Frances
*
lingaedjes &gt; indo-uropeyin &gt; italike &gt;  galo-roman &gt; lingaedje d' oyi &gt; '''francès'''
----
[[image:Map-Francophone World.png|thumb|right|250px|'''Li francès sol Daegne'''
Bleu foncé: lingaedje del mame; Bleu: lingaedje administratif; Bleu clair: langue di tuzance; Vert: minorités francès-cåzantes.]]

Li '''francès''', c' est on Coûtchant d' l' Afrike et co dins bråmint des ôtès coines del Daegne.

Li francès a rexhou foû d' on Tchanson da Roland est scrîte.

''Po des linwincieusès racsegnes sol mot "francès", alez s' vey e splitchant motî.''

== Sacwants francès coinreces ==
* francès do Kebek et Canada
* francès d' Beldjike
** francès del Walonreye
** francès d' Brussele
* francès d' Afrike bijhrece
** aransiya
** Calcaedjes do francès e l' arabe marokin

== linwincieus do francès ==
* Rilomés scrijheus e francès
* Rilomés Walons k' ont scrît e francès
* Rilomés linwincieus walons k' ont studyî l' francès

== Hårdêyes difoûtrinnes == 
* [http://rifondou.walon.org/lingaedjes.html#frances18s Li francès å 18inme sieke] (e walon)
* [http://rifondou.walon.org/culteure.html#frances Tuzaedjes di des sicrijheus e francès nén Francès] (e walon)

 
als:Französische Sprache
am:ፈረንሳይኛ

ang:Frencisc sprǣc

arc:ܠܫܢܐ ܦܪܢܣܝܐ

ba:Франк теле
bar:Französische Sproch
bat-smg:Prancūzu kalba
bcl:Pranses
be-x-old:Француская мова

bm:Faransekan

cdo:Huák-ngṳ̄

cr:ᐅᐱᔥᑎᑯᔮᐅᐊᔨᒧᐎᓐ
crh:Frenk tili

cu:Франкїискъ ѩзыкъ
cv:Франци чĕлхи

diq:Franski
dsb:Francojska rěc
dv:ފަރަންސޭސި

eml:Francês

eo:Franca lingvo
es:Idioma francés

ext:Luenga francesa

frp:Francês
fur:Lenghe francese
fy:Frânsk
ga:Fraincis
gan:法語
gd:Frangais

gv:Frangish
hak:Fap-vùn

hsb:Francošćina

hy:Ֆրանսերեն
ia:Lingua francese

ilo:Pagsasao a Frances

iu:ᐅᐃᕖᑎᑐᑦ/uiviititut

jbo:fasybau

'''French''' (''français'', ) is today spoken around the world by 72 to 130 million people as a native language, and by about 190 to 600 million people as a second or third language,<ref> [http://www.ladocumentationfrancaise.fr/dossiers/francophonie/francophones-monde.shtml "Les francophones dans le monde" (Francophones worldwide")] — Provides details from a report, (Rapport 1997–1998 du Haut Conseil de la Francophonie, "Etat de la francophonie dans le monde", La Documentation française, 1999, pp.612) which provides the following numbers: 112,666,000 with French as a first, second, or  "adopted" language; 60,612,000 "occasional Francophones" for whom usage and mastery of French are limited only by circumstances or by expressive capability; 100–110 million "francizers", who have learned French for several years and have maintained limited mastery, or who have simply been required to learn enough to perform their job.</ref> with significant speakers in 54 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France, where the language originated. The rest live in Canada, Belgium and Switzerland.

French is a descendant of the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Catalan and Romanian. Its development was also influenced by the native Germanic language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders.

It is an 29 countries, most of which form what is called in French ''La large number of international organizations. According to the European Union, 129 million (26% of the 497,198,740) people in 27 member states speak French, of which 59 million (12%) speak it natively and 69 million (14%) claim to speak it as a second language, which makes it the third most spoken second language in the Union, after English and German respectively.

== Geographic distribution==
===Europe===
====Legal status in France====

Per the Constitution of France, French has been the official language since 1992<ref> [http://www.languefrancaise.net/dossiers/dossiers.php?id_dossier=50 Loi constitutionnelle 1992] — </ref> (although previous legal texts have made it official since 1539, see ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts). France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education outside of specific cases (though these dispositions are often ignored) and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words. 

