Spoken by 12% of the population, French is the fourth most widely spoken mother tongue in the , after German, English and Italian; it is also the third most widely known language of the Union, after English and German. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public except in specific cases and legal contracts; must bear a translation of foreign words.
As of 2015, there are 29 independent nations where French is an official language. The following is a list of sovereign states and territories where is an official or de facto language.
A world language is a spoken internationally and that is learned by many people as a second language . A world language is characterized not only by the total number of speakers (native and second language speakers), but also by its geographical distribution, and use in international organisations and diplomatic relations . By these criteria, the major world languages are of origin. The historical reason for this is the period of European exploration and colonialism.
The world's most widely used language is English, which has over 1 billion users worldwide. French, which has long been the language of diplomacy, still remains one of the working languages of many international organizations
