French language

French
français
Pronunciation [fʁɑ̃sɛ]
Native to France, now worldwide
(See geographical distribution below)
Native speakers
 77 million in Europe  (2015)[1]
L2 speakers: 140 million (2015)[1]
Early forms
Latin (French alphabet)
French Braille
Signed French
(français signé)
Official status
Official language in




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
Glottolog stan1290[2]
Linguasphere 51-AAA-i

{{{mapalt}}}

  Regions where French is the main language
  Regions where it is an official language
  Regions where it is a second language
  Regions where it is a minority language

French (le français [lə fʁɑ̃sɛ] or la langue française [la lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛz]) is a Romance language, belonging to the Indo-European family. It descended from the spoken Latin language of the Roman Empire, as did languages such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian, Catalan and others. French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French (Francien) has largely supplanted. French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the (Germanic) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to France's past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, most notably Haitian Creole. A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone.

French is the second-most widespread language worldwide after English, being an official language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie, the community of French-speaking countries. It is spoken as a first language in France, southern Belgium, western Switzerland, Monaco, the provinces of Quebec, New Brunswick, and some parts of Manitoba and Ontario in Canada, parts of the U.S. states of Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, among educated classes in North and West Africa, Haiti, French Polynesia and by various communities elsewhere.

According to a survey of the European Commission, French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union.[3] It is also the third-most widely understood language in the EU.[4] As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa and Asia. Most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Mauritius, Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.[5] In 2007, French was estimated to have around 75 million native speakers;[6] and including native speakers, there are around 338 million people that are able to speak it. According to a demographic projection led by the Université Laval and the Réseau Démographie de l'Agence universitaire de la francophonie, total French speakers will number approximately 500 million people in 2025 and 650 million people by 2050.[7] In accordance with these forecasts, a report issued in 2014 by La Francophonie estimated that 274 million people speak French, either as a first or second language.[8][9]

French has a long history as an international language of commerce, diplomacy, literature, and scientific standards and is an official language of many international organisations including the United Nations, the European Union, NATO, the WTO and the ICRC. In 2011, French was deemed by Bloomberg Businessweek to be one of the top three most useful languages for business, after English and Chinese.[10]

Geographic distribution

Europe

Knowledge of French in the European Union and candidate countries[11]

Spoken by 12% of the EU population, French is the fourth most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union, after German, English and Italian; it is also the third most widely known language of the Union, after English and German (33% of the EU population report to know how to speak English, whilst 22% of Europeans understand German and 20% French).[3][12]

Under the Constitution of France, French has been the official language of the Republic since 1992[13] (although the ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts made it mandatory for legal documents in 1539). France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases (though these dispositions are often ignored) and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words.

In Belgium, French is the official language of Wallonia (excluding a part of 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 often as their primary language.[14]

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 have bilingual status for example, cities such Biel/Bienne or cantons such as Valais-Fribourg-Berne. French is the native language of about 20% of the Swiss population and is spoken by 50.4%[15] of the population.

Africa

  Countries usually considered part of Francophone Africa.
These countries had a population of 370 million in 2014.[16] Their population is projected to reach between 785 million[17] and 837 million[16] in 2050.
  Countries sometimes considered as Francophone Africa
  Countries that are not Francophone but are Members or Observers of the OIF
Main article: African French

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 countries can speak French as either a first or a second language.[5] This number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language.[5] Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050.[18] French is the fastest growing language on the continent (in terms of either official or foreign language).[19][20]

French is mostly a second language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire[21] and in Libreville, Gabon.[22] French is also becoming a first language in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.[23] 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, administration, radio, television and the Internet; for many Africans, it is the only language in which they know how to read and write fluently. The following thirteen countries use French exclusively to teach school: Bénin, Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo-Kinshasa), Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Guinée, Mali, Niger, Sénégal, Chad and Togo. The prevalence of the language is noticeable in popular music, in which French is often mixed with various indigenous languages. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages.[24] 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 Benin, for example, is closer to that spoken in France than to French spoken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is chiefly derived from Belgian French.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth.[25] It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years.[26][27] Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries,[28] but written forms of the language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world.