In addition to French, there are also a variety of regional languages.  France has signed the European Charter for Regional Languages but has not ratified it since that would go against the 1958 Constitution.

====Switzerland====

	 
French is one of the four official languages of German, Italian, and Romansh) and is spoken in the part of Switzerland called ''Romandie''. French is the native language of about 20% of the Swiss population.

====Belgium====

thumb|200px|left|Bilingual signs in Brussels.

In German-speaking) and one of the two official languages—along with Dutch—of the Brussels-Capital Region where it is spoken by the majority of the population, though often not as their primary language.<ref name=philippevanparijs>
{{cite journal
|title=Belgium's new linguistic challenge
|author=Van Parijs, Philippe, Professor of economic and social ethics at the UCLouvain, Visiting Professor at KULeuven
|journal=KVS Express (supplement to newspaper De Morgen) March–April 2007
|pages=Article from [http://www.kvs.be/kvs_express/KVS_EXPRESS_13_WEB.pdf original source (pdf <small>4.9&nbsp;MB</small>)] pages 34–36 republished by the Belgian Federal Government Service (ministry) of Economy — Directorate-general Statistics Belgium
|url=http://www.statbel.fgov.be/studies/ac699_en.pdf
|format=pdf <small>0.7&nbsp;MB</small>
|accessdate=2007-05-05}} — The linguistic situation in Belgium (and in particular various estimations of the population speaking French and Dutch in Brussels) is discussed in detail.</ref> French and German are not official languages nor recognised minority languages in the Flemish Region, although along borders with the Walloon and Brussels-Capital regions, there are a dozen of municipalities with language facilities for French-speakers; a mirroring situation exists for the Walloon Region with respect to the Dutch and German languages. In total, native French-speakers make up about 40% of the country's population, the remaining 60% speak Dutch, the latter of which 59% claim to speak French as a second language.<ref>
{{cite journal
|coauthors=Victor Ginsburgh, Shlomo Weber
|title=La dynamique des langues en Belgique
|journal=Regards économiques, Publication préparée par les économistes de l'Université Catholique de Louvain
|month=June
|year=2006
|issue=Numéro 42
|quote={{lang|fr|Les enquêtes montrent que la Flandre est bien plus multilingue, ce qui est sans doute un fait bien connu, mais la différence est
considérable&nbsp;: alors que 59&nbsp;% et 53&nbsp;% des Flamands connaissent le français ou l'anglais respectivement, seulement 19&nbsp;% et 17&nbsp;% des Wallons connaissent le néerlandais ou l'anglais. … 95 pour cent des Bruxellois déclarent parler le français, alors que ce pourcentage
tombe à 59 pour cent pour le néerlandais. Quant à l’anglais, il est connu par une proportion importante de la population à Bruxelles (41 pour cent)}}
|url=http://regards.ires.ucl.ac.be/Archives/RE042.pdf
|format=pdf
|accessmonthday=7 May
|accessyear=2007}}</ref> French is thus known by an estimated 75% of all Belgians, either as a mother tongue, as second, or as third language.<ref>40%+60%*59%=75.4%</ref>

====Monaco and Andorra====

Although Monégasque is the national language of the Principality of Monaco, French is the only official language, and French nationals make up some 47% of the population.

Catalan is the only official language of Andorra; however, French is commonly used due to the proximity to France. French nationals make up 7% of the population.

====Italy====

French is also an official language, along with Italian, in the province of Franco-Provençal dialects are spoken in the province, although they do not have official recognition.

====Luxembourg====

French is one of three official languages of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg  ;<br />
the other official languages of Luxembourg are <br />
*German 
*Luxemburgish. 
Luxemburgish  is the natively-spoken language of  Luxembourg ;<br /> 
Luxembourg's education system is trilingual: the first years of primary school are in Luxembourgish, before changing to German, while secondary school, the language of instruction changes to French.

<ref name=test>[http://www.unavarra.es/tel2l/eng/luxembourg.htmLink text], The more educated the inhabitants are, the more likely they are to use French in oral communication</ref>

====The Channel Islands====

Although Jersey and Guernsey, the two bailiwicks collectively referred to as the Channel Islands, are separate entities, both use French to some degree, mostly in an administrative capacity. Jersey Legal French is the standardized variety used in Jersey.

