French (français)
French (fr, fra) belongs to the Southern European language. Wikidata records about 208.2M speakers. It is written in French alphabet. It is an official language in 28 countries, including Belgium, Benin, Burundi and Cameroon.
French needs non-breaking spaces before ; : ! ? and inside « guillemets ». Choose tu or vous consistently, and decide between France and Canadian French conventions.
Expect text translated from English into French to grow by roughly 15–25%, which matters for layouts, subtitles and page counts.
In the United States, 1,227,947 people aged 5+ speak French at home (Census ACS), and 265,024 of them (22%) speak English less than "very well" — a key indicator of demand for French translators and interpreters.
Translation guides
Where French is official
- Belgium
- Benin
- Burundi
- Cameroon
- Canada
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Comoros
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Djibouti
- Equatorial Guinea
- France
- Gabon
- Guinea
- Haiti
- Ivory Coast
- Luxembourg
- Madagascar
- Mauritania
- Mauritius
- Monaco
- Republic of the Congo
- Rwanda
- Senegal
- Seychelles
- Switzerland
- Togo
- Vanuatu
Rates for French translation
French falls in our major western european band: roughly $0.08–$0.16 per word for general commercial work. These are indicative ranges, not quotes — specialised, certified and rush work costs more, and literary translation is usually priced per 1,000 words.
For context, the median salaried translator or interpreter in the US earned $60,170 in May 2025 (BLS). See salaries by state →
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