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French
français
Pronunciation[fʁɑ̃sɛ]
Spoken natively insee below
Native speakersnative speakers: 190 million,[1] total (both native and second language) speakers: 265 million-[2] 270 million[3]  (date missing)
Language family
Writing systemLatin alphabet (French variant)
Official status
Official language in


Numerous international organisations
Regulated byAcadémie française (French Academy)
Language codes
ISO 639-1fr
ISO 639-2fre (B)
fra (T)
ISO 639-3fra
Linguasphere51-AAA-i
[[File:
New-Map-Francophone World.PNG
  Regions where it is mother tongue
  Regions where it is official language
  Regions where it is second language
  Regions where it is a minority language
|300px]]
Flag of La Francophonie.svg

This article is part of the series on:

French language

French ([français] error: {{lang}}: text has italic markup (help), IPA: [fʁɑ̃sɛ]) is a Romance language spoken as a first language by most people from France, French-speaking Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, and the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, as well as minorities elsewhere. Second language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts of the world, the largest numbers of which reside in Francophone Africa,[4] and the highest proportions being situated in Gabon (80%)[4] Mauritius (72.7%)[4] and Côte d'Ivoire (70%).[4] French is estimated as having 110 million[1] native speakers and 190 million second language speakers.[5] Additionally, French is the second-most studied foreign language in the world, after English.