Introduction:
French or langue française is a Romance language of the Indo-European family.
French is also one of the six official languages used in the United Nations. French is an official language in 29 countries across multiple continents, most of which are members of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), a community of 84 countries that share the official use or teaching of French.
It is spoken as a first language (in descending order of the number of speakers) in France, Canada (provinces of Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick as well as other Francophone regions), Belgium (Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region), western Switzerland (Romandy—all or part of the cantons of Bern, Fribourg, Geneva, Jura, Neuchâtel, Vaud, Valais), Monaco, parts of Luxembourg, parts of the United States (the states of Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont), northwestern Italy (autonomous region of Aosta Valley), and various communities elsewhere.
French is the second most taught foreign language in the EU. All institutions of the EU use French as a working language along with English and German.
French is the 6th most spoken language by a total number of speakers. It is the second or third most studied language worldwide.
French is a primary or second language of many international organizations including the United Nations, the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the World Trade Organization, the International Olympic Committee, and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese.