34 Interesting Facts About The French Language

Want to learn more about French? This post will show you all the interesting facts about the French language that you probably didn’t know about before!

As one of the most spoken languages in the whole world, French has a charm of its own!

It’s believed to be one of the most attractive languages, pushing people to learn it around the globe.

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Like any language, there are many interesting facts about the French language that will confuse you and amaze you at the same time.

So whether you’re a beginner learner who wants to know cool things about the language or a born-and-bred French person looking to be surprised, keep on reading, and you may find what you’re looking for and more!

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Facts About the French Language

1. French is popularly known as the language of love

Known across the globe as one of the most romantic and sensual languages, French is also given a suitable nickname, the language of love.

Derived from Latin, much like Spanish and Italian, it was influenced by many other dialects, making it the love language worldwide.

The language is one of the many things that makes French people so romantic overall!

2. There are around 220 million French speakers worldwide

While the language is native to France, one of the interesting facts about French is that an estimated 220 million people speak it across the globe!

Out of this massive number, only approximately 80 million are native speakers, conveying that the language is taught in so many parts of the world.

3. French is an official language in over 29 Independent countries

With so many French speakers worldwide, the language is bound to be a part of the official languages in other countries, and it is…in over 29 countries!

Besides France, it is an official language in major countries like Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, and even “smaller nations” like Senegal and Madagascar.

4. French is an official diplomatic language

The United Nations has six official languages for all their communication, and French is among them.

In addition, it is one of the three languages of contact for the European Union. Besides these two, it is also widely used as the official language of communication in many other international institutions like UNESCO, NATO, the Red Cross, and more.

5. The popularity of French is on the rise

Since the end of the second world war, the spread of French over the world has increased, and it’s predicted to continue to grow as one of the most spoken languages in the world.

One of the most incredible French facts is that it’s believed that by 2060 the number of French speakers will reach up to 767 million according to OIF (Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie)!

6. L’Académie Française protects the French language

While parts of the French language have been around for a long time, the language became standardized in the 17th century and is still regulated by L’Académie Française.

This academy is responsible for approving changes that make the language more fit for the times, adding new words and other details.

7. Culinary French words are used worldwide

Besides French food, desserts, and pastries being famous worldwide for their delectable taste and refined presentation, French culinary food words have made their way into the global food world.

While there are so many, some examples could be — chef, julienne, and sautéing, which are now used in kitchens globally, no matter how many miles away from France they are.

8. During the French Revolution, French wasn’t spoken by all

There was no unifying language at the time of the French Revolution and the years leading up to it as all the natives spoke in their dialects that varied from one local community to another.

It wasn’t until the end of the revolution that the country symbolically unified, and one of the tools for that was the French language. After the revolution ended, L’Académie Française standardized the language.

9. Kinshasa is the city with the most French speakers

While you may think that a city with the most French speakers in the world would ideally be in France, surprisingly, it is a city called Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In 2016, the city’s population rose to over 12 million and occupied the top spot with most French speakers, followed by Paris with just around 2 million French speakers.

10. No French words use the letter “w”

One of the top crazy facts about the French language is that not a single French word uses the letter “w.”

The letter, while taught as part of the alphabet in the beginner stages of the language, doesn’t appear in any spoken or written words.

Any words with the letter “W” used in French, like “weekend,” are all borrowed from English.

11. French has influenced a lot of English words

France and England have been at opposite ends of a stick on many issues, and as significant powers of the world, they have inevitably had a lot of influence on each other in terms of culture, politics, art, and even language.

It is said that about 45% of the modern English vernacular came from French. Isn’t that crazy?

12. “E” is the most commonly used letter in French

Another remarkable fact about French is that the letter “E” is the most commonly used letter.

As a vowel, naturally, it is used often, but more so because of the accents (è, é, ê, ë) in the French language, the letter “E” can have many different pronunciations.

13. Nearly all ballet words are French

Though it’s no surprise that something as graceful, delicate, refined, and classy as ballet is connected to France and its culture, nearly all the words used in ballet are French!

Try and think of one that might be English, but chances are you won’t be able to. From “passé” to “tendu,” every significant word in the dance form was coined in French and continues to be used as-is.

14. Few French words don’t have any rhyming words

Have you ever thought of any words in English that don’t have any rhyming words, and does that drive you nuts?

Much like that, a few French words can’t be rhymed with anything, so good luck using them in a poem! These words include – Belge (Belgian), Goinfre (glutton), and more.

15. The chant for France is “Liberté, égalité, fraternité”

Though the French Revolution occurred due to an internal dispute in the country, it put France on the map for its ideals and gave other countries a road map regarding the values needed for a democracy.

Out of the many things to come out of that tumultuous time, the chant that is still used by governance to this day, “Liberté, égalité, fraternité” was one of the most significant things. It is still used by people worldwide in their fight for democracy and equality.

16. The names of French towns can be one letter or thirty-eight

One of the fun facts about the French language is that the names of French towns are so unique!

They range from one letter long and can go up to as many as 38 letters! For example, there’s a town called “Y” in the North of France, and “Saint-Remy-en-Bouzemont-Saint-Genest-et-Isson” in the city of Marne, in the Northeast of France.