North and South America

The "arrêt" signs (French for "stop") are used in Canada 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 7 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 and Manitoba are the only officially bilingual provinces, though full bilingualism is enacted only in New Brunswick, where about one third of the population is Francophone. French is also an official language of all of the territories (Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon). Out of the three, Yukon has the most French speakers, comprising just under 4% of the population.[29] Furthermore, while French is not an official language in Ontario, the French Language Services Act ensures that provincial services are to be available in the language. The Act applies to areas of the province where there are significant Francophone communities, namely Eastern Ontario and Northern Ontario. Elsewhere, sizable French-speaking minorities are found in southern Manitoba, Nova Scotia, and the Port au Port Peninsula in Newfoundland and Labrador, where the unique Newfoundland French dialect was historically spoken. Smaller pockets of French speakers exist in all other provinces. The city of Ottawa, the Canadian capital, is also effectively bilingual, as it is on the other side of a river from Quebec, opposite the major city of Gatineau, and is required to offer governmental services in French as well as English.

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

According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2011), French is the fourth[30] most-spoken language in the United States after English, Spanish, and Chinese, when all forms of French are considered together and all dialects of Chinese are similarly combined. French remains the second most-spoken language in the states of Louisiana, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. Louisiana is home to many distinct dialects, collectively known as Louisiana French. Cajun French has the largest number of speakers, mostly living in Acadiana. According to the 2000 United States Census, there are over 194,000 people in Louisiana who speak French at home, the most of any state if Creole French is excluded.[31] New England French, essentially a variant of Canadian French, is spoken in parts of New England. Missouri French was historically spoken in Missouri and Illinois (formerly known as Upper Louisiana), but is nearly extinct today.[32]

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 70%–80% of the country's population have Haitian Creole as their first language; the rest speak French as a first language. The second official language is the recently standardized Haitian Creole, which virtually the entire population of Haiti speaks. 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 the creole from the Lesser Antilles.[33]

Asia

Southeast Asia

French was the official language of the colony of French Indochina, comprising modern-day Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. It continues to be an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent years.[34] In colonial Vietnam, the elites primarily spoke French, while many servants who worked in French households spoke a French pidgin known as "Tây Bồi" (now extinct). After French rule ended, South Vietnam continued to use French in administration, education, and trade.[35] Since the Fall of Saigon and the opening of a unified Vietnam's economy, French has gradually been effectively displaced as the main foreign language of choice by English. French nevertheless maintains its colonial legacy by being spoken as a second language by the elderly and elite populations and is presently being revived in higher education and continues to be a diplomatic language in Vietnam.

Middle East

Town sign in Standard Arabic and French at the entrance of Rechmaya in Lebanon.

A former French colony, Lebanon designates Arabic as the sole official language, while a special law regulates cases when French can be publicly used. French is widely used as a second language by the Lebanese, and is taught in many schools as a secondary language along with Arabic and English. The language is also used on bank notes, on road signs, and on official buildings (alongside Arabic). Similarly, Syria was also a French colony until 1943, but the French language is largely extinct in the country and is only limited to some members of the elite and middle classes. A significant French-speaking community is also present in Israel, primarily among the community of Maghrebi Jews, and many secondary schools offer French as a foreign language. The United Arab Emirates has joined the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie as an observer, and Qatar has joined as a "member-state". However, in both countries French is not spoken by almost any of the general population or migrant workers, but spoken by a small minority of those who invest in Francophone countries or have other financial or family ties. Their entrance into the organisation was aided a good deal by their investments into the Organisation and France itself.[36]

Oceania and Australasia

A 500-CFP franc (€4.20; US$5.65) banknote, used in French Polynesia, New Caledonia and Wallis and Futuna.

French is an official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu where 45% of the population can speak French.[37] In the French special collectivity of New Caledonia, 97% of the population can speak, read and write French, whereas only 1% have no knowledge of French.[38] In French Polynesia, 95% of the population can speak, read and write French, whereas only 2% have no knowledge of French.[39] In the French collectivity of Wallis and Futuna, 78% of the population can speak, read and write French, whereas 17% have no knowledge of French.[40]

Dialects

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 by the Belgae.

