French (''français'', ) is a
Romance language originally spoken in
France,
Belgium,
Luxembourg, and
Switzerland, and today by about 300 million people around the world as either a
native or a
second language,
[Les francophones dans le monde (Francophones worldwide) — Provides details from a report, (Rapport 1997–1998 du Haut Conseil de la Francophonie, "Etat de la francophonie dans le monde", La Documentation française, 1999, pp.612) which provides the following numbers: 112,666,000 with French as a first, second, or "adopted" language; 60,612,000 "occasional Francophones" for whom usage and mastery of French are limited only by circumstances or by expressive capability; 100–110 million "francizers", who have learned French for several years and have maintained limited mastery, or who have simply been required to learn enough to perform their job.] with significant populations in 54 countries.
French is a descendant of the
Latin of the
Roman Empire, as are languages such as
Spanish,
Italian,
Catalan,
Romanian, and
Portuguese. Its development was also influenced by the native
Celtic languages of Roman
Gaul and by the
Germanic language of the post-Roman
Frankish invaders.
It is an
official language in
29 countries, most of which form what is called in French ''La
Francophonie'', the community of French-speaking nations. It is an official language of all
United Nations agencies and a
large number of international organisations.
Geographic distribution
Europe
Legal status in France
Per the
Constitution of France, French has been the official language since 1992
[Loi constitutionnelle 1992 — ] (although previous legal text have made it official since 1539, see
ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts).
France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public
education outside of 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. France has signed the European Charter for Regional Languages but has not ratified it since that would go against the 1958 Constitution.
Switzerland
French is one of the four official languages of
Switzerland (along with
German,
Italian, and
Romansh), and is spoken in the part of Switzerland called ''
Romandie''. French is the native language of about 20% of all Swiss.
Belgium
In
Belgium, French is the official language of the
Walloon Region (excluding the
East Cantons, which are
German-speaking) and one of the two official languages—along with Dutch—of the
Brussels-Capital Region where it is spoken by the majority of the population, be it often not as primary language.
{{cite journal
|title=Belgium's new linguistic challenges
|author=Van Parijs, Philippe, Professor of economic and social ethics at the UCLouvain, Visiting Professor at Harvard University and the KULeuven
|journal=KVS Express (supplement to newspaper De Morgen) March–April 2007
|pages=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
|url=http://www.statbel.fgov.be/studies/ac699_en.pdf
|format=pdf 0.7 MB
|accessdate=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 and German are not official languages nor recognised minority languages in the
Flemish Region, although along borders with the Walloon and Brussels-Capital regions, there are a dozen of
municipalities with language facilities for French-speakers; a mirroring 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, the remaining 60% speak Dutch, the latter of which 59% claim to speak French as a second language.
[{{cite journal]
|coauthors=Victor Ginsburgh, Shlomo Weber
|title=La dynamique des langues en Belgique
|journal=Regards économiques, Publication préparée par les économistes de l'Université Catholique de Louvain
|month=June
|year=2006
|issue=Numéro 42
|quote={{lang|fr|Les enquêtes montrent que la Flandre est bien plus multilingue, ce qui est sans doute un fait bien connu, mais la différence est
considérable : alors que 59 % et 53 % des Flamands connaissent le français ou l'anglais respectivement, seulement 19 % et 17 % des Wallons connaissent le néerlandais ou l'anglais. … 95 pour cent des Bruxellois déclarent parler le français, alors que ce pourcentage
tombe à 59 pour cent pour le néerlandais. Quant à l’anglais, il est connu par une proportion importante de la population à Bruxelles (41 pour cent)}}
|url=http://regards.ires.ucl.ac.be/Archives/RE042.pdf
|format=pdf
|accessmonthday=7 May
|accessyear=2007}} French is thus known by an estimated 75% of all Belgians, either as a mother tongue, as second, or as third language
[40%+60%59%=75.4%].
Monaco and Andorra
Although
Monégasque is the national language of the
Principality of Monaco, French is the only official language, and French nationals make up some 47% of the population.
Catalan is the only official language of
Andorra, French is however commonly used due to the proximity to France. French nationals make up 7% of the population.
