Is french famous in the US?

Posted by LucasWizzard@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 301 comments

It's the french language famous in the US?Like rather than english,spanish is the second language more speaked in the US because there's a lot of immigrants from latin america(Specially mexicans,there's a lot of mexicans in the US),but there's a lot of americans who speak french?

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LakashY@reddit

I have only encountered one person in the U.S. that spoke French and she majored in it in college.

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DevilPixelation@reddit

French is one of the more popular languages here, and it’s probably the second-most learned foreign language after Spanish in schools and colleges. The US has a long history with France, not to mention big communities of French descendants in Louisiana and the Northeast. According to the US Census Bureau there’s around a million French speakers here, give or take.

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Lisztchopinovsky@reddit

I would say it’s probably the third most famous behind Spanish and English. Areas like New Orleans and parts of New England have a French subculture.

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Apart_Insect_8859@reddit

I wouldn't say a French speaker would be "famous" but they would be a novelty.

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PaintSoggy4488@reddit

I'm learning french actually. It's not spanish or mandarin or arabic, but it is still relatively popular with millions of speakers.

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TsundereLoliDragon@reddit

There's apparently around 1 million French speakers. But in general, yes, we're very aware of the French language and use many French words and sayings even in common English. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_language_in_the_United_States

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LinuxLinus@reddit

In a nation of nearly 350,000,000, one million ain't much. There are far more speakers of Tagalog and Mandarin at this point.

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-Moose_Soup-@reddit

I'm actually surprised it's only 1 million. If you think of all the countries in the world that speak French due to colonialism, I'm surprised we don't have enough immigrants combined with native French speakers to make up more than 1 million.

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LinuxLinus@reddit

Interesting point. I wonder if Haitian immigrants are classified as French speakers or as Haitian Creole or something like that.

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CantHostCantTravel@reddit

Yeah, I would definitely say that the French language is “popular” in the US, relatively speaking. Along with Spanish, it’s a language that basically every American high school will offer.

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SomeBroOnTheInternet@reddit

It exists, Idk what makes a language famous though. Mostly everyone in the US speaks English all the time. Occasionally you'll meet French speakers from parts of Canada. My highschool had French as a foreign language option (along with Spanish and German), but not many people took it. Maybe 30% of us took more Spanish classes than required, and I'd say less than 10% in total of us took either German or French.

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Weightmonster@reddit

It’s very commonly studied. We also have a lot of French or French Creole speaking immigrants.

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CleverJack299@reddit

up here in NY? not really no, cool ig but I feel like Spanish is a more practical language.

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fckdeze@reddit

i mean i guess. my grandpas first language was french but they used to beat him if he spoke it in school.

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No_Street8874@reddit

No, French is very rare in most of the country.

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blueponies1@reddit

I wouldn’t say it’s famous by any means. It’s a popular choice for secondary language learning potentially second after Spanish. I took French classes in middle school (fairly baseline), german in highschool (4 years, I am a good german speaker) and Spanish in college. Just 2 years but I’m decent at spanish, supplemented by working in a kitchen for years and dating / living with Hispanic people.

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ABelleWriter@reddit

After English and Spanish, Mandarin is the next most spoken language in the US. 1.2 million Americans speak French, and that might sound like a lot, but 3.4 million speak mandarin, and 45 million speak Spanish. The top 5 languages are English, Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Tagalog.

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Ok_Coconut4898@reddit

French is not as widely spoken in the US as other languages like Spanish, Chinese, and Filipino. I am in the Western US and I rarely meet French speakers. I have known a few people from France, but they have all been fluent in English and very integrated into mainstream culture, usually intermarried with Americans. There are enclaves of Haitian French-speaking immigrants, but they are mostly in the Eastern part of the country. In the Western US, Spanish is by far the most dominant language after English and I think it’s the foreign language that Americans are most likely to study in school and be able to speak. Most people in the west are able to understand and speak at least a little Spanish.

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Additional-Grade3221@reddit

\>there's a lot of americans who speak french That's just Louisiana (and Maine). Not nearly as common as Spanish though.

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benicebuddy@reddit

Another episode of Maine Justice.

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Agitated_Reveal_6211@reddit

How do you say in Maine French: That Moose is getting in the way of my ATV.

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SonuvaGunderson@reddit

Cahn’t get theah from heah.

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SuzQP@reddit

Oh, ayuh, they must be 'from away.'

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FatGuyOnAMoped@reddit

Probably not from "Banguh", nah

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SuzQP@reddit

They-uhs new people up to Millinocket areah. Only been heah 20 yeahs, gottuh watch 'um.

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FatGuyOnAMoped@reddit

As we'd say in Minnesota, "oh, that's different".

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SuzQP@reddit

In that northern sing-song cadence! Like, "Oh-you-betcha!"

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FatGuyOnAMoped@reddit

You're getting it! [Here's a good primer on how to talk Minnesotan (RIP Howard Mohr)](https://youtu.be/oiSzwoJr4-0?si=Zrq0b8Xs98hukLsY)

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Tron_35@reddit

Yeah, outside of Louisiana and Maine, French speakers are definitely a minority. And its always and options to learn at every school ive been to, but its never a popular class, way more people take Spanish, probably because Spanish feels more practical, and you are way more likely to meet a Spanish speaking person than French in most areas.

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BigCommieMachine@reddit

And you have a VERY small chance of actually coming across French speaking Mainers because these communities are REALLY remote. Like we are talking backwoods logging folk.

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KtaadnRota@reddit

That was and is true but Maine also has a lot of French speakers of African origin in the Portland area.

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UnknowableDuck@reddit

There's a pretty huge African immigrant community in Columbus, Ohio where I lived for a time and there was a decent sized French speaking contingent there too.

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iamStanhousen@reddit

Even in Louisiana it’s a really small part of the state south of I-10 and New Orleans. And sadly that culture is not nearly as strong as it was a generation ago.

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amethystmmm@reddit

Yeah, I think we had 2 Spanish teachers, but our French teacher (who was German) still had time in her schedule to start German I so that our school could offer German as well. We got an additional French and Spanish teacher the year after I graduated, but also (our school was split weirdly, so 8th and 9th were in a seperate building, and they switched to 3 schools instead of 4 and moved 8th in with 6th and 7th and the Freshman to the high school) more students.

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maestra612@reddit

ASL is a more popular choice than French at my son's highschool.

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Cassidy_Cloudchaser@reddit

It's more useful.