French replaced Latin as the most important language of diplomacy and international relations in the 17th century. It retained this role until approximately the middle of the 20th century, when it was replaced by English as the United States became the dominant global power following the Second World War.[41][42] Stanley Meisler of the Los Angeles Times said that the fact that the Treaty of Versailles was also written in English as well as French was the "first diplomatic blow" against the language.[43]

Current status and economic, cultural and institutional importance

French remains one of the most important diplomatic languages,[22] with the language being one of the working languages of NATO, the International Olympic Committee, the UN Secretariat, the Council of Europe, the International Court of Justice, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Organization of American States, European Commission, the Eurovision Song Contest the European Space Agency, World Trade Organisation and the North American Free Trade Agreement. It is also a working language in nonprofit organisations such as the Red Cross, Amnesty International, Médecins sans Frontières, or Médecins du Monde.[44] Given the demographic prospects of the French-speaking nations of Africa, Forbes released in 2014 an article which claimed that French "could be the language of the future".[45]

In 1997, George Werber published in Language Today a comprehensive academic study entitled "The World's 10 most influential languages".[46] In his article, Werber ranked French as being the second – after English – most influential language of the world, ahead of Spanish.[46] His criteria were not solely the numbers of native speakers, but also included the number of secondary speakers (which tends to be specially high for French among fellow world languages); the economic power of the countries using the language; the number of major areas in which the language is used; the number of countries using the language, and their respective population; and the linguistic prestige associated with the mastery of the language (Werber highlighted in particular that French benefits from a considerable linguistic prestige).[46] In 2008, Werber reassessed his article, and concluded that his findings were still correct since "the situation among the top ten remains unchanged."[47]

Knowledge of French is widely considered to be a crucial skill for business owners in the United Kingdom; a 2014 study found that half of British managers considered French to be a valuable asset for their business, thus ranking French as the most-sought after foreign language there, ahead of German (49%) and Spanish (44%).[48]

Phonology

Main article: French phonology

Although there are many French regional accents, foreign learners normally use only one variety of the language.

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:

Writing system

Alphabet

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

There are two ligatures, "œ" and "æ".

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:

As a result, it can be difficult to predict the spelling of a word based on the sound. Final consonants are generally silent, except when the following word begins with a vowel (see Liaison (French)). For example, the following words end in a vowel sound: pied, aller, les, finit, beaux. The same words followed by a vowel, however, may sound the consonants, as they do in these examples: beaux-arts, les amis, pied-à-terre.

On the other hand, a given spelling usually leads to a predictable sound. 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 copyists (monks) by the letter x, resulting in a written form animax. As the French language further evolved, the pronunciation of au turned into /o/ so that the u was reestablished in orthography for consistency, resulting in modern French animaux (pronounced first /animos/ before the final /s/ was dropped in contemporary French). The same is true for cheval pluralized as chevaux and many others. In addition, castel pl. castels became château pl. châteaux

Some proposals exist to simplify the existing writing system, but they still fail to gather interest.[49][50][51][52]

Grammar

Main article: French grammar

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

French declarative word order is subject–verb–object although a pronoun object precedes the verb. Some types of sentences allow for or require different word orders, in particular inversion of the subject and verb like "Parlez-vous français?" when asking a question rather than just "Vous parlez français?" Both questions mean the same thing; however, a rising inflection is always used on both of them whenever asking a question, especially on the second one. Specifically, the first translates into "Do you speak French?" while the second one is literally just "You speak French?" To avoid inversion while asking a question, 'Est-ce que' (literally 'is it that') may be placed in the beginning of the sentence. "Parlez-vous français?" may become "Est-ce que vous parlez français?"

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:

However a historical tendency to gallicise Latin roots can be identified, whereas English conversely leans towards a more direct incorporation of the Latin:

There are also noun-noun and adjective-adjective pairs:

It can be difficult to identify the Latin source of native French words, because in the evolution from Vulgar Latin, unstressed syllables were severely reduced and the remaining vowels and consonants underwent significant modifications.