Italy
French is also an official language, along with
Italian, in the province of
Aosta Valley,
Italy. In addition, a number of
Franco-Provençal dialects are spoken in the province, although they do not have official recognition.
The Channel Islands
Although
Jersey and
Guernsey, the two bailiwicks collectively referred to as the
Channel Islands, are separate entities, both use French to some degree, mostly in an administrative capacity.
Jersey Legal French is the standardized variety used in Jersey.
The Americas
Legal status in Canada
About 7 million
Canadians are native French-speakers, of whom 6 million live in
Quebec http://www40.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/demo11b.htm, and French is one of
Canada's two official languages (the other being
English). Various provisions of the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms deal with Canadians' right to access services in both languages, including the right to a publicly funded education in the minority language of each province, where numbers warrant in a given locality. By
law, the federal government must operate and provide services in both English and French, proceedings of the
Parliament of Canada must be translated into both these languages, and most products sold in Canada must have bilingual labels.
Overall, about 13% of Canadians have knowledge of French only, while 18% have knowledge of both English and French. In contrast, over 80% of the population of Quebec speaks French natively, and 95% can speak it. It has been the sole official language of Quebec since 1974. The legal status of French was further strengthened with the 1977 adoption of the
Charter of the French Language (popularly known as ''Bill 101''), which guarantees that every person has a right to have the civil administration, the health and social services, corporations, and enterprises in Quebec communicate with him in French. While the Charter mandates that certain provincial government services, such as those relating to health and education, be offered to the English minority in its language, where numbers warrant, its primary purpose is to cement the role of French as the primary language used in the public sphere.
The provision of the Charter that has arguably had the most significant impact mandates French-language
education unless a child's parents or siblings have received the majority of their own primary education in English within Canada, with minor exceptions. This measure has reversed a historical trend whereby a large number of immigrant children would attend English schools. In so doing, the Charter has greatly contributed to the "visage français" (French face) of Montreal in spite of its growing immigrant population. Other provisions of the Charter have been ruled unconstitutional over the years, including those mandating French-only commercial signs, court proceedings, and debates in the legislature. Though none of these provisions are still in effect today, some continued to be on the books for a time even after courts had ruled them unconstitutional as a result of the government's decision to invoke the so-called
notwithstanding clause of the Canadian constitution to override constitutional requirements. In 1993, the Charter was rewritten to allow signage in other languages so long as French was markedly "predominant." Another section of the Charter guarantees every person the right to work in French, meaning the right to have all communications with one's superiors and coworkers in French, as well as the right not to be required to know another language as a condition of hiring, unless this is warranted by the nature of one's duties, such as by reason of extensive interaction with people located outside the province or similar reasons. This section has not been as effective as had originally been hoped, and has faded somewhat from public consciousness. As of 2006, approximately 65% of the workforce on the island of Montreal predominantly used French in the workplace.
The only other province that recognizes French as an official language is
New Brunswick, which is officially bilingual, like the nation as a whole. Outside of
Quebec, the highest number of Francophones in Canada, 485,000, excluding those who claim multiple mother tongues, reside in
Ontario, whereas
New Brunswick, home to the vast majority of
Acadians, has the highest ''percentage'' of Francophones after
Quebec, 33%, or 237,000. In
Ontario,
Nova Scotia,
Prince Edward Island, and
Manitoba, French does not have full official status, although the provincial governments do provide some French-language services in all communities where significant numbers of Francophones live. Canada's three northern territories (
Yukon,
Northwest Territories, and
Nunavut) all recognize French as an official language as well.
All provinces make some effort to accommodate the needs of their Francophone
citizens, although the level and quality of French-language service vary significantly from province to province. The Ontario
French Language Services Act, adopted in 1986, guarantees French language services in that province in regions where the Francophone population exceeds 10% of the total population, as well as communities with Francophone populations exceeding 5,000, and certain other designated areas; this has the most effect in the north and east of the province, as well as in other larger centres such as
Ottawa,
Toronto,
Hamilton,
Mississauga,
London,
Kitchener,
St. Catharines,
Greater Sudbury and
Windsor. However, the French Language Services Act does not confer the status of "official bilingualism" on these cities, as that designation carries with it implications which go beyond the provision of services in both languages. The City of Ottawa's language policy (by-law 2001-170) has two criteria which would allow employees to work in their official language of choice and be supervised in the language of choice; this policy is being challenged by an organization called
Canadians for Language Fairness.
