French is an official language of more than 29 countries and an official language of the United Nations. Its earliest written materials date from the 9th century. It is categorized as a romance language and is spoken as a first language by an estimated 270 million people in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada (mainly Quebec), and many other countries and regions formerly governed by France.

According to La Francophonie dans le monde 2006-2007 (2), 100-110 million students of all ages not residing in a Francophone (French-speaking) country have learned or are learning French in order to communicate with Francophones. This makes French the second most commonly-taught second language in the world (after English).

There are approximately 1.6 million French-speakers residing in the United States. (To request a copy of our proprietary report, "Foreign Speaker Demographics in the U.S. - Top 10 Languages in Every State," please contact us.

With regard to French grammar, nouns do not have cases, and masculine and feminine gender are marked not in the noun but in its article or adjective. The verb is conjugated for three persons and for singular and plural; though spelled differently, several of these forms are pronounced identically.

Find out more
For information about translating materials or localizing your website for Francophones, contact us.

SOURCES:

U.S. Census Bureau

US State Department

Doing Business

World Bank Group