More recently the linguistic policy of the French language academies of France and Quebec has been to provide French equivalents[53] to (mainly English) imported words, either by using existing vocabulary, extending its meaning or deriving a new word according to French morphological rules. The result is often two (or more) co-existing terms for describing the same phenomenon, with varying rates of success for the French equivalent.

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 learned 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 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.[54]

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.[55]

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.[56] 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 space to separate thousands[57] 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.

Units

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

After Twenty, numbers use base ten logic (vingt et un, vingt-deux, vingt-trois...)

Tens

Cardinal numbers in French, by tens from 10 to 100, are as follow:

After One hundred, numbers use base ten logic (cent dix, cent vingt, cent trente...)

Hundreds

Cardinal numbers in French, by hundreds from 100 to 2000, are as follow:

After deux mille (2000), only the second option is used (deux mille cent, deux mille deux cents, deux mille trois cents...)

The words vingt and cent take the plural -s only when they are the last word of the number: quatre-vingts (eighty) and quatre-vingt-un (eighty-one), cinq cents (five hundreds) and cinq cent trente (five hundreds and thirty). When a number using vingt or cent is used as an ordinal numeral adjective, the words vingt or cent stay unchanged[62]

Scales[lower-alpha 8]

Cardinal numbers in French, by exponentiation points, from 100 to 1020, are as follow:

Notes

  1. ↑ It has been suggested that Nine and New homophonographs are related and that it would be an unusual preservation of the octal number system speculated to be formerly used in proto-Indo-European language, though the evidence supporting this is slim.[58]
  2. ↑ Septante is used in Belgium and in Switzerland. Its use is dated in Eastern France and archaic elsewhere in France.
  3. ↑ Huitante is used in Vaud, Valais, Fribourg, archaic in France.
  4. ↑ Octante is used, but dated, in Romandie and in Southern France. Its use is archaic in other parts of France.
  5. ↑ Nonante is used in Belgium, Switzerland and, dated, in Eastern France, archaic in other parts of France.
  6. ↑ Formerly singular of the now invariable mille, mil is now only used in formal documents to write dates between mil un (1001) and mil neuf cent quatre-vingt-dix-neuf (1999).[59]
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 While both styles are correct and concurrently used, numbers above mille and under deux mille are usually counted by hundreds from onze cents up to seize cent quatre-vingt-dix-neuf and are then indifferently counted both styles[60] in informal language while the count by adding hundreds to one thousand, like in mille cent, mille six cents, is favoured in written language, especially in juridical, administrative and scientific works.[61]
  8. ↑ Nota Bene that English use the short scale while French use the long scale.

