/ // // /i/ /o/ // /y/ /u/ // // plus the nasalized vowels // // // and //. In France the vowels // and // are tending to be replaced by /a/ and // in many people's speech. Voiced stops (i.e. /b d /) are typically produced fully voiced throughout. Voiceless stops (i.e. /p t k/) are unaspirated. Nasals: The velar nasal // can occur in final position in borrowed (usually English) words: parking camping swing. The palatal nasal // 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 ////. 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 u 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 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 /pj/ paye "pay" vs. /pi/ 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 g and m are normally silent. (A consonant is considered "final" when no vowel follows it even if one or more consonants follow it.) The final letters c f k q and l however are normally pronounced. The final r is usually silent when it follows an e in a word of two or more syllables but is pronounced in other cases. The t is pronounced when it follows a c. 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--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. Writing system Alphabet Main article: French alphabet French is written with the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet with four diacritics appearing on vowels (circumflex accent acute accent grave accent diaeresis) and the cedilla appearing in . There are two ligatures and . Orthography Main article: 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 (see Vocabulary below). 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 can be difficult to predict the spelling of a word 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--terre. On the other hand a given spelling will usually lead to a predictable sound and the Acadmie franaise works hard to enforce and update this correspondence.citation needed In particular a given vowel combination or diacritic predictably leads to one phoneme. 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 copists 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 chteau pl. chteaux 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 ilyzj and not ilyzj. But gemination does occur between words. For example une info ("a news item" or "a piece of information") is pronounced ynfo whereas une nympho ("a nymphomaniac") is pronounced ynfo. 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) (e.g. coleschool) means that the vowel is pronounced /e/ instead of the default //. The grave accent (l'accent grave) (e.g. lvepupil) means that the vowel is pronounced // instead of the default //. The circumflex (l'accent circonflexe) (e.g. fortforest) shows that an e is pronounced // and that an is pronounced /o/. In standard French it also signifies a pronunciation of // for the letter 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 fort and hospital became hpital. The diaeresis (le trma) (e.g. naf naive Nol 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 cdille) (e.g. garonboy) means that the letter 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 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 le (isle compare with English island). The explanation is that some words share the same orthography and the circumflex is put here to spot the difference between the two words. For example dites (you say) / dtes (you said) or even du (of the) / d (past for the verb devoir must have to owe; in this case the circumflex splits at the plural and the feminine). All other accents are used only to distinguish similar words as in the case of distinguishing the adverbs l and o ("there" "where") from the article la ("the" fem. sing.) and the conjunction ou ("or") respectively. Some proposals exist to simplify the existing writing system but they still fail to gather interest.434445 Grammar Main article: French 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 declarative word order is Subject Verb Object although if the object is a pronoun it precedes the verb. Some types of sentences allow for or require different word orders in particular inversion of the subject and verb. Vocabulary 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: brother: frre / fraternel < from Latin frater finger: doigt / digital < from Latin digitum faith: foi / fidle < from Latin fidem eye: il / oculaire < from Latin oculum There are also noun-noun and adjective-adjective pairs: thing/cause: chose / cause < from Latin causa cold: froid / frigide < from Latin frigidum 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. It is estimated that 12% (4200) of common French words found in a typical dictionary such as the Petit Larousse or Micro-Robert Plus (35000 words) are of foreign origin (where Greek and Latin learned words are not seen as foreign). About 25% (1054) 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 other 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 3%) from other languages.46 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 80 is quatre-vingts literally "four twenties" and the word for 75 is soixante-quinze literally "sixty-fifteen". 