法语（le français 或 la langue française）属于印欧语系罗曼语族，是继西班牙语之后，用户人数最多的罗曼语言之一。除此之外，法语也是世界上57个国家、联合国和几乎所有国际组织，如欧盟、北约、奥运会、世贸和国际红十字会等的官方语言及正式行政语言。法语在11世纪曾是除了中古汉语以外，当时世界上使用最多的语言。现时全世界有约一亿人把它作为母语，以及其他2.8亿人使用它（包括把它作为第二语言的人），目前仍在增长中，尤其是在非洲大陆。仅次于英语，法语是世上第二被广泛使用的语言，共有约57个国家、几乎所有国际组织（例如联合国、欧洲联盟）将其列作官方语言及行政语言。法语是很多地区或组织的官方语言。法国法语和魁北克法语是世界上最主要的两**语分支，由于从同个法语方言分化而成，沟通上有些障碍，因为这两种法语是有区别，尤其是发音，以及少数语法。

French (le français [lə fʁɑ̃sɛ] or la langue française [la lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛz]) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the spoken Latin language of the Roman Empire, as did languages such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian, Catalan and others. French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French (Francien) has largely supplanted. French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the (Germanic) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to France's past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, most notably Haitian Creole. A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French.