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amethystmmm@reddit

yes, but I went to school in the 90s and they were still trying to "mainstream" deaf kids and force them to use English as a first Language and not ASL.

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Tron_35@reddit

I actually wanted to learn asl but my high school didn't offer it.

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Tron_35@reddit

We also had school had 1 French and 2 Spanish.

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big_sugi@reddit

FWIW, my high school (DC area, late 90s) had more students taking French than Spanish.

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QuinceDaPence@reddit

Spanish increases employment opportunities. If you find someone that speaks French they most certainly know English.

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glorious_cheese@reddit

My wife took French in high school. Her dad argued that she should take Spanish since they lived in SoCal. She countered that she was just as likely to need French after college. Nope, it hasn’t even been close. We’ve spent a ton of time in Spain and Central America (and might buy property in Nicaragua.) I don’t think we’ve ever travelled somewhere French-speaking.

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SmeeezTreeez@reddit

I took both and didnt learn a goddamn thing, wish I paid attention in school cuz I would love to be able to speak another language

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PerfectlyCalmDude@reddit

There are schools where it's not even offered.

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I-Love-Buses@reddit

From some casual Google searching it looks like about 1.2 million people in the US speak French. That is less than 0.5% of the population. Not sure how accurate those numbers are though 🤷‍♂️

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shelwood46@reddit

I'm going to guess a fair amount took it in school, but very few use it in their daily life unless they come from a family or ethnicity that uses French.

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I-Love-Buses@reddit

ahhhh, ya that’s probs true. My wife actually knows French but almost never uses it anymore. That’s why I was just baseline curious about this topic. But yah, I bet you’re right!

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Meowmeowmeow31@reddit

It’s obviously not as common as Spanish, but I hear West African French at least a few times a week. It depends on the immigrant groups in your area.

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tardisintheparty@reddit

It's probably one of the most common languages taught in schools though, so there's a larger amount of people with some familiarity at least with the language, if not basic conversational knowledge.

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SimpleAd1604@reddit

This. I took one semester in high school 40 years ago. I recognize quite a few words and several phrases but I’d never say I speak French. For some reason, I can ask if you have a napkin, lol.

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whip_lash_2@reddit

If OP is French, I'm not sure he'd understand what's being spoken in either Louisiana or Maine, or vice versa, without a transcript anyway.

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KtaadnRota@reddit

Sure he would. These places have regional dialects but it's still French. It's like speaking English with a Scot. Sometimes they'll say something that makes you say "what?" but it's not like you can't communicate.

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whip_lash_2@reddit

I'll definitely take your word for it, especially if you're French or from one of those areas, but I have been told the French struggle especially with heavy slang. I am sure basic communication is still possible but communication is possible with me in Franglish, which is a pretty low bar. For what it's worth I have no problem with Scots but usually have to turn on the subtitles for the Northern English, so maybe it's just me.

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No_Discipline5218@reddit

The French spoken in Louisiana is different than the French spoken in France. You can watch videos on YouTube of native French speakers trying to understand Cajun French speakers.

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Morlain7285@reddit

Not so much in Maine anymore. Most people I know have grandparents who speak French and parents who don't know a word of it, so it's very much a dying language here

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ascended-dawg@reddit

It’s unfortunate. My grandparents spoke French at home so my aunts and uncles could maybe get by in New Brunswick or Quebec with their “franglaise”, but none of my generation know anything beyond some curse words lol. Fuckin way she goes though.

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Additional-Grade3221@reddit

Still significantly more common than the rest of the country bar LA.

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PossumJenkinsSoles@reddit

I mean it’s really not even that common here in Louisiana outside a few key phrases most people know and repeat that are more Cajun French than French French. All four of my grandparents spoke French exclusively as children before going to school, once in school they weren’t allowed to speak anything but English while there. At home they weren’t allowed to speak English. It was a surprisingly short walk to English only with just school influence.

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HaplessReader1988@reddit

Northern New York waves its hand wildly. And there's a surprisingly strong community in Connecticut.

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RonPalancik@reddit

There may still be a few French speakers in St. Genevieve, Missouri.

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manicpixidreamgirl04@reddit

There's a surprising number of French immigrants and expats in other areas. Lots of cities have French schools.

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Standard-Jaguar-8793@reddit

And New Hampshire! Especially north of the White Mountains.

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This-Professional-39@reddit

Moved from one to the other and ran into same group lol

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AdinaArcherCoaching@reddit

There are a lot of French speakers in Maine and northern New Hampshire and Vermont because of its proximity to Quebec.

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GreenBeanTM@reddit

The only person I’ve ever known who spoke a decent amount of French was my first ballet teacher, and even then she mostly just knew ballet terms and their definitions. Then there was my second and third ballet teachers who did only know the ballet terms. Then I know like 3 people who know a handful of words because they took French in school. No, French is not commonly spoken here.

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AnitaIvanaMartini@reddit

Yes, of course. A lot of people speak French. Louisiana has a culture and language deeply-rooted in its French beginnings. It even has a state government based on Napoleonic Law. A few other states have many areas of French culture, and heritage, particularly those along major river roots, like the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Maine also has a large population with French background and some of these people speak French, but as a second language, they learned in school rather than one they speak at home.

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WatchThatTime@reddit

It is. My sister took four years of it in high school. In my area it’s a tie between French and Spanish as the secondary language you can take for school.

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Ok_Concept_8883@reddit

The language, i wouldnt say so. The food is absolutely still fetishized; as well as the fashion in some circles.

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Overall_Chemist1893@reddit

No, not as many as there used to be. We have immigrant populations that came here from French Canada many years ago, and they settled in Maine; but most of them speak English by now. We also have a large number of Haitian-Americans, especially in New York and Massachusetts, and while their day-to-day language is Kreyol, I've found that they studied in French in school in Haiti, and many can still speak or understand it. But most immigrants who come here these days tend to speak Spanish, rather than French.

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hodl4win@reddit

I'm born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I've lived in multiple parts of the state over the years.. Only a very tiny population speak French here. Around Breaux Bridge and Lafayette, down towards the gulf coast in a few places but for the most part, it's not nearly as common as ppl tend to believe.

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botulizard@reddit

It depends. The area I live in was settled by French fur traders and missionaries, so a lot of towns and roads have French names to this day.

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myOEburner@reddit

French is, by and large, a dying language. The only people who speak it outside of France cling to it as an artifact of their identity more than a practical language. So, yeah, it's "famous" in that people know what it is, but it's sort of a novelty more than anything else.