Words

English French Quebec accent Touraine accent
French Français (people) or français (language)  [fʁ̥ãsɛ]  [fʁ̥ɒ̃sɛ]
English Anglais (people) or anglais (language)  [ãɡlɛ]  [ɒ̃ɡlɛ]
Yes Oui (si when countering an assertion or a question expressed in the negative)  [wi]  [wi]
No Non  [nɔ̃]  [nõ]
Hello! Bonjour ! (formal) or Salut ! (informal) or "Allô" (Quebec French or when answering on the telephone) [bõʒuːʁ]  [bõʒuʁ]
Good evening! Bonsoir ! [bõswɑːʁ]  [bõswaʁ]
Good night! Bonne nuit ! [bɔn nɥi]  [bʌn nɥi]
Goodbye! Au revoir !  [ɔʁvwɑːʁ]  [oʁ(ø)vwaʁ]
Have a nice day! Bonne journée !  [bɔn ʒuʁne]  [bʌn ʒuʁne]
Please/if you please S’il vous plaît (formal) or S’il te plaît (informal)  [sɪl vu plɛ]  [sil vu plɛ]
Thank you Merci [mɛʁsi]  [mɛʁ̥si]
You are welcome De rien (informal) or Ce n’est rien (informal) ("it is nothing") or Je vous en prie (formal) or Je t’en prie (informal) or Bienvenue (Quebec) [də ʁjẽ]  [dœ ʁjæ̃]
I am sorry Pardon or Désolé or Je suis désolé (if male) / Je suis désolée (if female) or Excuse-moi (informal) / Excusez-moi (formal) / "Je regrette"  [paʁdɒ̃] /  [dezɔle]  [paʁdõ] /  [dezɔle]
Who? Qui ?  [ki]  [ki]
What? Quoi ? (←informal; used as "What?" in English) or Pardon ? (←formal; used the same as "Pardon ?" in English) [kwa]  [kwa]
When? Quand ?  [kæ̃]  [kɒ̃]
Where? Où ? [u]  [u]
Why? Pourquoi ?  [puʁ̥kwa]  [puʁ̥kwa]
What is your name? Comment vous appelez-vous ? (formal) or Comment t’appelles-tu ? (informal) [kɔmã vu z‿aple vu], [kɔmã t‿apɛl t͡sy]  [kɔmɒ̃ vu z‿aple vu],  [kɔmɒ̃ t‿apɛl t͡sy]
My name is... Je m'appelle...  [ʒø mapɛl]
Which Quel/Quels(pl.)/Quelle(fem.) [kɛl] [kɛl]
Because Parce que / Car  [paʁ̥skœ]  [paʁ̥s(ø)kø]
Because of À cause de [a kou̯z dœ]  [a koz dø]
Therefore Donc [dõːk]  [dõk]
Maybe Peut-être  [pœt‿aɪ̯tʀ̥]  [pøt‿ɛtʁ̥]
How? Comment ? [kɔmã]  [kɔmɒ̃]
How much? Combien ? [kõbjẽ]  [kõbjæ̃]
I do not understand. Je ne comprends pas.  [ʒœ nœ kõpʁ̥ã pɔ]  [ʒø nø kõpʁ̥ɒ̃ 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 ʒœ kõpʁ̥ã]  [wi ʒø kõpʁ̥ɒ̃]
I agree Je suis d’accord. "D’accord" can be used without je suis. [ʒə sɥi dakɑɔ̯ʁ] [ʒø sɥi dakɔʁ]
Help! Au secours ! (à l’aide !)  [o skuːʁ]  [o søkuːʁ]
At what time...? À quelle heure...? [a kɛl aœ̯ʁ] [a kɛl œʁ]
Today Aujourd'hui [oʒuʁd͡zɥi] [oʒuʁdɥi]
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) [puve vu mɛːde sɪl vu plɛ] [puve vu mede sil vu plɛ]
Where are the toilets? Où sont les toilettes ? [u sõ le twalɛt]  [u sõ le twalɛt]
Do you speak English? Parlez-vous (l')anglais ? / Est-ce que vous parlez (l')anglais ?  [ɛs kœ vu paʁle lãɡlɛ]  [paʁle vu ɒ̃ɡlɛ]
I do not speak French. Je ne parle pas français. [ʒœ nœ paʁl pɔ fʁãsɛ] [ʒø nø paʁl pa fʁɒ̃sɛ]
I do not know. Je sais pas. (syntax mistake[63] and over-familiar[64])
Je ne sais pas.
Je ne sais. (formal, rare)		  [ʒœ se pɔ]
[ʒœ n(œ) se pɔ]
[ʒœ n(œ) se] 		[ʒø sɛ pa]
[ʒø n(ø) sɛ pa]
[ʒø n(ø) sɛ]
I know. Je sais. [ʒœ se] [ʒø sɛ]
I am thirsty. J’ai soif. (literally, "I have thirst") [ʒe swaf] [ʒe swaf]
I am hungry. J’ai faim. (literally, "I have hunger") [ʒe fẽ] [ʒɛ fæ̃]
How are you? / How are things going? / How is everything? Comment allez-vous ? (formal) or Ça va ? / Comment ça va ? (informal) [kɔmã t‿ale vu] [kɔmɒ̃ t‿ale vu]
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) [ʒœ vɛ (tʁɛ) bjẽ] [ʒø vɛ (tʁɛ) bjæ̃]
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) [ʒœ vɛ (tʁɛ) mal] [ʒø vɛ (tʁɛ) mal]
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. ») [ase bjẽ] [ase bjæ̃]
I am fine. Ça va bien. [sa vɔ bjẽ] [sa va bjæ̃]
(How) may I help you? / Do you need help? / We need help! (Comment) puis-je vous aider ? Avez-vous besoin d'aide ? Nous avons besoin d'aide ! [(kɔmã) pɥiʒ vu z‿ɛːde] [(kɔmɑ̃) pɥiʒ vu z‿ede]

