la langue française
The English phrase "the french language" is la langue française in French.
la langue française is used to refer to the official language spoken in France and other French-speaking countries. For more poetic or elegant descriptions, you might encounter the expression La langue de Molière (the language of Molière). Additionally, Le français, la langue de l'amour is used to say "French, the language of love", while the casual phrase Le français, c'est cool means "French is cool".
What does it mean word for word?
The phrase la langue française is composed of the feminine definite article la, the noun langue (language) and the feminine adjective française (French).
Is it said differently in some regions?
When referring to specific regional variants, you can use Le français québécois for the French spoken in Quebec, Canada or Le français belge for the French spoken in Belgium.
How does it change in a sentence?
Because the noun langue is feminine, the adjective française must also be in its feminine form to agree with it. When you are referring to the language itself as a subject or object without using the word langue, you should use the masculine noun le français.
Did you know?
- The purity of la langue française is guarded by an official institution called the Académie française, which decides which new words are allowed to enter the language.
- To ensure la langue française became the sole national tongue, France historically banned the use of regional languages like occitan and picard in schools.
- The word langue is a direct descendant of the Latin word lingua, which meant both 'tongue' and 'language'.
Examples in context
- La langue française comporte beaucoup de synonymes.The French language is rich in synonyms.Tatoeba #459456 by sacredceltic, translation #448727 by CN
- Avec la colonisation, on diffuse aussi la langue française.With colonization, we also spread the French language.Tatoeba #2272210 by Aiji, translation #11194897 by SunnyMoon
- En Asie, la langue française est souvent associée au romantisme.In Asia, the French language is often associated with romanticism.Tatoeba #1468622 by sysko, translation #2737011 by alsing
- J'apprends le français.I am learning the French language.
- La langue française est belle.The French language is beautiful.
- Je souhaite étudier la langue de Molière.I wish to study the language of Molière.
- J'adore parler le français, la langue de l'amour.I love speaking French, the language of love.
- Ah ouais, le français, c'est cool !Yeah, French is cool!
- J'apprends le français québécois.I am learning Quebecois French.
- J'aime écouter le français belge.I love listening to Belgian French.
- J'adore le français. C'est une belle langue.I adore French. It's a beautiful language.
- Je souhaite apprendre la langue de Molière pour lire ses pièces de théâtre.I wish to learn the language of Molière to read his plays.
- Le français, c'est vraiment cool ! Tu devrais l'apprendre aussi.French is really cool! You should learn it too.
- J'aime beaucoup le français québécois. C'est différent, mais intéressant.I really like Quebecois French. It's different, but interesting.
- 14 more sentences on Tatoeba
Example conversation
Emma and Hugo are discussing their university studies in a cafe.
- HugoTu étudies la langue française à l'université ?Are you studying the French language at university?
- EmmaOui, j'adore apprendre la langue française.Yes, I love learning the French language.
- HugoC'est une langue très élégante.It is a very elegant language.
- EmmaC'est vrai, Hugo, c'est pour ça que je l'aime.That's true, Hugo, that's why I love it.
Sources
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries la, langue, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