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prole6@reddit

I took 4 years of French. It was that or Spanish or Latin. I figured Quebec was closer than Mexico.

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FemboyEngineer@reddit

French is commonly taught in schools, but it's way less common for Americans to speak it (~0.4% proficiency). Almost as many of us actually speak French-based creole languages as French itself, due to French-Caribbean immigration.

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Cassidy_Cloudchaser@reddit

No. God , that is THE most French thing to think. You are not the center of the universe.

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SabresBills69@reddit

Spanish speaking immigrants has only been a thing Overvthe last 50 years. in the 70s Spanish speaking was only dominant along Mexico border, South Florida, New York City and a few other cities. Before mid 60s hsngebin immigration rules you had a long standing population of Mexican descent in the SW ZuS and Californian being former Mexican territory. canada has been bilingual. Growing up in a border state you had an equal number taking French and Spanish. given the growth of Spanish speakers all over the country , taking spanish is much more common and for many it can be critical in their career choices. For example in jobs like customer service, teachers, nurses you will likely encounter more Spanish first speakers so knowing this language can be valuable in your career. in some parts of the country you can have a large immigrant population from a country and knowing the language could be important.

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SnowblindAlbino@reddit

A lot? No. But French was generally the #2 foreign language offered in US schools (far behind Spanish) unless it was in a region with a cultural heritage that made something else (i.e. German) more common. I took French in high school in the early 1980s.

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LifeApprehensive2818@reddit

When I was in HS in the 00s, it was fairly clear it was hanging on by a thread. It has very tough competition. Spanish was seen as globally relevant, and a third of parents believed the pamphlets that said Latin was the key to SAT salvation. French drew a very small number of students who had ties to France or Quebec, or wanted to travel to France. It's since been replaced at my old school by Mandarin, since it actually draws an even number of students.

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peabody_soul109@reddit

I think that totally depends where you live. My school offered four languages and French was not one of them.

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TheLizardKing89@reddit

Here in California, my high school offered Spanish and French. There was one French teacher and half a dozen Spanish teachers.

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PacSan300@reddit

Similar situation at my school in California. Lots of Spanish teachers, but only 2 for French. And out of those two, only one of them taught just French; the other taught both French and Spanish. There was also just one teacher each for German and Japanese. So yeah, “world language” at my school was mostly Spanish.

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therealCatnuts@reddit

My mother grew up speaking German in the house. And we grew up in a very German Catholic area, where the only other languages taught in high school were German and Spanish.

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LinuxLinus@reddit

Yeah, I was fluent as a teenager in the 90s, when my family spent some time living near Lyon & then Brest. I basically haven't spoken it since. It had some utility a long time ago for following cycling and soccer, but now there are good English-language sources for both that are easy to find.

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ITrCool@reddit

I studied some French for a while. I went to Paris to visit some extended family over there back in 2011 and came back inspired to learn more. Currently studying Spanish too, but French is my strongest foreign language from US English.

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sneezhousing@reddit

I don't know stats but I guess third most spoken. However that's in a few states

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ToxDocUSA@reddit

I took 5 years of French in secondary school, then was a French major at university. I have encountered a French speaker maybe 3 times in the 20 years since finishing university? And two of those were just hobbyists like me. The one time it was actually useful for me was having a patient in the ER who spoke French, but only spoke it to her girlfriends who were with her (she spoke English to me). I didn't let on I knew what she was saying to her friends, but it wound up confirming for me that she was trying to abuse the system for meds.

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M_Looka@reddit

Here is a list of the most common languags spoken in the home in the US: 1. English 2. Spanish 3. Chinese 4. Tagalog 5. Vietnamese 6. Arabic 7. French 8. Korean 9. Russian

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iLiveInAHologram94@reddit

No not at all common. In Canada it is.

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yeezymcsleezyo_0@reddit

It is probably the second most commonly taught language in schools after Spanish. However, the majority of people who take it in school never become proficient or fluent in it. It's mostly just available as an option for extra credit in school. It's more common in Canada for obvious reasons.

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Turbulent_Bullfrog87@reddit

This is equally true for Spanish. No one I knew in high school retained any of the foreign languages we studied.

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esaule@reddit

Lots, no. But don't assume you can speak French freely and no one will understand you. But also don't expect to easily find a French speaker either. There are plenty of French immigrant (me for instance), of Canadian immigrant (who either are native French speaker or who may have learned it in school), of African immigrant (who may have learned French there). And that's before all the american-born who may have learned it at some point.

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deadbeef56@reddit

When I was growing up in the 60s and 70s French was the default second language that students started learning in middle school. I don't think any other languages were offered (except Latin) until high school. Since then there has been a huge increase in the Hispanic population, and I'm pretty sure Spanish has overtaken French as the default second language.

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transliminaltribe2@reddit

When I was in elementary school in the 60s, we had the option of learning Spanish or French, so from my perspective, it's always been "well known", although more people pick Spanish since it's generally more practical in the US.

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Rich-Contribution-84@reddit

Define “a lot.” My wife is from New Orleans - her grandparents are from Lafayette (Louisiana, USA). They (the grandparents) grew up in the 1930s-1950s speaking French at home. I think that was still fairly common around that time in South Louisiana. French is one of the top 10 most spoken languages in the USA - at 7th. A lot of us do study basic French in school but we don’t learn enough to say that we “speak” French. I suspect that 95%+ of Americans know some basic French vocabulary, but according to census data, only about 1.2 million Americans speak French. That compares to Vietnamese (1.6 million), Arabic (1.4 million), Korean (1.1 million), Russian (1.05 million), and Portuguese (1 million) as the rest of spots 5-10. English, Spanish, Chinese (including a combination of all major dialects), and Tagalong are the top 4. For context, Spanish is spoken by 45 million ~ and is the only language other than English that is spoken by more than 3.5 million people.

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AgileSurprise1966@reddit

Its not so much that we have a lot of French speakers, although there are some, but more so that English has a huge amount of French loanwords and phrases that have come into the language at various points- sometimes the same word more than once in different forms (Madam/Madame) from1066 onward. The languages are closer than one might think, especially if you are reading French rather than listening to it.

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Livid_Accountant1241@reddit

In school, French is probably the second most common language taught.

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PghSubie@reddit

"famous" ??

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Practical-Ordinary-6@reddit

Not really, no. Aside from Louisiana and parts of Maine and New England, the only people who really speak French in any kind of numbers are people who learned it as kids in school and usually don't speak it very well. You're more likely to run it into somebody who speaks an Indian language or Brazilian Portuguese or Polish or Ukrainian or Chinese or Korean than someone who speaks French, I think. We never had a huge amount of immigration from France and most of the old European immigration has been assimilated by now.

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EulerIdentity@reddit

French is not widely spoken in the United States but many French words and phrases are in common usage. French is also a prestige language in the USA in the sense that it is associated with a certain social class. If you’re running for political office in the United States and you speak French well, prepare to be mocked as an upper class snob who probably drinks expensive wine and doesn’t understand the problems of ordinary Americans. You can run for political office in the United States while speaking Spanish and you won’t have that specific problem.

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Ravenclaw79@reddit

Most of us don’t get much chance to use it, but it’s one of the most commonly taught foreign languages

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leighalan@reddit

A lot of us took high school French lol. I actually studied French history in college so I kept mine up. But I’m an outlier and also my French is très mauvais.

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DrBlankslate@reddit

No. Mostly you'll find French speakers in Louisiana and Maine, but not outside of those areas.

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DharmaCub@reddit

That's not what famous means is English. Famous means well known, which yes sure French is. But it is not spoken at the same rate as a language like Spanish or Mandarin.

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GreatGoodBad@reddit

it’s pretty hard to find anyone that speaks french fluently that isn’t french canadian, an immigrant, etc. However, there are many haitians here that do speak french, you just have to find their communities.

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ForestOranges@reddit

Honestly only upper class Haitians speak French, most of them speak Haitian Creole which is an entirely different language based off French. Haitians can usually understand some French but unless they were upper class (private schools, members of the government, etc.) they usually don’t speak it.

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Massive-Telephone374@reddit

No

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MWSin@reddit

French is the seventh most frequently spoken language in the US, in terms of population who speak it as their primary language at home, after English, Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Arabic. Personally, I would have listed the dialects of Chinese as separate languages, which would probably push French to eighth with both Cantonese and Mandarin above it, but I didn't make the list. I would guess that the overwhelming majority of native French speakers in the US do not speak Metropolitan French, but rather Quebecoise, Acadian, Cajun, or an African dialect.

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ur_moms_chode@reddit

We have Cajun/Louisiana French which originated from people who left Canada. There are also a somewhat decent number of French speakers living near the Quebec border

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Turbulent_Table3917@reddit

The Acadiens (ancestors of the Cajuns) were *driven out of* Canada by the English. It’s important to note the distinction since they did not leave of their own volition to pursue better opportunities, as many from Quebec did when they migrated to the mill towns of New England.

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Ok_Independent3609@reddit

Generally speaking, many or most schools in the US offer French as a foreign language option. It’s not as popular as Spanish, nor probably as generally useful in most of the US. But if you want to learn it, you easily can. Likewise, a number of French words and phrases are familiar to most Americans, as we pick them up from TV and Movies, less so from music.

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_pamelab@reddit

I currently know one person, other than myself, that speaks French proficiently. That's why my skills are rusty as hell despite having a BA in French language and literature. More people take Spanish because they think they'll use it more, but that hasn't been the case for me.

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Littleboypurple@reddit

Not really a lot like they used to. Spanish still dominated hard as the biggest second language in the United States. The only major place to find French is down in Louisiana due to some history with French Arcadians in Canada that led to a major Diaspora. That led to the Louisiana Arcadians or as they're more well known, the Cajuns. That was the only major place for a while to have a massive French language but, due to the passage of time, it's been unfortunately dying out.

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LHCThor@reddit

Very few people speak French out West. It’s not a useful language out West. Tagalog would be more useful than French. The only people I know who speak French are from France or are Canadian.

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wieldymouse@reddit

I would say probably not. Although, I took three years in high school and have about the equivalent of two years at university. I'm not quite sure how that happened, but that's what my transcript says. I only took one semester, but it was the second semester because the professor wouldn't let me take the first as she said I knew too much French to be in that course. Miami has a growing population of Haitian Creole speakers; so, you may find people in that area that can understand French.

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LadybuggingLB@reddit

There’s not much practical reason to learn French here. You’re not going to use it much in this country, might be helpful if you travel to Quebec, but I’ve only ever heard discouraging things about trying to speak French to the French. Unless what I’ve heard is wrong, it just annoys people in France. I can be annoying in English or Spanish, don’t need to go to the trouble of trying to learn another language.

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FishAroundFindTrout9@reddit

I’m in the southeast U.S. and I barely ever hear it spoken except by those who are over here from France because they work for Michelin and we have a headquarters office in the area. High school students here generally are only required to take one foreign language. I’d estimate 80% take Spanish and the remainder are split between French and German.

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robbie_the_cat@reddit

famous? I've never even heard of Frunch

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uhbkodazbg@reddit

I took French in school (I should have learned Spanish). I’m not fluent in it. I can read it, generally understand spoken French, and can communicate with it in a pinch but I never had enough opportunities to use it to become even remotely fluent. I know quite a few people who have a similar grasp of the language as I do.

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PrimaryHighlight5617@reddit

There's the creole on Louisiana, but they're a dying breed. The Asian languages are a lot more popular.

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rdubmu@reddit

40% words are French in origin

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TankDestroyerSarg@reddit

Most Americans know about the French language, but most adults don't know much of the language. Less than 1% of the US population is fluent in that language. It is well behind English, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Hindi, Filipino Tagalog, Vietnamese and German.

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LuckyStax@reddit

It's the second most common foreign language option taught in schools after Spanish

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LettuceTomatoOnion@reddit

I feel like this changed in the 1980s. At least on the east coast French was taught in schools more than Spanish. Thinking back it sort of changed somewhere in that decade and Spanish took over as the most popular language class. I suspect things may have looked different the farther south and west you lived. Funny thing is it all happened about the same time we started eating cheap taco dinner kits on a regular basis.

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DenverNuggetz@reddit

Depends on area, if I remember correctly French was about to get discontinued in my school in the 90’s (around the time Latin was discontinued) German was the 2nd most popular foreign language

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aldmonisen_osrs@reddit

Up until the 21st century, French was viewed as the language of diplomacy and romance. Once the Cold War ended and “neutral ground” was no longer needed, French-speaking neutral countries were less relevant. Now, I would say the languages that are popular are English, Spanish, Chinese, and German. Arabic and Russian are still very salient and popular because America has vested interests in those areas (and residual military applications). English and Spanish for communication on the western hemisphere. Chinese because that’s where all international business is. German because Americans view Germany as being “in charge” of the EU alongside France and GB, but more countries relevant to U.S. interests speak German.