See also

Notes and references

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "The status of French in the world". Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  2. ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Standard French". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 European Commission (June 2012), "Europeans and their Languages" (PDF), Special Eurobarometer 386 (Europa): 5, retrieved 7 September 2014
  4. ↑ Frequently Asked Questions – European Commission
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 (French) La Francophonie dans le monde 2006–2007 published by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Nathan, Paris, 2007.
  6. ↑ Nationalencyklopedin "Världens 100 största språk 2007" The World's 100 Largest Languages in 2007
  7. ↑ "Agora: La francophonie de demain". Retrieved 13 June 2011.
  8. ↑ Rise in French speakers since 2010 a boost for France: report, Reuters, November 5th, 2014
  9. ↑ The French language worldwide, 2014 report by La Francophonie released on the 5th of November, 2014
  10. ↑ Mandarin Chinese Most Useful Business Language After English John Lauerman, Aug 30, 2011, Bloomberg News
  11. ↑ EUROPA, data for EU25, published before 2007 enlargement.
  12. ↑ http://languageknowledge.eu/countries/eu27
  13. ↑ (French) Loi constitutionnelle 1992 – C'est à la loi constitutionnelle du 25 juin 1992, rédigée dans le cadre de l'intégration européenne, que l'on doit la première déclaration de principe sur le français, langue de la République.
  14. ↑ 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) March–April 2006: Article from original source (pdf 4.9 MB) pages 34–36 republished by the Belgian Federal Government Service (ministry) of Economy – Directorate–general Statistics Belgium. Retrieved 5 May 2007. – The linguistic situation in Belgium (and in particular various estimations of the population speaking French and Dutch in Brussels) is discussed in detail.
  15. ↑ Le français et les langues ... – Google Books. Books.google.com. 1 January 2007. ISBN 978-2-87747-881-6. Retrieved 10 September 2010.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Population Reference Bureau. "2014 World Population Data Sheet" (PDF). Retrieved 2014-08-12.
  17. ↑ United Nations. "World Population Prospects: The 2012 Revision" (XLS). Retrieved 2013-09-12.
  18. ↑ "French language growing, especially in Africa – Francophonie – RFI". Retrieved 2013-05-25.
  19. ↑ "Agora: La francophonie de demain". Retrieved 2011-06-13.
  20. ↑ "Bulletin de liaison du réseau démographie" (PDF). Retrieved 2011-06-14.
  21. ↑ (French) Le français à Abidjan : Pour une approche syntaxique du non-standard by Katja Ploog, CNRS Editions, Paris, 2002.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 "L’aménagement linguistique dans le monde". CEFAN (Chaire pour le développement de la recherche sur la culture d’expression française en Amérique du Nord, Université Laval (in French). Jacques Leclerc. Retrieved May 19, 2013.
  23. ↑ fr:Burkina Faso#Le français langue officielle et administrative
  24. ↑ (French) "En Afrique, il est impossible de parler d'une forme unique du français mais..."
  25. ↑ France-Diplomatie "Furthermore, the demographic growth of Southern hemisphere countries leads us to anticipate a new increase in the overall number of French speakers."
  26. ↑ (French) "Le français, langue en évolution. Dans beaucoup de pays francophones, surtout sur le continent africain, une proportion importante de la population ne parle pas couramment le français (même s'il est souvent la langue officielle du pays). Ce qui signifie qu'au fur et à mesure que les nouvelles générations vont à l'école, le nombre de francophones augmente : on estime qu'en 2015, ceux-ci seront deux fois plus nombreux qu'aujourd'hui."