Canada has the status of member state in the Francophonie, while the provinces of Québec and New Brunswick are recognized as participating governments. Ontario is currently seeking to become a full member on its own.
Africa
| format=PDF|accessdate=2007-08-16}} Their population is projected to reach 733 million in 2050.
}}
]]
A majority of the world's population of Francophones 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 either as a
first or
second language.
[''La Francophonie dans le monde 2006–2007'' published by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Nathan, Paris, 2007]
French is mostly a second language in Africa, but in some areas it has become a first language, such as in the region of
Abidjan,
Côte d'Ivoire[''Le français à Abidjan : Pour une approche syntaxique du non-standard'' by Katja Ploog, CNRS Editions, Paris, 2002] and in
Libreville,
Gabon[De plus, le français est également devenu la langue maternelle de plus de 30 % des Librevillois et il est de plus en plus perçu comme une langue gabonaise. ]. It is impossible to speak of a single form of
African French, but rather of diverse forms of African French which have developed due to the contact with many indigenous
African languages.
[En Afrique, il est impossible de parler d'une forme unique du français mais... ]
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. The French language has also met competition with English since English has been the official language in
Mauritius and the
Seychelles for a long time and has recently become an official language of Madagascar.
Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand due to the expansion of education and it is also there the language has evolved most in recent years
[http://www.cecif.com/?page=la_francophonie "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."[c) Le sabir franco-africain : ]. Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries
[République centrafricaine : (''One example of a variety of African French that is difficult to understand for European French speakers'').] 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 of many African countries, most of them former French or Belgian colonies:
Benin
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cameroon
Central African Republic
Chad
Comoros
Congo (Brazzaville)
Côte 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,
Mauritania,
Algeria,
Morocco and
Tunisia.
Various reforms have been implemented in recent decades in Algeria to improve the status of
Arabic relative to French, especially in education.
While the predominant European language in
Egypt is
English, French is considered to be a more sophisticated language by some elements of the Egyptian upper and upper-middle classes; for this reason, a typical educated Egyptian will learn French in addition to English at some point in his or her education. The perception of sophistication may be related to the use of French as the
royal court language of Egypt during the 19th century. Egypt participates in
La Francophonie.
French is also the official language of
Mayotte and
Réunion, two
overseas territories of France located in the
Indian Ocean, as well as an administrative and educational language in
Mauritius, along with
English.
Asia
In Asia, French is an official language in
Lebanon. It is an administrative language in
Laos,
Cambodia[French Declines in Indochina, as English Booms , ''International Herald Tribune'', October 16 1993: "In both Cambodia and Laos, French remains the official second language of government."] ,
India (
Mahé,
Karikal and
Yanam) and
Syria. French has official status in
Union Territory of
Pondicherry, along with the regional language
Tamil. French was historically spoken by the elite in the leased territory
Guangzhouwan in southern
China. In colonial Vietnam, the elites spoke French and many who worked for the French spoke a French creole known as "
Tay Boi" (now extinct). French is also spoken by many immigrants of French or Maghrebin origin and their descendants in
Israel.
History
Sounds
Although there are many French regional accents, only one version of the language is normally chosen as a model for foreign learners, which has no commonly used special name, but has been termed ''
français neutre'' (neutral French).
Voiced stops (i.e. ) are typically produced fully voiced throughout.
Voiceless stops (i.e. ) are described as unaspirated; when preceding high vowels, they are often followed by a short period of aspiration and/or frication. They are never glottalised. They can be unreleased utterance-finally.
Nasals: The velar nasal occurs only 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 , dental , and palato-alveolar . Notice that are dental, like the plosives , and the nasal .
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 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 fairly common, and an apical trill occurs in some dialects.
Lateral and central approximants: The lateral approximant is unvelarised in both onset (''lire'') and coda position (''il''). In the onset, the central approximants , , and each correspond to a high vowel, , , and 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 and occur in final position as in ''paye'' "pay" vs. ''pays'' "country".