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markjay6@reddit

French was the most commonly taught foreign language in schools until the mid 1960s. So for people in their 70s, it was common to have studied French growing up Today, probably 5 times as many people study Spanish as French in American schools.

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AnUnexpectedUnicorn@reddit

It's offered in school as a foreign language option, but most students choose Spanish, Japanese, or Mandarin, or occasionally Latin if they know they want a career in law or medicine. Some schools do "Romance" languages, which include Spanish, French, and Italian (sometimes Portuguese too), since they're somewhat similar. I expect French to die out as a course offering on it's own except for very specific areas like Louisiana and near the border of Ontario.

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ceanahope@reddit

I'm in California, have family in the north east and grew up in Eastern Canada. As others said it varies by area, and there are regional versions. Canada speaks Quebecquois, while north east US leans more Acadian/Quebecquois (which is also common in Nova Scotia Canada). It's like old french from the 1500s. Louisiana has Cajun, which has Acadian language roots, but other influences as well due to the Acadian people being shipped off from Grand Pré in Nova Scotia to Louisiana by the British to take their lands. I don't get a chance to speak often, but I speak specifically Quebecquois with a bit of Acadian mixed in. I can understand a decent amount of Cajun and French from france.

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Candid-Math5098@reddit

In the 1960s/70s French was a required subject for us in school.

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Reasonable_Guess_175@reddit

Maybe it depends on where you live, but on an almost daily basis I hear: Spanish, Russian, and Chuukese (although that is definitely specific to where I live). I also regularly hear Arabic, Swahili, Mandarin, Hindi, Telugu, German, Tagalog, and Vietnamese. I never, except for maybe foreign exchange students in high school, interact with people who speak French as a primary / first language.

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OutlandishnessShot87@reddit

It's probably the second most studied language in school but very few people seem to actually speak it but very few Americans know any second language

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Typingdude3@reddit

No it's not toot common anymore. About 100 years ago there were a LOT more French speakers in this country, there were also a LOT more German speakers and Italian speakers as well, because we received a lot of immigrants form those countries. But today the state of Louisiana is a case study in French colonial culture being well respected as there's lots of French ancestral heritage there in that state. Even Disney World in Florida has a great relatively affordable Port Orleans Resort which harkens back to 1800's Louisiana and Mardi Gras. My favorite place to stay in Disneyworld! Recently I was on a domestic flight in the US, in a southern state, and one of the stewardesses was from Louisiana. Don't mean to sound weird, but her heavy Cajun southern accent with Louisiana French mixed in just melted me it was so warm and sounded like she just appeared from the 1800's. Disney also did a TV movie called "Child of Glass" in the 1970s, about a French Creole girl who died on a Louisiana plantation back in the 1800s. She came back as a ghost, with a heavy French Creole accent, and haunted a modern family in the movie. Typical Disney spooky ghost movie for kids but it was mesmerizing to me back then and I'll never forget the ghost girl singing "Frere Jacques". Lots of Americans in Louisiana probably know that song.

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Flat_Tumbleweed_2192@reddit

French is spoken and taught in New England and Louisiana. You’ll still hear French in Vermont (meaning green mountain in French) and Maine, as well as in parts of MA and RI due to the migration of Acadians to these two fishing states. And New Hampshire state signs say Bienvenue as well as Welcome.

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JeezInMyLouise@reddit

I'm certainly in the minority as someone from Maine. I personally know a dozen or more people who speak it but none of them are younger than 50.

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OldChairmanMiao@reddit

In my high school, we had as many students learning Spanish as French - including AP classes. Everyone was required to learn a foreign language for 2 years. TBF, it was a pretty preppy school. We have fewer native French speakers than Spanish speakers.

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Delicious-Ad5856@reddit

Is it taught in schools? Yes. Some. Can you fetch a good amount of materials to teach yourself French? Yes. Can you find people who can hold conversations in French? Maybe.

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Kvsav57@reddit

There really aren't many Americans who speak French. However, the three languages most schools taught when I was in high school were Spanish, German, and French, and maybe this is why you think there are. Other than Spanish, the choice had very little to do with prominence of speakers in the US. It was more about the access to study materials. Learning French in the US was probably way less useful than learning Mandarin or Tagalog, even back then. There just weren't materials or teachers for those, along with a good bit of racism, only teaching languages (other than Spanish) that were spoken by white foreigners. And yes, I know people from Spain aren't really brown people but in the US, Spanish speakers are usually thought of as Latin American.

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Carinyosa99@reddit

Lots of schools teach French, but then the students don't get any practical use of it. I took French for 4.5 years and had absolutely no need for the language after I took my last class....until about 25 years later when my next door neighbor's mother locked herself out of the house. My neighbors are originally from Togo in Africa and whle they primarily speak Ewe, they also know French as it's the official government languge. So when she came to my house, she tried to explain in worse than broken English that she needed help. It was then that I remembered that her part of Africa probably spoke French and so I asked and she answered back to me in French. I told her I knew a little so if she spoke slowly I would probably understand (because I'm fluent in Spanish so a lot of the words sound the same and the grammar is similar).

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Sorry_Rhubarb_7068@reddit

My mom (now 74) was a French teacher for most of her life. She retired 4 years ago and I’m pretty sure they did not replace her. I am a high school teacher and same thing -teacher left 2 years ago, no replacement. Now it’s just Spanish (hopefully Latin next year).

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pastrymom@reddit

My son takes French class in school. In my area, virtually no one speaks it. Spanish is widely used. I use it daily.

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TeamTurnus@reddit

French is reported to have 1.8 million people who speak it at home (doesnt nessecarily mean its all their first languages but it indicates more than 'i studied it for a year or 2 in high school') that about half of one percent of the us population. So not a very high proportion. Still thats enough to make it the 7th most spoken language in the us. People associate French with fancy restaurants and art house cinema for rhe most part, among other stereotypes. So not really, but its not like obscure. Its just not nearly important enough to the us as a whole to be 'famous'

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valerieddr@reddit

Not common no, most schools in my area don’t offer French language classes.

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Plenty_Vanilla_6947@reddit

The East Coast has a lot of French restaurants and multiple French immersion schools for grade school.