  27. ↑ (French) c) Le sabir franco-africain: "C'est la variété du français la plus fluctuante. Le sabir franco-africain est instable et hétérogène sous toutes ses formes. Il existe des énoncés où les mots sont français mais leur ordre reste celui de la langue africaine. En somme, autant les langues africaines sont envahies par les structures et les mots français, autant la langue française se métamorphose en Afrique, donnant naissance à plusieurs variétés."
  28. ↑ (French) République centrafricaine: Il existe une autre variété de français, beaucoup plus répandue et plus permissive : le français local. C'est un français très influencé par les langues centrafricaines, surtout par le sango. Cette variété est parlée par les classes non instruites, qui n'ont pu terminer leur scolarité. Ils utilisent ce qu'ils connaissent du français avec des emprunts massifs aux langues locales. Cette variété peut causer des problèmes de compréhension avec les francophones des autres pays, car les interférences linguistiques, d'ordre lexical et sémantique, sont très importantes. (One example of a variety of African French that is difficult to understand for European French speakers).
  29. ↑ "Detailed Mother Tongue (186), Knowledge of Official Languages (5), Age Groups (17A) and Sex (3) (2006 Census)". 2.statcan.ca. December 7, 2010. Retrieved February 22, 2011.
  30. ↑ Language Use in the United States: 2011, American Community Survey Reports, Camille Ryan, Issued August 2013
  31. ↑ U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 Summary File 3 – Language Spoken at Home: 2000.
  32. ↑ Ammon, Ulrich; International Sociological Association (1989). Status and Function of Languages and Language Varieties. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 306–308. ISBN 0-89925-356-3. Retrieved 14 November 2011.
  33. ↑ Ministère de l'Éducation nationale
  34. ↑ 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."
  35. ↑
  36. ↑
  37. ↑ Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. "Estimation du nombre de francophones dans le monde1" (PDF). Retrieved 3 October 2009.
  38. ↑ INSEE, Government of France. "P9-1 – Population de 14 ans et plus selon la connaissance du français, le sexe, par commune, "zone" et par province de résidence" (XLS) (in French). Retrieved 3 October 2009.
  39. ↑ Institut Statistique de Polynésie Française (ISPF). "Recensement 2007 – Langues : Chiffres clés" (in French). Retrieved 3 October 2009.
  40. ↑ INSEE, Government of France. "Tableau Pop_06_1 : Population selon le sexe, la connaissance du français et l'âge décennal" (XLS) (in French). Retrieved 3 October 2009.
  41. ↑ The World's 10 Most Influential Languages Top Languages. Retrieved 11 April 2011.
  42. ↑ The French language today: a linguistic introductionGoogle Books Retrieved 27 June 2011
  43. ↑ Meisler, Stanley. "Seduction Still Works : French—a Language in Decline." Los Angeles Times. March 1, 1986. p. 2. Retrieved on May 18, 2013.
  44. ↑ French, an international language – French Ministry of Foreign Affairs
  45. ↑ Want To Know The Language Of The Future? The Data Suggests It Could Be...French, Forbes, March, 21st of 2014
  46. ↑ 46.0 46.1 46.2 The World's 10 most influential languages, George Werber, 1997, Language Today, retrieved on scribd.com
  47. ↑ http://www.scribd.com/doc/48897416/Top-Languages-The-World-s-10-Most-Influential-Languages-by-George-Weber-1997
  48. ↑ Foreign languages 'shortfall' for business, CBI says, Judith Burns, BBC News, 22 June 2014
  49. ↑ (French) Fonétik.fr writing system proposal.
  50. ↑ (French) Ortofasil writing system proposal.
  51. ↑ (French) Alfograf writing system proposal.
  52. ↑ (French) Ortograf.net writing system proposal.
  53. ↑ http://metro.co.uk/2012/10/01/french-fight-franglais-with-alternatives-for-english-technology-terms-590128/
  54. ↑ Walter & Walter 1998.
  55. ↑ Einhorn, E. (1974). Old French: A Concise Handbook. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. p. 110. ISBN 0-521-09838-6.
  56. ↑ "Septante, octante (huitante), nonante". langue-fr.net (in French).. 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.