===The Americas===
====Legal status in Canada====

right|thumb|Bilingual (English/French) [[stop sign on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. An example of bilingualism at the federal government level in Canada.]]

About 7 million English). Various provisions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms deal with Canadians' right to access services in both languages, including the right to a publicly funded education in the minority language of each province, where numbers warrant in a given locality. By law, the federal government must operate and provide services in both English and French, proceedings of the Parliament of Canada must be translated into both these languages, and most products sold in Canada must have labeling in both languages.

Overall, about 13% of Canadians have knowledge of French only, while 18% have knowledge of both English and French. In contrast, over 82% of the population of Quebec speaks French natively, and almost 96% speak it as either their first or second language. It has been the sole official language of Quebec since 1974. The legal status of French was further strengthened with the 1977  adoption of the Charter of the French Language (popularly known as ''Bill 101''), which guarantees that every person has a right to have the civil administration, the health and social services, corporations, and enterprises in Quebec communicate with him in French. While the Charter mandates that certain provincial government services, such as those relating to health and education, be offered to the English minority in its language, where numbers warrant, its primary purpose is to cement the role of French as the primary language used in the public sphere.

right|thumb|240px|Knowledge of French in the European Union and candidate countries<ref>Source: [http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_243_en.pdf], data for EU25, published before 2007 enlargement.</ref>
The provision of the Charter that has arguably had the most significant impact mandates French-language notwithstanding clause of the Canadian constitution to override constitutional requirements. In 1993, the Charter was rewritten to allow signage in other languages so long as French was markedly "predominant." Another section of the Charter guarantees every person the right to work in French, meaning the right to have all communications with one's superiors and coworkers in French, as well as the right not to be required to know another language as a condition of hiring, unless this is warranted by the nature of one's duties, such as by reason of extensive interaction with people located outside the province or similar reasons. This section has not been as effective as had originally been hoped, and has faded somewhat from public consciousness. As of 2006, approximately 65% of the workforce on the island of Montreal predominantly used French in the workplace.

The only other province that recognizes French as an official language is New Brunswick, which is officially bilingual, like the nation as a whole. Outside of Quebec, the highest number of Francophones in Canada, 485,000, excluding those who claim multiple mother tongues, reside in Ontario, whereas New Brunswick, home to the vast majority of Acadians, has the highest ''percentage'' of Francophones after Quebec, 33%, or 237,000. In Ontario, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Manitoba, French does not have full official status, although the provincial governments do provide some French-language services in all communities where significant numbers of Francophones live. Canada's three northern territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) all recognize French as an official language as well.

All provinces make some effort to accommodate the needs of their Francophone Hamilton, Mississauga, London, Kitchener, St. Catharines, Windsor. However, the French Language Services Act does not confer the status of "official bilingualism" on these cities, as that designation carries with it implications which go beyond the provision of services in both languages. The City of Ottawa's language policy (by-law 2001-170) allows employees to work in their official language of choice and be supervised in the language of choice.

Canada has the status of member state in the Francophonie, while the provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick are recognized as participating governments. Ontario is currently seeking to become a full member on its own.

====Haiti====
French is an official language of Haiti, although it is mostly spoken by the upper class, while Haitian Creole (a French-based creole language) is more widely spoken as a mother tongue.

====French overseas territories====
French is also the official language in France's overseas territories of St. Martin and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon.

====The United States====

thumb|left|French language spread in the United States. Counties marked in yellow are those where 6–12% of the population speak French at home; brown, 12–18%; red, over 18%. [[French-based creole languages are not included.]]
Although it has no official recognition on a federal level, French is the third<ref>[http://www.nvtc.gov/lotw/months/november/USlanguages.html National Virtual Translation Center] — Languages Spoken in the U.S.</ref><ref>[http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=D&-qr_name=DEC_2000_SF3_U_QTP16&-ds_name=D&-_lang=en U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 Summary File 3] — Language Spoken at Home: 2000</ref> most-spoken language in the United States, after English and Spanish, and the second most-spoken in the states of Creole French

===Africa===

thumb|300px|Supermarket sign in French in [[Dakar, Senegal.]]
[[Image:Francophone Africa.svg|thumb|right|300px|</ref> Their population is projected to reach 733 million in 2050.<ref name=2007datasheet/>}}
]]