French pronunciation follows strict rules based on spelling, but French spelling is often based more on history than phonology. The rules for pronunciation vary between dialects, but the standard rules are:
final consonants: Final single consonants, in particular ''s'', ''x'', ''z'', ''t'', ''d'', ''n'' and ''m'', are normally silent. (The final letters ''c'', ''r'', ''f'' and ''l'', however, are normally pronounced.)
When the following word begins with a vowel, though, a silent consonant ''may'' once again be pronounced, to provide a ''liaison'' or "link" between the two words. Some liaisons are ''mandatory'', for example the ''s'' in ''les amants'' or ''vous avez''; some are ''optional'', depending on dialect and register, for example the first ''s'' in ''deux cents euros'' or ''euros irlandais''; and some are ''forbidden'', for example the ''s'' in ''beaucoup d'hommes aiment''. The ''t'' of ''et'' is never pronounced and the silent final consonant of a noun is only pronounced in the plural and in set phrases like ''pied-à-terre''. Note that in the case of a word ending ''d'' as in ''pied-à-terre'', the consonant ''t'' is pronounced instead.
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.
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 spelt → ''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").
Orthography
Nasal: ''n'' and ''m''. When ''n'' or ''m'' follows a vowel or diphthong, the ''n'' or ''m'' becomes silent and causes the preceding vowel to become nasalized (i.e. pronounced with the soft palate extended downward so as to allow part of the air to leave through the nostrils). Exceptions are when the ''n'' or ''m'' is doubled, or immediately followed by a vowel. The prefixes ''en-'' and ''em-'' are always nasalized. The rules get more complex than this but may vary between dialects.
Digraphs: French does not introduce extra letters or diacritics to specify its large range of vowel sounds and diphthongs, rather it uses 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 and not . But gemination does occur between words. For example, ''une info'' ("a news") is pronounced , whereas ''une nympho'' ("a nympho") is pronounced .
Accents are used sometimes for pronunciation, sometimes to distinguish similar words, and sometimes for etymology alone.
Accents that affect pronunciation
The acute accent (''l'accent aigu''), ''é'' (e.g. ''école''—school), means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default .
The grave accent (''l'accent grave''), ''è'' (e.g. ''élève''—pupil) means that the vowel is pronounced instead of the default .
The circumflex (''l'accent circonflexe'') ''ê'' (e.g. ''forêt''—forest) shows that an ''e'' is pronounced and that an ''o'' is pronounced . In standard French it also signifies a pronunciation of for the letter ''a'', but this differentiation is disappearing. In the late 19th century, the circumflex was used in place of ''s'' where that letter was not to be pronounced. Thus, ''forest'' became ''forêt'' and ''hospital'' became'' hôpital''.
The diaeresis (''le tréma'') (e.g. ''naïf''—foolish, ''Noël''—Christmas) as in English, specifies that this vowel is pronounced separately from the preceding one, not combined and is not a schwa.
The cedilla (''la cédille'') ''ç'' (e.g. ''garçon''—boy) means that the letter ''c'' is pronounced in front of the hard vowels ''a'', ''o'' and ''u'' (''c'' is otherwise before a hard vowel). ''C'' is always pronounced in front of the soft vowels ''e'', ''i'', and ''y'', thus ''ç'' is never found in front of soft vowels.
Accents with no pronunciation effect
The circumflex does not affect the pronunciation of the letters ''i'' or ''u'', and in most dialects, ''a'' as well (the circumflex on ''i'' and ''u'' is no longer compulsory: ''boite, chaine, Ile-de-France''). It usually indicates that an ''s'' came after it long ago, as in ''hôtel''.
All other accents are used only to distinguish similar words, as in the case of distinguishing the adverbs ''là'' and ''où'' ("there", "where") from the article ''la'' and the conjunction ''ou'' ("the" fem. sing., "or") respectively.
