French, like its sister Romance languages, is derived from Vulgar Latin due to the Roman Empire once occupying its territory. The language has its earliest origins in Northern Gaul specifically.

The French language, along with the country of France, gets its name from the Franks—a post-Roman Germanic tribe who inhabited the area.

French diverged significantly from Classical Latin, especially when compared to Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. One major reason for this divergence is that French was influenced by old Celtic words from Gaul, as well as many Germanic words brought by the Franks.

French is the official language in over 25 countries. Outside of France, it is the main language in Quebec, parts of Central Africa, and is widely spoken in Upper and Western Africa.

French is the 16th most spoken language by native speakers, but it rises to the 6th most spoken language when counting total number of speakers.

Due to William the Conqueror and the House of Plantagenet being of French origin, a dialect of French was the official language of England for about 300 years, until the reign of King Henry IV of the House of Lancaster.

Because of the French influence on English royalty, about 60% of modern English vocabulary has roots in French in some form.

In Old French, word order was more similar to Classical Latin, but this changed significantly with the development of Modern French.

While bonjour is the standard way to say “hello” in French, it technically means “good day.” This explains why it’s not close to the Spanish hola, but more similar in meaning to buenos días.

The French alphabet uses the same 26 letters as English, but the letter W is only found in loanwords.

The French word for 80, quatre-vingts, literally translates to “four twenties.”

French is the only language besides English that is an official language on every inhabited continent.

Like English, silent letters are very common in French.

The French word for potato, pomme de terre, literally means “apple of the earth.”

The French language was a primary foundation for the development of the metric system.

Like Spanish and its Romance language cousins, the letter H is always silent in French.

French in Quebec and Cajun French in Louisiana have their own unique words and phrases, though both are mutually intelligible with standard French. Over 30 distinct French dialects have existed—some are extinct, while others are endangered.

French speakers even created an organization to resist the influence of English loanwords in the language, though some have still made their way in.