A majority of the world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to the 2007 report by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, an estimated 115 million African people spread across 31 francophone African countries can speak French either as a first or Nathan, Paris, 2007</ref>

French is mostly a second language in Africa, but in some areas it has become a first language, such as in the region of CNRS Editions, Paris, 2002</ref> and in Libreville, Gabon.<ref> [http://www.tlfq.ulaval.ca/axl/afrique/gabon.htm "De plus, le français est également devenu  la langue maternelle de plus de 30 % des Librevillois et il est de plus en plus perçu comme une langue gabonaise."]</ref> It is impossible to speak of a single form of African French, but rather of diverse forms of African French which have developed due to the contact with many indigenous African languages.<ref> [http://www.cecif.com/?page=la_francophonie#francaisafrique "En Afrique, il est impossible de parler d'une forme unique du français mais..."]</ref>

In the territories of the Indian Ocean, the French language is often spoken alongside French-derived creole languages, the major exception being Madagascar. There, a Malayo-Polynesian language (Malagasy) is spoken alongside French. The French language has also met competition with English since English has been the official language in Mauritius and the Seychelles for a long time and has recently become an official language of Madagascar.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand due to the expansion of education and it is also there the language has evolved most in recent years.<ref> http://www.cecif.com/?page=la_francophonie "Le français, langue en évolution
Dans beaucoup de pays Francophones, surtout sur le continent africain, une proportion importante de la population ne parle pas couramment le français (même s'il est souvent la langue officielle du pays). Ce qui signifie qu'au fur et à mesure que les nouvelles générations vont à l'école, le nombre de Francophones augmente: on estime qu'en 2015, ceux-ci seront deux fois plus nombreux qu'aujourd'hui."</ref><ref> [http://www.cecif.com/?page=la_francophonie#francaisafrique c) Le sabir franco-africain]: </ref> Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries<ref> [http://www.tlfq.ulaval.ca/axl/afrique/centrafrique.htm République centrafricaine]:  (''One example of a variety of African French that is difficult to understand for European French speakers'').</ref> but written forms of the language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world.

French is an official language of many African countries, most of them former French or Belgian colonies:
<div style="-moz-column-count:3; column-count:3;">
:*Benin
:*Burkina Faso
:*Burundi
:*Cameroon
:*Central African Republic
:*Chad
:*Comoros
:*Congo (Brazzaville)
:*Côte d'Ivoire
:*Democratic Republic of the Congo
:*Djibouti
:*Equatorial Guinea (former colony of Spain)
:*Gabon
:*Guinea
:*Madagascar
:*Mali
:*Niger
:*Rwanda
:*Senegal
:*Seychelles
:*Togo
</div>
In addition, French is an administrative language and commonly used though not on an official basis in Mauritius and in the Maghreb states:
:* Mauritania
:* Algeria
:*Morocco
:*Tunisia.

Various reforms have been implemented in recent decades in Algeria to improve the status of Arabic relative to French, especially in education.

While the predominant European language in English, French is considered to be a more sophisticated language by some elements of the Egyptian upper and upper-middle classes; for this reason, a typical educated Egyptian will learn French in addition to English at some point in his or her education. The perception of sophistication may be related to the use of French as the royal court language of Egypt during the nineteenth century. Egypt participates in La Francophonie.

French is also the official language of overseas territories of France located in the English.

===Asia===
====Lebanon ====

French was the official language in Arabic until 1941, the country's declaration of independence from France. French is still seen as an official language by the Lebanese people as it is widely used by the Lebanese, especially for administrative purposes, and is taught in schools as a primary language along with Arabic.

====Southeast Asia====
French is an administrative language in  Laos and Cambodia.<ref>[http://www.iht.com/articles/1993/10/16/lang.php French Declines in Indochina, as English Booms], ''International Herald Tribune'', October 16 1993: "In both Cambodia and Laos, French remains the official second language of government."</ref> French was historically spoken by the elite in the leased territory Guangzhouwan in southern China. In colonial Vietnam, the elites spoke French and many who worked for the French spoke a French creole known as "Tây Bồi" (now extinct).

====India====
French has official  status in the Indian Pondicherry, along with the regional language Tamil and some students of Tamil Nadu may opt French as their third or fourth language (usually behind English, Tamil, Hindi).