  57. ↑ "Nombres (écriture, lecture, accord)". Questions de langue (in French). Académie française. Retrieved 31 May 2014. Dans un souci de lisibilité, on sépare les milliers par une espace insécable dans les nombres exprimant une quantité : 1 000 m, 342 234 euros, 1 234 °C, etc. ↲ En revanche, dans les nombres ayant fonction de numérotage (pages, dates, articles de code), les chiffres ne sont jamais séparés : la page 1254 de l’édition de 1992 ; l’article 1246 du Code civil. ↲ La virgule (et non le point comme chez les anglo-saxons) sépare la partie entière de la partie décimale : π vaut environ 3,14 ; 14,5 est la moitié de 29.
  58. ↑ Winter, Werner (1991). "Some thoughts about Indo-European numerals". In Gvozdanović, Jadranka. Indo-European numerals. Trends in Linguistics 57. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 13–14. ISBN 3-11-011322-8. Retrieved 2013-06-09.
  59. ↑ "" An deux mil " ou " an deux mille " ?". Questions de langue. Académie française. Retrieved 30 May 2014. L’Académie n’admet (et ne privilégie) la variante mil de mille, dans les dates, que lorsque le numéral au singulier est suivi d’un ou plusieurs autres nombres.
  60. ↑ Lexique des règles typographiques en usage à l'imprimerie nationale (in French) (6th ed.). Paris: Imprimerie nationale. March 2011. p. 41. ISBN 978-2-7433-0482-9. Au-delà de mille, on compte habituellement : ↲ onze, douze, treize, quatorze, quinze, seize cents ↲ plutôt que : ↲ mille cent, mille deux cents, mille trois cents... ↲ mais on emploiera indifféremment : ↲ dix-sept cents ou mille sept cents...
  61. ↑ "Nombres (écriture, lecture, accord)". Questions de langue (in French). Académie française. Retrieved 31 May 2014. Pour les dates (et les nombres en général) entre 1000 et 2000, il y a concurrence entre deux lectures : mille six cent trente-cinq ou seize cent trente-cinq. ↲ Aucune de ces formes ne peut être considérée comme fautive. Cependant, dans l’usage courant, on dit plutôt onze cents, douze cents, etc. : onze cents francs, seize cents euros, tandis que dans la langue écrite, et notamment dans un texte juridique, administratif ou scientifique, on préférera les formes : mille cent, mille deux cents, etc.
  62. ↑ "Nombres (écriture, lecture, accord)". Questions de langue (in French). Académie française. Retrieved 31 May 2014. Vingt et cent se terminent par un s quand ils sont précédés d'un nombre qui les multiplie mais ils restent invariable s'ils sont suivis d'un autre nombre ou de mille. On dira ainsi euros mais deux cent vingt euros ; quatre-vingts hommes mais quatre-vingt-deux hommes. Ils restent également invariables lorsqu’ils sont employés comme adjectifs numéraux ordinaux : page deux cent ; page quatre-vingt ; l’an mille neuf cent. En revanche, vingt et cent varient devant millier, million, milliard, qui sont des noms et non des adjectifs numéraux : deux cents millions d’années ; trois cents milliers d’habitants.
  63. ↑ "Ne". Dire, Ne pas dire. Académie française. 3 November 2011. Retrieved 30 May 2014. On négligée trop souvent de faire entendre l’adverbe ne, en faisant de pas l’unique marque de négation : Je veux pas, je sais pas. Cette habitude, répandue dans le langage parlé, est une véritable faute.
  64. ↑ "Pas". Trésor de la langue française informatisé. Analyse et traitement informatique de la langue française. Retrieved 30 May 2014. − Pop. ou très fam. [Avec suppression de ne]

Further reading

External links

For a list of words relating to French language, see the French language category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
French edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
French edition of Wikisource, the free library

Organizations

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Online dictionaries

For other unilingual dictionaries, see fr:Dictionnaire.

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