French

Indo-European family · Romance branch · Eurasia

French is an SVO language, like 488 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.

On Position of Case Affixes, WALS codes French as “Prepositional clitics”, a value held by 17 of the 1,031 languages coded, Breton and Malagasy among them.

On Coding of Evidentiality, WALS codes French as “Modal morpheme”, a value held by 7 of the 418 languages coded, German and Dutch among them.

Only 1 language has more of the profile features coded than French.

The order French uses in 9 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast French with Italian or with any other language

Uncommon values

Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with French, rarest first.

Uvular ConsonantsUvular continuants only11 of 567
Distance Contrasts in DemonstrativesNo distance contrast7 of 234
The PerfectFrom possessive7 of 222
Front Rounded VowelsHigh and mid23 of 562
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate NegationNegative indefinites show mixed behaviour13 of 206
Relativization on SubjectsRelative pronoun12 of 166
Nonperiphrastic Causative ConstructionsBoth morphological type and compound type24 of 310
The Morphological ImperativeSecond singular43 of 548

Inside the Indo-European family

French matches the most frequent Indo-European value on 102 of the 141 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (72%). Among the 39 Indo-European languages profiled here, that rate ranks ninth from the top.

Where French breaks with a clear majority of its relatives
Feature	French	Most relatives
Expression of Pronominal Subjects	Obligatory pronouns in subject position	Pronominal subjects are expressed by affixes on verbs (4 of 4, Romance branch)
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	No morphological case-marking	Additive-quantitatively asymmetrical case-marking (4 of 4, Romance branch)

Closest profiles

Languages that share the most coded values with French; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.

Italian Indo-European55 of 65
Portuguese Indo-European36 of 44
Spanish Indo-European102 of 137
German Indo-European98 of 132
Russian Indo-European96 of 138

Outside the Indo-European family, the best match is Finnish (Uralic), with 79 of 137 features alike.

The rest of the profile

WALS codes French for 141 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 128 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value French shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 17

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems	Prominence: other factors are heavy for stress	41 of 500
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Low	58 of 564
Rhythm Types	Undetermined: no clear foot type	37 of 323
Weight-Sensitive Stress	Right-edge: Stress on ultimate or penultimate syllable	65 of 500
Vowel Nasalization	Contrastive nasal vowels present	64 of 244
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	Voicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives	158 of 567
Syllable Structure	Complex syllable structure	151 of 486
Vowel Quality Inventories	Large vowel inventory (7-14)	184 of 564
Consonant Inventories	Average	201 of 563
Fixed Stress Locations	No fixed stress (mostly weight-sensitive stress)	220 of 502
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems	/p t k b d g/	255 of 567
The Velar Nasal	No velar nasal	235 of 469
Tone	No tones	307 of 527
Lateral Consonants	/l/, no obstruent laterals	388 of 567
Glottalized Consonants	No glottalized consonants	409 of 567
Presence of Uncommon Consonants	None	449 of 567
Absence of Common Consonants	All present	503 of 567

Word structure 12

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Case Syncretism	Core and non-core	22 of 198
Exponence of Tense-Aspect-Mood Inflection	TAM+agreement	19 of 160
Reduplication	No productive reduplication	55 of 368
Locus of Marking in the Clause	P has no marking	42 of 236
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking	Subject person/number marking is syncretic	60 of 198
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb	4-5 categories per word	52 of 145
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases	Possessor is dependent-marked	98 of 236
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Predominantly suffixing	406 of 969
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives	No case	75 of 162
Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology	Inconsistent marking or other type	121 of 236
Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives	Exclusively concatenative	125 of 165
Zero Marking of A and P Arguments	Non-zero marking	219 of 235

Nouns and pronouns 25

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns	Person-number stem with a nominal plural affix	22 of 261
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives	Related by gender markers	24 of 225
The Associative Plural	Associative plural absent	37 of 236
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns	Gender distinctions in 3rd person singular only	61 of 378
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives	Different stems	37 of 201
Ordinal Numerals	First, second, three-th	61 of 321
Number of Genders	Two	50 of 257
Indefinite Articles	Numeral for 'one' is used as indefinite article	112 of 534
Systems of Gender Assignment	Semantic and formal assignment	59 of 257
Comitatives and Instrumentals	Identity	76 of 322
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns	Second person pronouns encode a binary politeness distinction	49 of 207
Distributive Numerals	No distributive numerals	62 of 251
Indefinite Pronouns	Generic-noun-based indefinites	85 of 326
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	No possessive affixes	260 of 902
Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems	Sex-based gender system	84 of 257
Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers	Formally different	40 of 116
Definite Articles	Definite word distinct from demonstrative	216 of 620
Number of Cases	No morphological case-marking	100 of 261
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection	No inclusive/exclusive opposition	79 of 200
Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns	Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally differentiated	74 of 168
Occurrence of Nominal Plurality	Plural in all nouns, always obligatory	133 of 291
Coding of Nominal Plurality	Plural suffix	513 of 1,066
Person Marking on Adpositions	Adpositions without person marking	209 of 378
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns	No inclusive/exclusive opposition	120 of 200
Numeral Classifiers	Numeral classifiers are absent	260 of 400