Vocabulary
The majority of French words derive from
Vulgar Latin or were constructed from Latin or Greek roots. There are often pairs of words, one form being popular (noun) and the other one savant (adjective), both originating from Latin. Example:
brother: ''frère'' / ''fraternel'' < from Latin FRATER
finger: ''doigt'' / ''digital'' < from Latin DIGITVS
faith: ''foi'' / ''fidèle'' < from Latin FIDES
cold: ''froid'' / ''frigide'' < from Latin FRIGIDVS
eye: ''œil'' / ''oculaire'' < from Latin OCVLVS
inhabitants of the city ''Saint-Étienne'' are called ''Stéphanois''
The last example, Saint-Étienne/Stéphanois, illustrates common practice for
gentilics throughout France.
In some examples there is a common word from "vulgar" Latin and a more savant word from classical Latin or even Greek.
Cheval—Concours équestre—Hippodrome
The French words which have developed from Latin are usually less recognisable than
Italian words of Latin origin because as French developed into a separate language from
Vulgar Latin, the unstressed final
syllable of many words was dropped or elided into the following word.
It is estimated that 12% (4,200) of common French words found in a typical
dictionary such as the ''Petit Larousse'' or ''Micro-Robert Plus'' (35,000 words) are of foreign origin. About 25% (1,054) of these foreign words come from
English and are fairly recent borrowings. The others are some 707 words from
Italian, 550 from ancient
Germanic languages, 481 from ancient
Gallo-Romance languages, 215 from
Arabic, 164 from
German, 160 from
Celtic languages, 159 from
Spanish, 153 from
Dutch, 112 from
Persian and
Sanskrit, 101 from
Native American languages, 89 from other
Asian languages, 56 from
Afro-Asiatic languages, 55 from
Slavic languages and
Baltic languages, 10 for
Basque and 144 — about three percent — from other languages
[Walter & Walter 1998].
Numerals
The French counting system is partially
vigesimal:
twenty ('''') is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 80–99. The French word for ''eighty'', for example, is '
, which literally means "four twenties", and ' (literally "sixty-fifteen") indicating 75. This reform arose after the
French Revolution to unify the different counting system (mostly vigesimal near the coast, due to Celtic (via
Basque) and Viking influence). This system is comparable to the archaic English use of ''score'', as in "fourscore and seven" (87), or "threescore and ten" (70).
Belgian French and
Swiss French are different in this respect. In Belgium and Switzerland 70 and 90 are '
and '. In Switzerland, depending on the local dialect, 80 can be '
(Geneva, Neuchâtel, Jura) or ' (Vaud, Valais, Fribourg). ''Octante'' had been used in Switzerland in the past, but is now considered archaic.
In Belgium, however, ''quatre-vingts'' is universally used.
Writing system
French is written using the 26 letters of the
Latin alphabet, plus five diacritics (the
circumflex accent,
acute accent,
grave accent,
diaeresis, and
cedilla) and the two
ligatures (œ) and (æ).
French spelling, like English spelling, tends to preserve obsolete pronunciation rules. This is mainly due to extreme phonetic changes since the Old French period, without a corresponding change in spelling. Moreover, some conscious changes were made to restore Latin orthography:
Old French ''doit'' > French ''doigt'' "finger" (Latin ''digitum'')
Old French ''pie'' > French ''pied'' "foot" (Latin ''pedem'')
As a result, it is difficult to predict the spelling on the basis of the sound alone. Final consonants are generally silent, except when the following word begins with a vowel. For example, all of these words end in a vowel sound: ''pied'', ''aller'', ''les'', ''finit'', ''beaux''. The same words followed by a vowel, however, may sound the consonants, as they do in these examples: ''beaux-arts'', ''les amis'', ''pied-à-terre''.
On the other hand, a given spelling will almost always lead to a predictable sound, and the
Académie française works hard to enforce and update this correspondence. In particular, a given vowel combination or diacritic predictably leads to one phoneme.