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 90.47 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 Neuchtel Jura) or huitante (Vaud Valais Fribourg). Octante had been used in Switzerland in the past but is now considered archaic.48 In Belgium and in its former African colonies however quatre-vingts is universally used. It should also be noted that French like most European languages 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: 25 deux virgule cinq. Cardinal numbers in French from 1 to 20 are as follows: One: un/une // or // (m) - /yn/ (f) Two: deux /d/ Three: trois /twa/ Four: quatre /kat/ Five: cinq /sk/ Six: six /sis/ Seven: sept /st/ Eight: huit /it/ Nine: neuf /nf/ Ten: dix /dis/ Eleven: onze /z/ Twelve: douze /duz/ Thirteen: treize /tz/ Fourteen: quatorze /katz/ Fifteen: quinze /kz/ Sixteen: seize /sz/ Seventeen: dix-sept /disst/ Eighteen: dix-huit /dizit/ Nineteen: dix-neuf /diznf/ Twenty: vingt /v/ 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. English French Canadian accent Northern French accent French Franais /fs/ /fs/ English Anglais /l/ /l/ Yes Oui (si when countering an assertion or a question expressed in the negative) /wi/ /wi/ No Non /n/ /n/ Hello! Bonjour ! (formal) or Salut ! (informal) or "All" (Canada or when answering on the telephone) /bu/ /bu/ Good evening! Bonsoir ! /bsw/ /bswa/ Good night! Bonne nuit ! /bnni/ /bn ni/ Goodbye! Au revoir ! /vw/ / vwa/ Have a nice day! Bonne journe ! /bn une/ /bn une/ Please/if you please Sil vous plat (formal) or Sil te plat (informal) /slvupl/ /sil vu pl/ Thank you Merci /msi/ /msi/ You are welcome De rien (informal) or Ce nest rien (informal) ("it is nothing") or Je vous en prie (formal) or Je ten prie (informal) /d i/ I am sorry Pardon or Je suis dsol (if male) / Je suis dsole (if female) or Excuse-moi (informal) / Excusez-moi (formal) / "Je regrette" /pad/ / /dezle/ /pad/ / /dezle/ 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  /k/ /k/ Where O  /u/ /u/ Why Pourquoi  /pukwa/ /pukw/ What is your name Comment vous appelez-vous  (formal) or Comment tappelles-tu  (informal) /km vuzaple vu/ /km tapl ty/ Because Parce que / Car /pas()k/ /pas k/ Because of cause de Therefore Donc /dk/ /dk/ How Comment  /km/ /km/ How much Combien  /kbj/ /k bj/ I do not understand. Je ne comprends pas. / n kp p/ / n kp 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 kp/ /wi k p/ I agree Je suis daccord. Daccord can be used without je suis. Help! Au secours ! ( laide !) /o sku/ /o sku:/ Can you help me please Pouvez-vous maider sil vous plat  / Pourriez-vous maider sil vous plat  (formal) or Peux-tu maider sil te plat  / Pourrais-tu maider sil te plat (informal) Where are the toilets O sont les toilettes  /u s le twalt/ /u s le twa.lt/ Do you speak English Parlez-vous anglais  /pale vu l/ /pa le vu l/ I do not speak French. Je ne parle pas franais. / n pal p fs/ / n pal pa fs/ I do not know. Je ne sais pas. / (n) se pa/ I know. Je sais. / s/ I am thirsty. Jai soif. (literally "I have thirst") / swaf/ I am hungry. Jai faim. (literally "I have hunger") / f/ How are you / How are things going / How is everything Comment allez-vous (formal) or a va / Comment a va  (informal) I am (very) well / Things are going (very) well // Everything is (very) well Je vais (trs) bien (formal) or a va (trs) bien. / Tout va (trs) bien (informal) I am (very) bad / Things are (very) bad / Everything is (very) bad Je vais (trs) mal (formal) or a va (trs) mal / Tout va (trs) mal (informal) I am all right/so-so / Everything is all right/so-so Assez bien or a va comme ci comme a or simply a va.. (Sometimes said:  Couci coua.  informal: "bof") i.e.  Comme ci comme a. ) I am fine. a va bien. /sa va bj/ See also French language and French-speaking world portal Acadmie franaise Alliance franaise Alliance franaise Paris Ile-de-France Francophonie Francization 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 Louchbem Office qubcois de la langue franaise Quebec French Reforms of French orthography Varieties of French Verlan References a b Francophonie a b The World's 10 Most Influential Languages Top Languages Retrieved 2011-04-11 La langue francaise dans le monde 2010 La Francophonie Retrieved 2010-04-14 a b c d e f (French) La Francophonie dans le monde 20062007 published by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Nathan Paris 2007. "Why learn French". Cpfont.on.ca. http://cpfont.on.ca/nav/faq/Why%20learn%20French/default.htm. Retrieved 2010-04-21.  "Language and Diplomacy - Translation and Interpretation". Diplomacy.edu. http://www.diplomacy.edu/language/Translation/default.htm. Retrieved 2010-09-10.  Why Is French Considered the Language of Diplomacy Language and Diplomacy - Naked Translations "Agora: La francophonie de demain". http://www.ledevoir.com/non-classe/69236/agora-la-francophonie-de-demain. Retrieved 2011-06-13.  European Commission (2006) "Europeans and their Languages" Special Eurobarometer 243 (Europa): pp. 141143 http://ec.europa.eu/publicopinion/archives/ebs/ebs243en.pdf retrieved 19 November 2008  (French) Loi constitutionnelle 1992  C'est la loi constitutionnelle du 25 juin 1992 rdige dans le cadre de l'intgration europenne que l'on doit la premire dclaration de principe sur le franais langue de la Rpublique. The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and Education Mercator Retrieved 2011-04-11 Le franais et les langues ... - Google Books. Books.google.com. 2007-01-01. ISBN 9782877478816. http://books.google.com/idabit8Yd6J-cC&pgPA92&lpgPA92&dq%22connaissance+du+francais+en+suisse%22#vonepage&q&ffalse. Retrieved 2010-09-10.  Van Parijs Philippe Professor of economic and social ethics at the UCLouvain Visiting Professor at Harvard University and the KULeuven. "Belgium's new linguistic challenge" (pdf 0.7 MB). KVS Express (supplement to newspaper De Morgen) MarchApril 2006: Article from original source (pdf 4.9 MB) pages 3436 republished by the Belgian Federal Government Service (ministry) of Economy  Directorate-general Statistics Belgium. http://www.statbel.fgov.be/studies/ac699en.pdf. Retrieved 2007-05-05.   The linguistic situation in Belgium (and in particular various estimations of the population speaking French and Dutch in Brussels) is discussed in detail. (French) "La dynamique des langues en Belgique" (PDF). Regards conomiques Publication prpare par les conomistes de l'Universit Catholique de Louvain (Numro 42). June 2006. http://regards.ires.ucl.ac.be/Archives/RE042.pdf. Retrieved 7 May 2007. "Les enqutes montrent que la Flandre est bien plus multilingue ce qui est sans doute un fait bien connu mais la diffrence est considrable : alors que 59 % et 53 % des Flamands connaissent le franais ou l'anglais respectivement seulement 19 % et 17 % des Wallons connaissent le nerlandais ou l'anglais. ... 95 pour cent des Bruxellois dclarent parler le franais alors que ce pourcentage tombe 59 pour cent pour le nerlandais. Quant langlais il est connu par une proportion importante de la population Bruxelles (41 pour cent)".  40%+60%*59%75.4% Source: EUROPA data for EU25 published before 2007 enlargement. Native speakers of Dutch living in Wallonia and of French in Flanders are relatively small minorities that furthermore largely balance one another hence counting all inhabitants of each unilingual area to the area's language can cause only insignificant inaccuracies (99% can speak the language). Dutch: Flanders' 6.079 million inhabitants and about 15% of Brussels' 1.019 million are 6.23 million or 59.3% of the 10.511 million inhabitants of Belgium (2006); German: 70400 in the German-speaking Community (which has language facilities for its less than 5% French-speakers) and an estimated 2000025000 speakers of German in the Walloon Region outside the geographical boundaries of their official Community or 0.9%; French: in the latter area as well as mainly in the rest of Wallonia (3.414 0.093 3.321 million) and 85% of the Brussels inhabitants (0.866 million) thus 4.187 million or 39.8%; together indeed 100%. 40%+48%88% "Vda.it". Regione.vda.it. http://www.regione.vda.it/turismo/latradizione/linguef.asp. Retrieved 2010-04-21. dead link http://www.fondchanoux.org/risultatisondage10555.aspx "EUROPA" (PDF). http://ec.europa.eu/publicopinion/archives/ebs/ebs243en.pdf. Retrieved 2010-04-21.  Qu'est-ce Que La Francophonie Saint George International Qu'est-ce Que La Francophonie National Virtual Translation Center  Languages Spoken in the U.S. a b U.S. Census Bureau Census 2000 Summary File 3  Language Spoken at Home: 2000. a b Population Reference Bureau. "2010 World Population Data Sheet" (PDF). http://www.prb.org/pdf10/10wpdseng.pdf. Retrieved 2010-08-21.  United Nations. "World Population Prospects  The 2008 Revision" (PDF). http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/wpp2008/wpp2008highlights.pdf. Retrieved 2009-10-11.  