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Firefly_Magic@reddit

Famous? No. Frequently spoken? No. Offered in high school as a foreign language? Yes

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eric39es@reddit

Only English and Spanish are “famous” id say

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enraged768@reddit

Spanish is the most common second language to the point that even people who haven't taken a day of Spanish lessons recognize and know a few words. French not so much outside certain communities.

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SmeeezTreeez@reddit

You'd be looking at Louisiana and its not dead but isn't very common. Also probably a different style of french. I grew up near New Orleans and we used some french words for thing the fluency you are probably asking about is rare now

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_that_dude_J@reddit

Famous is not the correct word. Interesting or unique to hear, sure. In northern states there are Americans that can speak. We often saw more French tourism, which has greatly slowed due to current events (🤐). When you think of foreign accents, there are some Americans that are very fond of listening to the French speak.

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BreezyBill@reddit

Yeah, you mostly need to be close to Quebec for it to be the #2 language.

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PinchMaNips@reddit

In my highschool, the only language options were Spanish and French. I’ve heard others mention French being taught at their schools too. Although I can’t speak for the amount of speakers, I think French is definitely up there in the top 5.

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greekmom2005@reddit

Bilingualism isn't really pushed in the states, although I wish it was.

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Ritterbruder2@reddit

French is the second most-studied second language in US schools (after Spanish). But few Americans retain it (or any second language that they study) after they complete it as part of a public education program.

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WordPeas@reddit

I think French is considered a classier language to know. But is way less useful than Spanish, economically and practically.

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Connect-Farm1631@reddit

No

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cannabination@reddit

When I was in school a million years ago, Spanish, French, and German were the available foreign languages, and their usefulness was regarded in that order.

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oswin13@reddit

Its one of the primary foreign language choices you can take in high school. My school offered either Spanish or French, which was common for the area.

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maestra612@reddit

I'd guess there's more Americans speaking Bangla, Hindi, Creole, and Urdu than French.

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Difficult_Ladder369@reddit

Yea they helped us in revolutionary war. Lafayette

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Eric-Lynch@reddit

French ranks 7th behind English, Spanish, Chinese,Tagalog, Vietnamese and Arabic.

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Vegetable-Star-5833@reddit

I’ve never met anyone who can speak French

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VanLyfe4343@reddit

I live in Oklahoma and Vietnamese is the 3rd most spoken language after English and Spanish. Nobody speaks French here, although most high schools offer it for foreign language requirement.

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hodl4win@reddit

Ppl don't speak French in Louisiana, it's a myth

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ashleebryn@reddit

Yes they do.

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Effective_Coach7334@reddit

Louisiana French is a dialect

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P00PooKitty@reddit

French was a major language prior to the 20th century. Especially in former French holdings and New England (proximity to French speaking Canada) When a lot of the maritimes were ethnically cleansed of Francophones they went to New England, Louisiana, etc. The small city I live in in Massachusetts has a French hill due to the sheer amount of French Canadian workers that came to work in the shoe mills. There are still a lot french-ish immigrants in mass: Haitians (kréyol), francophone Africans, and a lot of pharmaceutical/bio tech/other stuff execs from France. My wife worked at a French international school for awhile

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rivers-end@reddit

I took it in high school like 45 years ago but most people don't speak French here aside from the Canadians up north. My Grandmother grew up in Northern NY and spoke French until she was 8. She was born in 1911 though.

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VioletJackalope@reddit

I’m not stating this as a statistic but more from personal observation…I would say French is for sure the second most popular language for Americans to choose to learn. Most schools offer Spanish and French as foreign language classes (in my state, 2 credits of the same foreign language classes are a mandatory graduation requirement)

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BrokerBrody@reddit

No, the third most common language is Chinese. They teach (optional) French and German in high school, though, while not all high schools offer the more common Asian languages.

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Effective_Coach7334@reddit

French is a widely diplomatic language spoken around the world, the reason it's taught as opposed to Tagalog or Chinese

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No-Conversation1940@reddit

French was the only foreign language taught in the high school I attended. Granted, that was more because it was a tiny rural high school, state curriculum standards forced them to teach a foreign language, and the only person they could attract knew French.

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Welpthatsjustperfect@reddit

In Louisiana, obviously but otherwise not really. I took French in high school. The French are well known for not wanting anyone to even try to speak their language.

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Ok-Energy-9785@reddit

Sure

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Critical-Bat-1311@reddit

In the sense that it’s considered a mark of true American patriotism to mock the French

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montanalifterchick@reddit

It was the only other language than English offered in my school. I took it in high school. It's pretty common.

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Forward_Tank8310@reddit

The most French speakers in Florida are Haitians and in season, Quebec snowbirds.

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CarolinCLH@reddit

French is rare. And I doubt that the French would call what the Cajuns speak French. Chinese, Tagalog, and Vietnamese are probably more common than French.

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Prestigious-Comb4280@reddit

Maybe some in Louisiana or close to the border with Quebec but no most Americans don't know French at all

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Nice_Point_9822@reddit

I live in New England and a lot of people speak French here

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Jimbussss@reddit

Off topic from other commenters but the Midwest used to be French territory in the 1500-1600s so a lot of our town names are butchered French names

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Ok-Parfait2413@reddit

Not really. But you can take languages in school. I would say spanish more popular on the west coast of US.

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Fecapult@reddit

When I was growing up there were only three languages offered - Spanish French and German. Unless you're living near the border of Quebec or in certain areas of Pennsylvania or Texas, most people don't ever get a chance to speak French or German. I took four years of German 30 years ago and first used it practically in December of 2024.

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Gravbar@reddit

not a lot of people are native speakers of French but it's one of the most popular second languages people learn and it's often taught in public high schools as an option for foreign language requirements

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dreams1ckle@reddit

The problem for me is in the utility. Outside of deep bayou Louisiana or the backwoods of New England, you’re simply not gonna hear French spoken in most of the country and have very few meaningful ways to keep yourself immersed in it outside of a language exchange setting. We’re not exactly known for our propensity to learning a second language - French being as rare as it is nowadays (compared to Spanish or Chinese) doesn’t help

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jarodcain@reddit

French, Spanish and German are or were the most common languages taught in school.

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Equivalent-Speed-631@reddit

My dear departed mother thought everyone would be speaking French, so she made me take French in high school. She was so wrong. French is spoken in Louisiana, New England, and Maine. I believe NY and Florida also have a lot of Haitian immigrants who speak French.

