French language facts for kids

Quick facts for kids French
français
Native to	France
Region	Francophonie (French-speaking world) (geographical distribution below)
Native speakers	300 million speakers  (2019) An estimated 300 million French speakers (L1 plus L2; 2019)
Language family	Indo-European Italic Romance Western Romance Gallo-Romance Oïl French
Early forms:	Old French Middle French French
Dialects	Tourangeau
Writing system	Latin (French alphabet) French Braille
Official status
Official language in	43 countries  Botswana  Belgium  Benin  Burkina Faso  Burundi  Cameroon  Canada  Central African Republic  Chad  Comoros  Congo  Democratic Republic of the Congo  Djibouti  Equatorial Guinea  Eswatini  France  The Gambia  Ghana  Gabon  Guinea  Haiti  Kenya  Ivory Coast  Luxembourg  Lesotho  Liberia  Malawi  Madagascar  Mali  Monaco  Niger  Nigeria  Namibia  Rwanda  Senegal  Seychelles  Sierra Leone  Switzerland  Tanzania  Togo  Uganda  Vanuatu  Zambia  Zimbabwe Administrative/cultural  Algeria  Cambodia  Laos  Lebanon  Mauritania  Mauritius  Morocco  Tunisia  Vietnam 15 dependent entities  Aosta Valley (Italy)  French Guiana  French Polynesia  Guadeloupe  Jersey  Louisiana (United States)  Maine (United States)  Mauritius  Martinique  Mayotte  New Caledonia  Réunion  Saint Barthélemy  Saint Martin  Saint Pierre and Miquelon  Wallis and Futuna Numerous international organisations
Regulated by	Académie française (French Academy) (France) Office québécois de la langue française (Quebec Board of the French Language) (Quebec)
Linguasphere	51-AAA-i
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
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French (French: français, pronounced "Fronce-eh") is a Romance language that was first spoken in France. It is also spoken in Belgium (Wallonia), Luxembourg, Quebec (Canada), Switzerland (Romandy) and many different countries in Africa (Francophone Africa). About 220 million people speak French as a native or a second language. It has also been one of the roots of other languages such as the Haitian Creole language. Like the other Romance languages, its nouns have genders that are divided into masculine (masculin) and feminine (féminin) words.

History

In ancient times, the Celts lived in what is now France. In those days, the land was called Gaul (Latin: Gallia). The Romans conquered Gallia and divided it into provinces. Because the Romans spoke Latin, the local people learned Latin and began to speak it. Their own language, Gaulish, tended to be spoken less often, although Breton is a language still spoken today in the part of France called Brittany, that came from the old Celtic language.

Francophone Africa

French pronunciation, more so than other Romance languages, became radically different from Latin. After the Roman Empire fell and Germanic peoples swarmed the countryside, Vulgar Latin was changing quickly. In medieval France it changed into two dialects or languages: langue d'oc and langue d'oïl. They both mean "language of yes", because oc was the word for "yes" in the south, and oïl meant "yes" in the north. Today, the word for yes in French is oui, pronounced like "we".

In 1635, France established the French Academy in order to standardize the French language. To this day, the academy establishes the rules for Standard French.

Langue d'oc is now called Occitan, and it is still spoken by many people in Southern France.

Letters

French uses the roman alphabet, like English. There are a few differences, because vowels can have three types of diacritics added on to them. These are the acute accent é; grave accent è and circumflex accent î. A cedilla can also be added onto a c to make ç.

Vowels

• a is pronounced like in "father".
• ai and ei are pronounced like the "ay" in "say"
• an and en are pronounced like the "on" in "wrong", though not if there are two n letters or an e directly after it.
• au and eau are pronounced like the "o" in "note".
• In the endings er and ez, e is pronounced like the "ay" in "say".
• eu is pronounced like the "e" in "verse".
• Otherwise, e is like the a in "about". However, it is silent if it comes on the end of a word, unless it's a short word.
• é is pronounced like the "ay" in "say".
• è and ê are pronounced like the "e" in "bed".
• Apart from e, the three diacritics don't really affect how other vowels are pronounced.
• i and y are pronounced like the "ee" in "tree".
• in is pronounced like the "an" in "bank", though not if there are two n letters or an e directly after it.
• o is pronounced like in "note".
• oi is pronounced like a "w", following by the "a" in "father".
• oin is pronounced like the "wan" in "twang".
• on is pronounced like the "on" in "long", though not if there are two n letters or an e directly after it.
• ou is pronounced like the "oo" in "food".
• œ is pronounced like the "e" in "verse" but with more rounded lips.
• u is not a sound that exists in English. It is pronounced like saying the "ee" in "feed", but with your lips rounded in the way that you would say the word "food".
• un is pronounced like the "un" in "hung", though not if there are two n letters or an e directly after it.

Consonants

• Like in English, c is pronounced as a "k" before most letters but as a soft "s" before e, i or y.
• ç is pronounced as a soft "s".
• ch, sh and sch are pronounced like the "sh" in "shop".
• g is pronounced as a hard "g" before most letters. Before e, i or y, it is pronounced like the "s" in "treasure".
• gn is pronounced like the "ny" in "canyon".
• h is always silent.
• j is pronounced like the "s" in "treasure".
• l is normally (but not always) pronounced like the "y" in "yes" if it comes after the letter i; otherwise it is pronounced as an "l".
• m and n change if they come after a vowel - see above.
• qu is pronounced as a "k".
• r is pronounced differently to English, being a gargling sound made at the back of your throat.
• th is pronounced as a "t", not like in English.
• x is pronounced "gz" or "ks".
• b, d, f, k, p, ph, s, t, v, w and z are pronounced the same as in English.

If a word ends with a consonant, this will usually not be pronounced unless the next word starts with a vowel. However, if the word is very short or the last consonant is a c, r, l or f, this is still pronounced.

Examples

Here are some examples of French words and sentences :

Many French words are like English words, because English took many words from the Norman language, a dialect of French influenced by Old Norse. This is despite the fact that scholars consider English to be a Germanic language like German. Words in different languages with the same meaning which are spelled similarly are called cognates. Most English words ending with "tion" and "sion" came from the French language. See below for more examples:

Related pages

• List of territorial entities where French is an official language
• Organisation internationale de la Francophonie

Images for kids

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  Distribution of native French speakers in 6 countries in 2021

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

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

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  A 500-CFP franc (€4.20; US$5.00) banknote, used in French Polynesia, New Caledonia and Wallis and Futuna

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  Varieties of the French language in the world

See also

In Spanish: Idioma francés para niños