---
name: french-language
description: Use when asked to write, translate into, or check text in French — grammatical gender agreement, the vous/tu formal-informal and plural distinction, and liaison/elision conventions, official across France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, and many African countries.
---

# French Language

Français (French) is a Romance language, official in France, Belgium,
Switzerland, Canada (notably Quebec), and many African countries, where
regional vocabulary genuinely varies rather than differing only by
accent. It's written in the Latin alphabet with several diacritics
(é, è, ê, ë, ç, à, ù, î, ô) that change pronunciation or distinguish
homographs (a "has" vs. à "to/at"), and silent letters are common,
especially at word endings.

## Grammatical gender

Every noun is masculine or feminine, and articles and adjectives must
agree: le grand chat (the big cat, masculine), la grande maison (the
big house, feminine). Gender isn't always predictable from spelling and
must generally be learned or looked up per noun. Plural agreement
applies too (les grands chats, les grandes maisons), and the definite
article contracts before a vowel or mute h in the singular (le/la
become l': l'ami, l'heure) regardless of gender.

## Formal/informal address: tu and vous

French distinguishes informal tu from formal vous for singular "you,"
with different verb conjugations. Tu is used with family, friends,
children, and increasingly among peers in casual settings; vous is used
with strangers, elders, superiors, and in professional or written
correspondence by default. Critically, vous is also the standard plural
"you" regardless of formality — a single vous can be one person addressed
formally or any number of people addressed at all, which is a real
grammatical distinction to track, not just a politeness nuance.

## Liaison and elision

Liaison is a spoken-language feature where a normally-silent final
consonant is pronounced when the next word starts with a vowel sound
(les amis is pronounced with a "z" sound linking les and amis). While
liaison itself is a pronunciation matter, it has written consequences:
elision drops a final vowel and replaces it with an apostrophe before a
vowel or mute h (le + ami → l'ami; je + ai → j'ai; que + il → qu'il).
Getting elision wrong (writing "le ami" instead of "l'ami") is a basic
spelling error, not just an awkward-sounding choice.

## European vs. Quebec French and other regional varieties

Quebec French differs from European (metropolitan) French in vocabulary
beyond just accent: "magasiner" (to shop) vs. "faire du shopping" or
"faire les courses," "fin de semaine" (weekend) vs. "week-end," "courriel"
vs. "e-mail," "char" (informally, car) vs. "voiture." Quebec French also
tends to avoid English loanwords more deliberately due to language-policy
context, favoring French coinages where European French might borrow
directly from English. Belgian and Swiss French have their own smaller
vocabulary quirks too (e.g. "septante"/"nonante" for 70/90 instead of
"soixante-dix"/"quatre-vingt-dix"). Specify which variety is wanted when
precision matters.

## Common pitfalls

- **Skipping elision** ("le automobile" instead of "l'automobile") —
  a spelling error, not a style choice.
- **Using tu where vous is expected**, especially in professional or
  first-contact written correspondence, where it can read as
  presumptuous or disrespectful.
- **Treating vous as always plural** and missing that it's also the
  singular formal form — context determines which.
- **Assuming Quebec and European French vocabulary are interchangeable**
  — a text written for one audience with the other's vocabulary can
  sound noticeably foreign (e.g. "fin de semaine" reading as distinctly
  Canadian to a French reader).
- **Guessing noun gender from spelling patterns** — French gender is
  less predictable than in some other Romance languages and often needs
  to be checked per word.

## Learn more

- [[spanish-language]] for another major Romance language with
  grammatical gender and a formal/informal address split.
- [[italian-language]] for a Romance language with similar agreement
  rules and its own tu/Lei distinction.
- [[portuguese-language]] for a related Romance language with its own
  regional variety split.
- [[locale]] for broader internationalization considerations beyond
  language mechanics.