The diacritics have
phonetic,
semantic, and
etymological significance.
acute accent (''é''): Over an ''e'', indicates the sound , the ''ai'' sound in such words as English ''hay'' or ''neigh''. It often indicates the historical deletion of a following consonant (usually an ''s''): ''écouter'' < ''escouter''. This type of accent mark is called ''accent aigu'' in French.
grave accent (''à'', ''è'', ''ù''): Over ''a'' or ''u'', used only to distinguish homophones: ''à'' ("to") vs. ''a'' ("has"), ''ou'' ("or") vs. ''où'' ("where"). Over an ''e'', indicates the sound .
circumflex (''â'', ''ê'', ''î'', ''ô'', ''û''): Over an ''a'', ''e'' or ''o'', indicates the sound , or , respectively (the distinction ''a'' vs. ''â'' tends to disappear in many dialects). Most often indicates the historical deletion of an adjacent letter (usually an ''s'' or a vowel): ''château'' < ''castel'', ''fête'' < ''feste'', ''sûr'' < ''seur'', ''dîner'' < ''disner''. It has also come to be used to distinguish homophones: ''du'' ("of the") vs. ''dû'' (past participle of ''devoir'' "to have to do something (pertaining to an act)"; note that ''dû'' is in fact written thus because of a dropped ''e'': ''deu''). (''See Use of the circumflex in French'')
diaeresis or ''tréma'' (''ë'', ''ï'', ''ü'', ''ÿ''): Indicates that a vowel is to be pronounced separately from the preceding one: ''naïve'', ''Noël''. A diaeresis on ''y'' only occurs in some proper names and in modern editions of old French texts. Some proper names in which ''ÿ'' appears include ''Aÿ'' (commune in ''canton de la Marne'' formerly ''Aÿ-Champagne''), ''Rue des Cloÿs'' (alley in the 18th arrondisement of Paris), ''Croÿ'' (family name and hotel on the Boulevard Raspail, Paris), ''Château du Feÿ'' (near Joigny), ''Ghÿs'' (name of Flemish origin spelt ''Ghijs'' where ''ij'' in handwriting looked like ''ÿ'' to French clerks), ''l'Haÿ-les-Roses'' (commune between Paris and Orly airport), Pierre Louÿs (author), Moÿ (place in ''commune de l'Aisne'' and family name), and ''Le Blanc de Nicolaÿ'' (an insurance company in eastern France). The diaresis on ''u'' appears only in the biblical proper names ''Archélaüs'', ''Capharnaüm'', ''Emmaüs'', ''Ésaü'' and ''Saül''. Nevertheless, since the 1990 orthographic rectifications (which are not applied at all by most French people), the diaeresis in words containing ''guë'' (such as ''aiguë'' or ''ciguë'') may be moved onto the ''u'': ''aigüe'', ''cigüe''. Words coming from German retain the old Umlaut (''ä'', ''ö'' and ''ü'') if applicable but use French pronunciation, such as ''kärcher'' (trade mark of a pressure washer).
cedilla (''ç''): Indicates that an etymological ''c'' is pronounced when it would otherwise be pronounced /k/. Thus ''je lance'' "I throw" (with ''c'' = before ''e''), ''je lançais'' "I was throwing" (''c'' would be pronounced before ''a'' without the cedilla).
There are two
ligatures, which have various origins.
The ligature ''œ'' is a mandatory contraction of ''oe'' in certain words. Some of these are native French words, with the pronunciation or , e.g. ''sœur'' "sister" , ''œuvre'' "work (of art)" . Note that it usually appears in the combination ''œu''; ''œil'' is an exception. Many of these words were originally written with the digraph ''eu''; the ''o'' in the ligature represents a sometimes artificial attempt to imitate the Latin spelling: Latin ''bovem'' > Old French ''buef''/''beuf'' > Modern French ''bœuf''. ''Œ'' is also used in words of Greek origin, as the Latin rendering of the Greek diphthong ''οι'', e.g. ''cœlacanthe'' "coelacanth". These words used to be pronounced with the vowel , but in recent years a spelling pronunciation with has taken hold, e.g. ''œsophage'' or . The pronunciation with is often seen to be more correct. The ligature œ is not used in some occurrences of the letter combination ''oe'', for example, when ''o'' is part of a prefix (''coexister'').
The ligature ''æ'' is rare and appears in some words of Latin and Greek origin like ''ægosome'', ''ægyrine'', ''æschne'', ''cæcum'', ''nævus'' or ''uræus''.[La ligature æ ] The vowel quality is identical to é .