http://www.english.rfi.fr/africa/20100319-french-language-growing-especially-africa (French) Le franais Abidjan : Pour une approche syntaxique du non-standard by Katja Ploog CNRS Editions Paris 2002. (French) "De plus le franais est galement devenu la langue maternelle de plus de 30 % des Librevillois et il est de plus en plus peru comme une langue gabonaise." (French) "En Afrique il est impossible de parler d'une forme unique du franais mais..." France-Diplomatie "Furthermore the demographic growth of Southern hemisphere countries leads us to anticipate a new increase in the overall number of French speakers." (French) "Le franais langue en volution. Dans beaucoup de pays francophones surtout sur le continent africain une proportion importante de la population ne parle pas couramment le franais (mme s'il est souvent la langue officielle du pays). Ce qui signifie qu'au fur et mesure que les nouvelles gnrations vont l'cole le nombre de francophones augmente : on estime qu'en 2015 ceux-ci seront deux fois plus nombreux qu'aujourd'hui." (French) c) Le sabir franco-africain: "C'est la varit du franais la plus fluctuante. Le sabir franco-africain est instable et htrogne sous toutes ses formes. Il existe des noncs o les mots sont franais mais leur ordre reste celui de la langue africaine. En somme autant les langues africaines sont envahies par les structures et les mots franais autant la langue franaise se mtamorphose en Afrique donnant naissance plusieurs varits." (French) Rpublique centrafricaine: Il existe une autre varit de franais beaucoup plus rpandue et plus permissive : le franais local. C'est un franais trs influenc par les langues centrafricaines surtout par le sango. Cette varit est parle par les classes non instruites qui n'ont pu terminer leur scolarit. Ils utilisent ce qu'ils connaissent du franais avec des emprunts massifs aux langues locales. Cette varit peut causer des problmes de comprhension avec les francophones des autres pays car les interfrences linguistiques d'ordre lexical et smantique sont trs importantes. (One example of a variety of African French that is difficult to understand for European French speakers). French Declines in Indochina as English Booms International Herald Tribune 16 October 1993: "In both Cambodia and Laos French remains the official second language of government." Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. "Estimation du nombre de francophones dans le monde1". http://20mars.francophonie.org/IMG/pdf/FICHE03Nombredefrancophones.pdf. Retrieved 2009-10-03.  (French) INSEE Government of France. "P9-1 - Population de 14 ans et plus selon la connaissance du franais le sexe par commune "zone" et par province de rsidence" (XLS). http://www.insee.fr/fr/ppp/ir/rpnc04/dd/excel/rpnc04P9-1.xls. Retrieved 2009-10-03.  (French) Institut Statistique de Polynsie Franaise (ISPF). "Recensement 2007 - Langues : Chiffres cls". http://www.ispf.pf/ISPF/EnqRep/Recensement/Recens2007/Themes/Langues.aspx. Retrieved 2009-10-03. dead link (French) INSEE Government of France. "Tableau Pop061 : Population selon le sexe la connaissance du franais et l'ge dcennal" (XLS). http://www.insee.fr/fr/ppp/bases-de-donnees/irweb/rpwf08/dd/excel/rpwf08Pop06.xls. Retrieved 2009-10-03.  (French) Ortofasil writing system proposal. (French) Alfograf writing system proposal. (French) Ortograf.net writing system proposal. Walter & Walter 1998. Einhorn E. (1974). Old French: A Concise Handbook. Cambridge England: Cambridge University Press. p. 110. ISBN 0521098386.  (French) "Septante octante (huitante) nonante". langue-fr.net. http://www.langue-fr.net/spip.phparticle202. . See also the English Wikipedia article on Welsh language especially the section "Counting system" and its note on the influence of Celtic in the French counting system. External links Look up :Category:French language in Wiktionary the free dictionary. Look up French in Wiktionary the free dictionary. 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 language Wikibooks has a book on the topic of French Fondation Alliance franaise Alliance franaise Paris Ile-de-France French is spreading especially in Africa Radio France Internationale in English (19 March 2010) Courses and tutorials French Language Course (oldest online language course) Learn French JeFrench Learn French BBC franais interactif University of Texas at Austin Tex's French Grammar University of Texas at Austin French Language Schools in France Directory Learn French at About (including French gestures) Learn French at Target Language (Ab initio) French language portal at WikiBabel Online dictionaries For unilingual dictionaries see fr:Dictionnaire. 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