17. The French language has a lot of homophones

Just as every language needs to have its quirks or complexities that make you question its basic rules, the French language is notorious for having many homophones that look similar and are even pronounced in the same manner but have entirely different definitions, thereby confusing new learners.

For example; Auteur/hauteur look and may even sound the same, but the first means an author and the latter means height. Another one is avocat/avocat, it can mean lawyer or avocado, so it’ll never fail to make you giggle!

18. The French way of counting is unique

Out of the many unique things about the French language, the way of counting is undoubtedly on top of the list.

While it is interesting how numbers are uniform across the world and how counting is structured, many learners of the French language struggle with the French way of counting because it involves math (in all contexts, not just in math class).

For instance, 97 is spoken as ninety-seven (90+7) in English. In French, the same number will be said as quatre-vingt-dix-sept (4 x 20 + 17).

19. French is pretty easy to learn

Like any language, French has its complexities and can appear to be challenging to learn, especially after understanding how complex the counting system is.

However, if you speak English as your first language, learning French is easier than it seems. With their roots in Latin, much like English, both have many similarities.

20. French films and literature are loved across the world

It is no surprise that French film, literature, and music are loved globally, even by those who may not speak the language.

With the classy and delicate French influence, even English writers or artists bettered their art to impress millions.

After Hollywood, French cinema is the most popular and there are so many classic French pieces of literature like “Les Mis”, “The Second Sex”, and more that became popular worldwide.

21. A lot of letter names don’t sound like their pronunciation

If you’re searching for ​​​​bewildering facts about the French language, this one will be a fun read.

Many of the letters in the French language don’t sound like their pronunciation. For example, the letters “H,” and “Z” are both a part of the French alphabet but are mostly silent in French words.

22. Some French words are gender-fluid

Though most words are gendered in French, some words remain unchanged despite the gender, like aprés-midi, which means afternoon.

With most of the language being gender-specific, the conjugation and writing of sentences can become tricky.

This is one of the many reasons that English, despite being utterly confusing at times, is loved by a large part of the world.

23. The French language has a lot of silent letters

One thing that makes people feel that French as a language is hard to master is that it has many silent letters, and learning when they need to be pronounced and when they don’t need to be can be a confusing endeavor.

These include; ​​x, h, n, s, and t. While it seems like a challenging hurdle to cross, they appear so frequently that chances are you’ve probably used words in which they appear silent even before learning them!

24. French has some fun anagrams

An anagram is when one can rearrange the letters of one word to create another, and of the most astonishing facts about French is that the language has so many fascinating anagrams.

The most interesting of them is the word “endolori” which means painful, and when the letters are rearranged, one of the anagrams is “indolore,” which means painless. 

25. There is an official day for the French language

Much like all the other official languages of the United Nations (French is one among six others), there’s a specific day to celebrate and honor the French language.

It is celebrated on March 20th and honors diversity and multilingualism as a tool of unity worldwide.

26. The male gender is superior in the French language

One of the not-so-fun French language facts is that the male gender is considered superior when using the language.

A sexist rule that seems to persist; even a group with a majority of females would be addressed as “ils”, the word for male plural.

27. The longest French word is “anticonstitutionnellement”

Though most French words aren’t too long, the longest French word is “anticonstitutionnellement.”

The word is made up of 25 letters and it means “unconstitutional.” Sounds like a great word to throw around in a school debate, huh?

28. The French word for a bird has all the vowels

Out of the many interesting facts about the French language, this one is super fun. The

The French word for a bird (Oiseau) has all the vowels, and an even more incredible thing is that the plural of the word calls for adding an “X” at the end.

29. The French greet each other in a particular way

Like all languages worldwide, French has its way of greeting people with hello and goodbye, and the cool thing is that the word “salut” usually used to greet someone “hello” can also be used to say goodbye. 

30. Numerous fairytales were originally in French

As the land of art, it is no surprise that most fairytales that are a part of children’s lives across the world were initially written in French.

Some famous ones include; The Sleeping Beauty (“La Belle au Bois dormant” and Cinderella (“Cendrillon”).

31. “Oh là là” doesn’t signify amazement

To most people’s surprise, the phrase “ooh la la” or its French derivative “Oh là là” doesn’t mean amazement, not of the good kind at least.

The saying refers to “oh no,” a feeling of disappointment or despair.

32. The famous “Les Misérables” has one of the longest sentences

Written by Victor Hugo and loved by people worldwide is one of the most delicate pieces of art, “Les Misérables“!

Besides being so popular globally, it has one of the longest sentences in literature, with a whopping 823 words without a full stop!

33. Some words in French appear hard to pronounce

If you’re a non-native French speaker, some words can appear hard to pronounce because of how the letters are arranged.

For example, the word for squirrel in French is l’écureuil, which looks pretty unusual. However, the pronunciation of such words is pretty straightforward.

34. A lot of French words are actually just one letter

One of the weirdest ​​French fun facts is that there are a lot of French words that consist of only one letter!

These include “à,” “a,” or “y,” and even “j” and “c”, all of which have their own meanings, however, the latter need to be used alongside a verb.

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Final Thoughts on the Facts About French Language

There are so many intriguing French language facts that make it fun to learn and fall in love with the beautiful language.

So whether you wanted to learn a little history about the language you’re trying to learn or want to dive deeper into your native language, I hope you enjoyed reading this list of fun facts about French language.

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