French is also commonly taught as third language in secondary school in most cities of Maharashtra State including Mumbai as part of the Secondary (X-SSC) and Higher secondary School (XII-HSC) certificate examinations.

===Oceania===
French is also a second official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu, along with France's territories of French Polynesia, Wallis & Futuna and New Caledonia.

==Dialects==

<div style="-moz-column-count:4; column-count:4;">
*Acadian French
*African French
*Aostan French
*Belgian French
*Cajun French
*Canadian French
*Cambodian French
*Guyana French (see French Guiana)
*Indian French
*Jersey Legal French
*Lao French
*Levantine French (most commonly referred to as Lebanese French, very similar to Maghreb French)
*Louisiana Creole French
*Maghreb French (see also North African French)
*Meridional French
*Metropolitan French
*New Caledonian French
*Newfoundland French
*Oceanic French
*Quebec French
*South East Asian French
*Swiss French
*Vietnamese French
*West Indian French
</div>

==History==

==Sounds==

Although there are many French regional accents, only one version of the language is normally chosen as a model for foreign learners, which has no commonly used special name, but has been termed ''français neutre'' (neutral French).

* Voiced stops (i.e. ) are typically produced fully voiced throughout.
* Voiceless stops (i.e. ) are unaspirated.
* Nasals: The velar nasal  occurs only in final position in borrowed (usually English) words: parking, camping, swing. The palatal nasal can occur in word initial position (e.g. gnon), but it is most frequently found in intervocalic, onset position or word-finally (e.g. montagne).
* Fricatives: French has three pairs of homorganic fricatives distinguished by voicing, i.e. labiodental , dental , and palato-alveolar . Notice that  are dental, like the plosives , and the nasal .
* French has one rhotic whose pronunciation varies considerably among speakers and phonetic contexts. In general it is described as a voiced uvular fricative as in  roue "wheel" . Vowels are often lengthened before this segment. It can be reduced to an approximant, particularly in final position (e.g. "fort") or reduced to zero in some word-final positions. For other speakers, a uvular trill is also fairly common, and an apical trill  occurs in some dialects.
* Lateral and central approximants: The lateral approximant  is unvelarised in both onset (''lire'') and coda position (''il''). In the onset, the central approximants , , and  each correspond to a high vowel, , , and  respectively. There are a few minimal pairs where the approximant and corresponding vowel contrast, but there are also many cases where they are in free variation. Contrasts between  and  occur in final position as in  ''paye'' "pay" vs.  ''pays'' "country".

French pronunciation follows strict rules based on spelling, but French spelling is often based more on history than phonology. The rules for pronunciation vary between dialects, but the standard rules are:
* final consonants: Final single consonants, in particular ''s'', ''x'', ''z'', ''t'', ''d'', ''n'' and ''m'', are normally silent. (The final letters ''c'', ''r'', ''f'' and ''l'', however, are normally pronounced.)
**When the following word begins with a vowel, though, a silent consonant ''may'' once again be pronounced, to provide a ''liaison'' or "link" between the two words. Some liaisons are ''mandatory'', for example the ''s'' in ''les amants'' or ''vous avez''; some are ''optional'', depending on register, for example the first ''s'' in ''deux cents euros'' or ''euros irlandais''; and some are ''forbidden'', for example the ''s'' in ''beaucoup d'hommes aiment''. The ''t'' of ''et'' is never pronounced and the silent final consonant of a noun is only pronounced in the plural and in set phrases like ''pied-à-terre''. Note that in the case of a word ending ''d'' as in ''pied-à-terre'', the consonant ''t'' is pronounced instead.
** Doubling a final ''n'' and adding a silent ''e'' at the end of a word (e.g. ''chien'' → ''chienne'') makes it clearly pronounced. Doubling a final ''l'' and adding a silent ''e'' (e.g. ''gentil'' → ''gentille'') adds a [j] sound.
* elision or vowel dropping: Some monosyllabic function words ending in ''a'' or ''e'', such as ''je'' and ''que'', drop their final vowel when placed before a word that begins with a vowel sound (thus avoiding a hiatus). The missing vowel is replaced by an apostrophe. (e.g. ''je ai'' is instead pronounced and spelt → ''j'ai''). This gives for example the same pronunciation for ''l'homme qu'il a vu'' ("the man whom he saw") and ''l'homme qui l'a vu'' ("the man who saw him").

