The French Language : 14 Things You Need To Know

French is an old language, known worldwide for its complexity. Many questions are often asked about French and how difficult it is to learn it.

Throughout this post, the answers to the most frequently asked questions and try to separate fact from fiction in order to introduce the beautiful language of Molière to the world. 🇫🇷 🇫🇷 🇫🇷

 

How important is the French language nowadays?

French is the 6th most spoken language in the world, spoken by about 279 million speakers, among which 77 million people have French as their native language.

To give you a general idea, Mandarin is the world’s most spoken language, with more than 1.3 billion speakers.

English is the 2nd most spoken language with 1.132 billion speakers.

French is the official language in 29 countries, most of which are former colonies in Africa.

 

How old is French?

French as we know it today is the result of a long evolution.

It was called Romance, which has descended from the simplified version of Latin, which was the language of the Christian Church.

In 1539, the French king François Ier decided that French laws would be written in French, which was the language which was spoken in and around Paris at that time. We can consider that French became a language in its own right from that moment on.

It started being used in school after the French Revolution of 1789.

 

Do French people speak English correctly?

If we were to give a short answer, it would be “no, French people don’t speak English very well”.

Indeed, according to a study by the Education First institute, France ranks 28th out of 72 countries in terms of English level.

France is the worst European country, while northern European countries rank at the top of the podium.

However, the French people’s English level has been improving for a few years now, thanks to English lessons which are given starting from primary school, and to the increasing number of Erasmus students.

 

Do French people expect tourists to speak French?

The common idea is that when you visit a country, you are supposed to know its language’s basics, such as “Hello” (“Bonjour”), “Thank you” (“Merci”), “Goodbye” (“Au revoir”). If a foreign tourist asks a French person for directions without knowing at least one of these words, they will be frowned upon.

And yet, it is not expected from foreigners to speak flawless French, far from it.

What is really important for French people is to know that the person they are talking to is making an effort.

Just one French word in a sentence and the French interlocutor will be delighted.

However, as French people are generally bad at foreign languages, chances are they will not understand you if they are not spoken to in French.

 

Is French a difficult language?

Rumor has it that French is an incredibly difficult language to learn for foreigners. Even some French speakers have not mastered their own language.

According to rankings introduced by UNESCO, French is the world’s 10th most difficult language to learn.

A rank that may discourage some. Yet, if correct French is hard to master because of the complexity of its grammar and spelling, it is easy to master the fundamentals in order to understand people and be understood.

 

Is it possible to learn how to speak French in 3 or 4 months by living in France?

The most efficient way to learn a new language is to go and live in the country, for a period of time. French is no exception.

A foreigner living in France is forced to dive into French cultural life, to share the everyday life of French speakers, both at a personal and a professional level.

For these reasons, it is possible to acquire a good mastery of the French language in just a few months.

However, one should not forget that learning capacities are different from one person to another and decrease with age.

Foreigners should not speak their own language during their stay in France so as to immerse themselves completely in the French language.

 

Is it possible to go / study in France without speaking French?

It depends on the kind of trip that is planned. If it is just for a few weeks in France, it is not a big deal not to speak French, even though there will be some miscommunication.

However, if the plan is to study or work in France, speaking French will be absolutely necessary.

In academic or professional life, communication and comprehension are essential to write down the lessons, learn them and reuse them or to accomplish the different tasks of a job.

Colleagues, teachers and employers do not have the time to wait for one person to learn French before working efficiently.

Despite all of this, it is possible to live in France without speaking French by making the necessary learning efforts.

 

Is it possible to only study in English when in France?

It obviously depends on the studies.

Most classes are taught in French, which will make things harder for English-speaking people who do not speak French.

However, many studies, such as studies using English  (Literature and civilization, and Foreign language applied to Economics) and international business and tourism schools teach many of their classes in English.

Thus, it is possible to study exclusively in English while living in France. One just has to select their path appropriately.

 

Is it necessary to speak French to live in Paris?

According to the Netflix series Emily in Paris (here is our post on the places where Emily in Paris was filmed), speaking French in Paris is anything but necessary. But the reality is quite different.

It must be noted that French people are generally bad at foreign languages.

Even though it is possible to cope by speaking English in some situations (in hotels and restaurants for example, where the staff is used to tourists), it is necessary to speak French in order to communicate during your everyday life in Paris.

 

Is it easy to learn French when one speaks English?

French and English are two very different languages, for many reasons.

Not only do they have different origins, French is a Latin language while English is a Germanic language, they also have different logic, syntax and grammar.

Mastering English will be of no help at all for budding French speakers, except for borrowed words (“café au lait”, “rendez-vous”, “week-end”…) and the words with the same root (“family”/“famille”).

 

What is the most similar language to French?

As it has been said before, French is a Latin language, so in order to find similar languages, one has to look for languages with the same origin, such as Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian. Thus, people knowing these languages will have a head start on the others when learning French.

Indeed, these languages have a “similar” syntax and vocabulary.

Warning: mastering Spanish or Italian does not mean that French can also be mastered in the blink of an eye.

 

How many languages are spoken in France?

According to the Centre International d’Antibes, more than 75 languages are spoken in France.

The unofficial regional languages, spoken in mainland France and in overseas departments, are the following: Alsatian, langues d’oc and langues d’oï, Breton, Catalan, Francique, Franco-provençal, Corsican, Basque, Flemish, etc… (ranked from the most common to the least spoken).

These minority languages are spoken in specific geographic areas and are taught in some schools in these areas.

We can add to this number the unofficial languages that are not regional, spoken by foreign communities in France, which represents 5.1 million of people. The most often spoken foreign language in France is Arabic, with about 3.5 million speakers (Source).

 

Love Paris? Don’t Miss the 'Forever Paris' Newsletter

Get inspiring stories, photos, tips, hidden gems, recipes, and fun Paris facts delivered straight to your inbox. Join a community that loves Paris as much as you do!

Subscribe

We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at any time.

Built with Kit

What are the best books to learn French?

The essential book for French speakers and for apprentices is the Bescherelle (a title even French people struggle to write correctly!). There are different ones for conjugation, grammar and even spelling and they are extremely thorough.

The beginners should opt for Easy French Step by Step which teaches grammatical points with examples and texts, and The Berlitz Self-Teacher: French which teaches everyday communication with activities and daily conversations.

 

What are the best apps to learn French?

There are many apps to learn a foreign language.

Among them is Babbel, one of the most famous apps. It is very thorough and offers oral and written comprehension, pronunciation exercises, etc. and enables one to acquire a fluent French level. This app costs 12.99€/month or 5€/month for a year subscription.

FluentU has a different concept: its learning method is based on podcasts and videos, with a detailed script and personalized quizzes, to immerse oneself in fluent French language. The price is quite high, costing 15€/month or 120€/year.

At last, the Frantastique app offers customized oral and written exercises and detailed corrections, as if there was a real teacher. There are three options: one costing 21€, one costing 32€ and one last costing 42€.