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latelyimawake@reddit

A ton of us learned it in high school (you usually are required to take a language for a couple years, and the most common options are Spanish and French), and I continued it in college and became pretty well conversational if not fluent. However, I’ve found that there is close to zero scope in most areas of the US for actually speaking and practicing French as an adult, so I hardly ever use it. I’m actually surprised how well it’s stuck with me considering how little I’ve practiced in the 20 years since college—watching a movie like Anatomy of a Fall without subtitles is more hit than miss (I do need them on though to really get the full dialogue).

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RonPalancik@reddit

My perspective as a 50-something person: When I was in school, the more academically promising students were pushed toward French (which was associated with diplomacy and European high culture). The less academically inclined students were pushed toward Spanish (which was associated with lawn care and tacos and big hats). My 8th grade French teacher got mad at us one time for being insufficiently committed to our conjugation work. She said "you wanna party? Take Spanish." I'm still a little angry about how unfair and wrong that was. In the 40 years since then, I have needed to speak French approximately twice. Whereas I am in situations _every day_ where Spanish would be more useful.

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rharper38@reddit

It depends on the availability. I took French in elementary and high school, then into college. My daughter's high school does not teach it.

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Mercuryshottoo@reddit

In school we could learn Spanish, French, or German. I picked French because the teacher was cool as hell. RIP Gaetane Thompson

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COACHREEVES@reddit

The U.S. Census asks what language is spoken at home. In 2020 French, including Patois and Cajun, was 4th |Language|%| |:-|:-| |[English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language)|82.105%| |[Spanish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language)|10.710%| |[Chinese](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_language) (all [varieties of Chinese](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varieties_of_Chinese) incl.)|0.78% | |[French](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_language) (incl. [Patois](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patois), [Cajun](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cajun_French))|0.627%|

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Zealousideal-Lie7255@reddit

French is one of the three most common languages most Americans have to study in high school. The other two are German and Spanish. Spanish is very popular because people think it’s easier to learn. My wife took French and when we visited France a few years ago was able to have conversations with people. But most Americans forget the foreign language they learned in school very quickly, if they ever really knew it.

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dopefiendeddie@reddit

Louisiana and Quebec are the two regions in North America that have large French speaking populations to my knowledge. Not that the French government would say that those to regions are actually speaking French, of course.

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lexi2700@reddit

Depends on which parts of the US. Closer to Quebec have some who speak the language or know more of it or in parts of Louisiana. But like where I’m from I don’t know of anyone who speaks French. It’s not even offered in my local schools as German is more prevalent.

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manicpixidreamgirl04@reddit

French is the 7th most common language in the US. It is spoken at home by 1.18 million people. It is the 2nd most common foreign language taught in k-schools, studied by 1.25 million k-12 students, and 135k college students.

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annang@reddit

Spanish and French are the most common languages taught in schools. So most Americans either took a couple of years of French in high school or had friends who did.

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Neb-Nose@reddit

Spanish is much more common than French, but most American schools offer Spanish, French and German as foreign language classes.

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Lazy_Juggernaut3171@reddit

Would you guys quit lying. Nobody speaks French here lol.

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ashleebryn@reddit

I live in Lake Charles. I've heard it around me periodically. I say this as an actual francophone. I heard a young woman chastising her 2 young children in French at the grocery store. I myself have given presentations in French to high school French immersion classes. I speak French with a few university teachers when I see them. It does happen. People do speak French here. I got my degree in French.

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Lazy_Juggernaut3171@reddit

I don’t believe you.

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ashleebryn@reddit

Typical narrow-minded response.

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20ears19@reddit

Fluently? No. Some people know how to say some things they remember from high school. It’s not a terribly useful language here. I can’t remember ever meeting someone who only speaks French. You can go anywhere and find someone who only speaks Spanish. Or a lot of other languages.

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blipsman@reddit

It’s probably still second most popular language taught in schools, but not that common in everyday life other than tiny pockets of Louisiana and Maine. Chinese is second most common in everyday life, eg. spoken by immigrants. Following that are Tagalog and Vietnamese.

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LittleSubject9904@reddit

I studied French in high school and college, though I did 5 years of Spanish first.

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NoForm5443@reddit

It's fairly common as a second language to study, theres AP French, and most HS and colleges will offer it as a foreign language option. English also borrows a lot of French words.

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Pernicious_Possum@reddit

According to census, there are about 1.2 million French speaking people in the US. So no, it’s not popular

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sics2014@reddit

A lot of people that did are dying out. My grandparents for example. The town my grandfather grew up in Massachusetts has a church that still holds a French language Mass, so I assume some are still around and want to keep the traditions.

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Adept_Carpet@reddit

Yes, there was also Woonsocket in Rhode Island where many people who grew up there had elements of a French accent even if they had no French background. There are only faint echos of that now, I don't believe there is much of an active francophone community there now, maybe a few very old people. But you can occasionally hear bits of the old accent in middle aged or older people and the now almost 100 year out of date jokes are alive and well ("throw me down the stairs my hat and coat!")

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glacialerratical@reddit

My town in Connecticut has two Catholic churches across the street from each other. Apparently, one was French Canadian and the other was Polish. I don't think either does non-English services any more, though, except for the Spanish language one a few miles away.

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Scutrbrau@reddit

I was born in Mass. When my mother was growing up in the 30s, she went to a Catholic school where the nuns spoke English in the morning and French in the afternoon. My grandparents were French Canadian and my grandmother never learned to speak much English.

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manicpixidreamgirl04@reddit

French is the 7th most common language in the US. It is spoken at home by 1.18 million people.

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anonymous01310555@reddit

Mostly in Louisiana, and apparently up north closer to the French speaking parts of Canada. But Spanish is the big one everywhere I think. If you make a map of the us second language but exclude Spanish you see a lot of variety

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chronic_ill_knitter@reddit

French is a common language offered in schools in my city. We even have a French immersion school. I'm not sure how widely it's spoken in the community or as a first language in homes, but you can certainly learn it easily and it's not discouraged. I almost took it myself, then went with Spanish as it was more widespread. I live in a city with a wide variety of immigrants from many different countries, but I don't think many of them have French as a national language or former language as a result of colonization. I could be mistaken though.

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admseven@reddit

I don’t know if famous is the right word, but when I was in high school back in the 90s, our foreign language choices were Spanish or French. In the city I live in now, we have a French immersion school. No idea how many people can actually speak French, but it’s certainly an option in schools. My son is in high school, and his school also offers French or Spanish as foreign languages.