Noun phrases 8

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Action Nominal Constructions	Ergative-Possessive	21 of 168
Possessive Classification	No possessive classification	125 of 243
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction	Nominal and verbal conjunction are largely identical	161 of 301
Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses	Highly differentiated	77 of 138
Noun Phrase Conjunction	AND-languages: 'and' and 'with' are not identical	131 of 234
Adjectives without Nouns	Adjective may occur without noun, and without marking	73 of 124
Obligatory Possessive Inflection	No obligatorily possessed nouns	201 of 244
Number of Possessive Nouns	None reported	233 of 243

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 14

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect	Suppletion in both tense and aspect	24 of 193
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	Overlap for both possibility and necessity	36 of 207
The Prohibitive	Normal imperative + normal negative	113 of 496
Epistemic Possibility	Verbal constructions	65 of 240
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	Only indirect evidentials	166 of 418
The Past Tense	Past/non-past distinction marked; no remoteness distinction	94 of 222
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect	Grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction	101 of 222
The Future Tense	Inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction	110 of 222
Imperative-Hortative Systems	The language has neither a maximal nor a minimal system	201 of 375
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	Tense-aspect suffixes	667 of 1,131
Situational Possibility	Verbal constructions	158 of 234
Suppletion in Imperatives and Hortatives	None (= no suppletive imperatives reported in the reference material)	153 of 193
Verbal Number and Suppletion	No singular-(dual)-plural pairs/triples	159 of 193
The Optative	Inflectional optative absent	271 of 319

Word order 13

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Polar Question Particles	Question particle at beginning of sentence	129 of 884
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions	Interrogative phrases obligatorily initial	264 of 902
Order of Genitive and Noun	Noun-genitive (NGen)	468 of 1,249
Order of Numeral and Noun	Numeral precedes noun (NumN)	479 of 1,154
Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb	Verb-object-oblique (VOX)	210 of 500
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase	Prepositions	511 of 1,184
Order of Demonstrative and Noun	Demonstrative word precedes noun (DemN)	542 of 1,225
Order of Object and Verb	Object follows verb (VO)	705 of 1,518
Order of Degree Word and Adjective	Degree word precedes adjective (DegAdj)	227 of 481
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause	Initial subordinator word	398 of 659
Order of Adjective and Noun	Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj)	879 of 1,367
Order of Relative Clause and Noun	Relative clause follows noun (NRel)	579 of 824
Order of Subject and Verb	Subject precedes verb (SV)	1,192 of 1,496

Simple clauses 21

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Reciprocal Constructions	Mixed	16 of 175
Comparative Constructions	Particle Comparative	22 of 167
Verbal Person Marking	Person marking of only the A argument	73 of 378
Nominal and Locational Predication	Identical	117 of 386
Predicative Adjectives	Predicative adjectives have nonverbal encoding	132 of 386
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns	Nominative - accusative (standard)	61 of 172
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation	Symmetric standard negation only: Type Sym	114 of 297
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation	Non-assignable (no asymmetry found)	114 of 297
Negative Morphemes	Negative particle	502 of 1,157
Passive Constructions	There is a passive construction	162 of 373
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking	No zero realization of third person S forms	181 of 380
Order of Person Markers on the Verb	A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb	187 of 379
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'	Indirect-object construction	189 of 378
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases	Neutral	98 of 190
Applicative Constructions	No applicative construction	100 of 183
Other Roles of Applied Objects	No applicative construction	100 of 183
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is impossible	211 of 386
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking	Accusative alignment	212 of 380
Polar Questions	Question particle	585 of 955
Antipassive Constructions	No antipassive	146 of 194
Productivity of the Antipassive Construction	no antipassive	146 of 186

Complex sentences 6

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Relativization on Obliques	Relative Pronoun Strategy	13 of 112
Utterance Complement Clauses	Balanced/deranked	18 of 143
Reason Clauses	Balanced/deranked	37 of 169
'When' Clauses	Balanced/deranked	39 of 174
'Want' Complement Subjects	The complement subject is left implicit	144 of 283
Purpose Clauses	Deranked	102 of 170

Vocabulary 12

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Number of Basic Colour Categories	More than 10 categories	11 of 119
M-T Pronouns	M-T pronouns, paradigmatic	27 of 230
M in First Person Singular	m in first person singular	53 of 230
Number of Non-Derived Basic Colour Categories	6 categories	29 of 119
Green and Blue	Green and blue	30 of 120
Tea	Words derived from Min Nan Chinese te	84 of 230
Hand and Arm	Different	389 of 617
Numeral Bases	Decimal	125 of 196
M in Second Person Singular	No m in second person singular	152 of 230
Red and Yellow	Red and yellow	98 of 120
N-M Pronouns	No N-M pronouns	194 of 230
Finger and Hand	Different	521 of 593