French Language and Culture

Guide to French Language Research

French is the 5ᵗʰ most-spoken language after Mandarin Chinese, English, Spanish and Arabic. There are approximately 321 million French speakers worldwide.
Source: latest report by the Langue Française et Diversité Linguistique

255 million people on the planet are "born and live in French," meaning that they use the French language on a daily basis.

French is:

• the language of home and school, transmitted by parents and/or learned at school, where it is the language of instruction
• an official language (alone or alongside other languages) used for administrative procedures, professional relations, contacts with institutions
• a social language, where it allows communication between individuals with different mother tongues
• a language of communication and culture, widely used in media, cultural activities, and literature.