==Orthography==

* Nasal: ''n'' and ''m''. When ''n'' or ''m'' follows a vowel or diphthong, the ''n'' or ''m'' becomes silent and causes the preceding vowel to become nasalized (i.e. pronounced with the soft palate extended downward so as to allow part of the air to leave through the nostrils). Exceptions are when the ''n'' or ''m'' is doubled, or immediately followed by a vowel. The prefixes ''en-'' and ''em-'' are always nasalized. The rules get more complex than this but may vary between dialects.
* Digraphs: French does not introduce extra letters or diacritics to specify its large range of vowel sounds and diphthongs, rather it uses specific combinations of vowels, sometimes with following consonants, to show which sound is intended.
* Gemination: Within words, double consonants are generally not pronounced as geminates in modern French (but geminates can be heard in the cinema or TV news from as recently as the 1970s, and in very refined elocution they may still occur). For example, ''illusion'' is pronounced  and not . But gemination does occur between words. For example, ''une info'' ("a news") is pronounced , whereas ''une nympho'' ("a nympho") is pronounced .
* Accents are used sometimes for pronunciation, sometimes to distinguish similar words, and sometimes for etymology alone.
**Accents that affect pronunciation
***The acute accent (''l'accent aigu''), ''é'' (e.g. ''école''—school), means that the vowel is pronounced  instead of the default .
***The grave accent (''l'accent grave''), ''è'' (e.g. ''élève''—pupil) means that the vowel is pronounced  instead of the default .
***The circumflex (''l'accent circonflexe'') ''ê'' (e.g. ''forêt''—forest) shows that an ''e'' is pronounced  and that an ''o'' is pronounced . In standard French it also signifies a pronunciation of  for the letter ''a'', but this differentiation is disappearing. In the late 19th century, the circumflex was used in place of ''s'' where that letter was not to be pronounced. Thus, ''forest'' became ''forêt'' and ''hospital'' became'' hôpital''.
***The diaeresis (''le tréma'') (e.g. ''naïf''—foolish, ''Noël''—Christmas) as in English, specifies that this vowel is pronounced separately from the preceding one, not combined and is not a schwa.
***The cedilla (''la cédille'') ''ç'' (e.g. ''garçon''—boy) means that the letter ''c'' is pronounced  in front of the hard vowels ''a'', ''o'' and ''u'' (''c'' is otherwise  before a hard vowel). ''C'' is always pronounced  in front of the soft vowels ''e'', ''i'', and ''y'', thus ''ç'' is never found in front of soft vowels.
**Accents with no pronunciation effect
***The circumflex does not affect the pronunciation of the letters ''i'' or ''u'', and in most dialects, ''a'' as well. It usually indicates that an ''s'' came after it long ago, as in ''hôtel''<!-- [http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Rapport_du_Conseil_sup%C3%A9rieur_de_la_langue_fran%C3%A7aise_sur_les_rectifications_orthographiques_de_1990#Accent_circonflexe_.28II.4.29] -->.
***All other accents are used only to distinguish similar words, as in the case of distinguishing the adverbs ''là'' and ''où'' ("there", "where") from the article ''la'' and the conjunction ''ou'' ("the" fem. sing., "or") respectively.

==Grammar==

French grammar shares several notable features with most other Romance languages, including:
* the loss of Latin's declensions
* only two grammatical genders
* the development of grammatical articles from Latin demonstratives
* new tenses formed from auxiliaries

French word order is Subject Verb Object, except when the object is a pronoun, in which case the word order is Subject Object Verb. Some rare archaisms allow for different word orders.

==Vocabulary==
The majority of French words derive from Vulgar Latin or were constructed from Latin or Greek roots. There are often pairs of words, one form being "popular" (noun) and the other one "savant" (adjective), both originating from Latin. Example:
* brother: ''frère'' / ''fraternel'' < from Latin ''frater''
* finger: ''doigt'' / ''digital'' < from Latin ''digitus''
* faith: ''foi'' / ''fidèle'' < from Latin ''fides''
* cold: ''froid'' / ''frigide'' < from Latin ''frigidus''
* eye: ''œil'' / ''oculaire'' < from Latin ''oculus''