French writing, as with any language, is affected by the spoken language. In Old French, the plural for ''animal'' was ''animals''. Common speakers pronounced a ''u'' before a word ending in ''l'' as the plural. This resulted in ''animauls''. As the French language evolved this vanished and the form ''animaux'' (''aux'' pronounced ) was admitted. The same is true for ''cheval'' pluralized as ''chevaux'' and many others. Also ''castel'' pl. ''castels'' became ''château'' pl. ''châteaux''.
Samples
!English
!French
!IPA pronunciation (Canadian accent)
!IPA pronunciation (French accent)
|-
||French|| ''français'' || || |-
||English || ''anglais'' || || |-
||Yes || ''Oui'' Except when responding to a negatively posed question, in which case ''Si'' is used preferentially over ''Oui'' || || |-
||No || ''Non'' || || |-
||Hello! || ''Bonjour !'' (formal) ''Salut !'' (informal) || || |-
||Good evening! || ''Bonsoir !'' || || |-
||Good night! || ''Bonne nuit !'' || || |-
||Goodbye! || ''Au revoir !'' || || |-
||Have a nice day! || ''Bonne journée !'' || || |-
||Please || ''S'il vous plaît'' (formal) ''S'il te plaît'' (informal) || || |-
||Thank you || ''Merci'' || || |-
||You're welcome || ''De rien'' ("it is nothing") / ''Je vous en prie'' (formal) ''Je t'en prie'' (informal) ||
|-
||Sorry || ''Pardon'' / ''Désolé'' (if male) / ''Désolée'' (if female) || / || / |-
||Who? || ''Qui ?'' || || |-
||What? || ''Quoi ?'' || || |-
||When? || ''Quand ?'' || || |-
||Where? || ''Où ?'' || || |-
||Why? || ''Pourquoi ?'' || || |-
||What's your name? || ''Comment vous appelez-vous ?'' (formal) ''Comment t'appelles-tu ?'' (informal) ||
|-
||Because || ''Parce que'' / "A cause de" — literally "because of" or "due to" || || |-
||For (when used as "because") || ''Car''
|-
||Therefore || ''Donc'' ||
|-
||How? || ''Comment ?'' || || |-
||How much? || ''Combien ?'' || || |-
||I do not understand. || ''Je ne comprends pas.'' || || |-
||Yes, I understand. || ''Oui, je comprends.'' Except when responding to a negatively posed question, in which case ''Si'' is used preferentially over ''Oui'' || || |-
||Help!|| ''Au secours !! (à l'aide !)'' || || |-
||Can you help me please ?|| ''Pouvez-vous m'aider s'il vous plaît ?'' or ''Pourriez-vous m'aider s'il vous plaît ?'' (formal) ''Peux-tu m'aider s'il te plaît ?'' or ''Pourrais-tu m'aider s'il te plaît'' (informal) ||
|-
||Where are the bathrooms?|| ''Où sont les toilettes ?'' || || |-
||Do you speak English? || ''Parlez-vous anglais ?'' || || |-
||I do not speak French. || ''Je ne parle pas français.'' || || ||
|-
||I don't know. || ''Je ne sais pas.'' ||
|-
||I know. || ''Je sais.'' ||
|-
||I am thirsty. || ''J'ai soif.'' ||
|-
||I am hungry. || ''J'ai faim.'' ||
|-
||How are you? / How are things going? / How's everything? || ''Comment allez-vous?'' (formal) ''Ça va?'' or ''Comment ça va ?'' (informal) ||
|-
||I am (very) well / Things are going (very) well // Everything is (very) well || ''Je vais (très) bien.'' (formal) ''Ça va (très) bien.'' / ''Tout va (très) bien'' (informal) ||
|-
||I am (very) bad / Things are (very) bad / Everything is (very) bad || ''Je vais (très) mal'' (formal) ''Ça va (très) mal.'' ''Tout va (très) mal'' (informal)||
|-
||I am ok/so-so / Everything is ok/so-so || ''Ça va comme ci, comme ça.'' ||
|-
||I am fine. || ''Ça va.'' ||
|-
|| "Meh" (most literal translation possible) || "Bof" — a general expression of disinterest at the question posed ||
|
References