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Cruitire@reddit

After Spanish the most common language spoken are Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese. That said, French is far from rare. I have a relative who teaches in a French language elementary school. And I know a number of French speakers in the US. In any large city you are likely to hear French being spoken relatively frequently. Of course no language comes close to Spanish, but French is far from an oddity, and virtually everyone would recognize it if they heard it. And it’s the second most popular second language studied in schools.

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AggressiveCommand739@reddit

Not like it use to be. From the 50s- 90s French was very popular for kids to learn in High School and the number one foreign language taught. It still is offered, but has been surpassed by Spanish and has fallen to #2, followed by German and Mandarin.

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ArkansasTravelier@reddit

There are a lot of French named cities and some states with French spellings of native names because of when France used to own a chunk of North America, not to mention our appreciation for Marquis De Lafayette and his work to help us fight for our independence, and we’ve named several cities, streets and buildings after him. But I think the modern French language is very rare here, of course Cajun French and culture exists and I believe in some spots of the northeast quebecois is spoken but I don’t think modern French or modern France in general is very relevant to general American culture today.

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WorkingSpecialist257@reddit

I knew a few, but no. It's not a common language in the us. There just isn't the need for it like Spanish

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cdb03b@reddit

No. Before Spanish became the second most common language that position was taken by German. French was only ever commonly spoken in Louisiana, and some States bordering Quebec. And in modernity it is a low percentage of the populace even in those States that speak it.

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FindjeanniePDX@reddit

I took French in school and spoke well enough to get around Europe and Canada without raising eyebrows. My “graduation” was reading Les Miserable, but without practice most of the vocabulary is gone. I also never learned the daily speech patterns that shorten and skip words to sound like a native.

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pinniped90@reddit

People often learn it in schools but mainly with the idea that we'll travel somewhere to actually use it. It isn't like Spanish where your hometown might have a Latino neighborhood where you could go actually speak it with people. We also have nothing like Quebec where you actually might need it traveling around a city or region. While you'll see French in New Orleans or other parts of Louisiana, visitors there don't really need to speak it.

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erin_burr@reddit

For nearly all Americans it has a certain je ne sais quoi

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notthegoatseguy@reddit

German was the big foreign language before Spanish

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4games1@reddit

Just a point of interest. Spanish is the second most spoken language in the USA because the Southwestern US desert was colonized by Spain.

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musicsoccer@reddit

Oh you mean if it's a popular language to study? I'd say it's up there with Spanish and German. Not a lot of people like studying a second language though.

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WhichWitch9402@reddit

Back in the 80s in high school, Spanish was by far the most popular foreign language that students would take. My state had a requirement of two years of a foreign language. French was second. German and Latin were the other two offerings. Outside of school, no one had a need for French or German. Spanish, however, was useful in real life in the area where I lived.

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chlocaineK@reddit

I would say less and less Americans are learning/speaking French. It used to be the second foreign language option in schools, behind Spanish, (my experience anyway) but to save money, schools get rid of it and only offer Spanish. I’ve been out of high school for almost 15 years and it was taken out of our curriculum my sophomore year because no one was taking it. Spanish just makes more sense to learn, as it’s sooooo much more common than French. In all my adult life jobs, knowing Spanish instantly puts you a leg above others and has been needed, I’ve never worked a job where I need a French translator. The only people I’ve known that can speak French are all over 50, and I feel like we associate it more with snobbiness. I feel like most Americans who are fluent in French are either wealthy or they’re gifted at learning languages and probably know others too That’s not to say, I think the language is beautiful and would love to know it, but Spanish will come in handy much more often

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sleepygrumpydoc@reddit

Im in California, it’s not even in the top 12 languages spoken here. A lot of high schools offer French as a foreign language option but I know of no one who took it or speaks it outside of my MIL who has made her whole personality trait about loving France and all things French.

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Used_Map_7321@reddit

French is not common to hear in the majority of the us to be honest

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curlyhairweirdo@reddit

The word you are looking for is popular, not famous

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GlobalTapeHead@reddit

It’s less popular than it used to be. My parents generation (born about 1930-1944) all learned French in school because it was considered an international language for diplomats, artists, etc. by the time I was in school Spanish was more popular. Today I don’t know anyone who knows much French at all.

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StandardLocal3929@reddit

It's famous in that everybody knows that exists. It is not commonly spoken. There are some communities where it is spoken, and some people study it, but it it's probably not in the top 5 most spoken languages.

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naynever@reddit

In my K-12 college prep school, French was for the smart kids, Latin was for the geniuses, and Spanish was for the rest of us. We were all required to take French 1st thru 8th grade, and a year of Latin in 8th. After that, you had to take one of these three languages for four years, or you could do two years each of two languages.

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Classic-Push1323@reddit

I have taken at least a little bit of French, Spanish, and Latin in school. There’s a big difference though…. You have opportunities to use Spanish all the time in most of the US. You’ll see signs in Spanish, there is Spanish language music on the radio, many people speak Spanish as their first language, many people only speak Spanish, etc. if I want to use Spanish I can walk over to my neighbors house or go downtown and hit up a Latino market. I have never seen a sign in French in the US. I’ve never met anyone who could only communicate with me in French. I’ve never turned on the radio and heard a song in French. I have no idea where I’d go to practice French without traveling.

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sfoskey@reddit

I took French in high school and can still read and understand it pretty well, but would struggle to carry out a full conversation. Some product labels have both English and French if the product is also sold in Canada. But most Americans don't know more than a few words of French.

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dandle@reddit

Only between 20% and 25% of K-12 students in the US learn a language other than English, with great variations by region and school district. I started learning other languages in 7th grade. Both of my children started in 3rd grade. Of those students in the US who learn a language other than English, 70% or more learn Spanish, because it is most practical and useful. The traditional second choice is French, despite being the language of a society well past its height, with any relevance being the persistent sins of its colonial period on the languages of the various peoples it tried to subjugate.

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TK1129@reddit

When I was in high school you had to take a language and the options were Spanish, French and Latin. Spanish was the most popular, French a distant 2nd and bringing up the rear was Latin. I took Latin. Good for vocabulary. When I took the SATs (scored out of 1600 and each half was 800 for those unfamiliar) as a high school junior I scored a 700 in verbal. I got the points for showing up on the math section

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AnnieB512@reddit

French was the language to learn when I was in high school. But it quickly flipped shortly after that to Spanish. (Graduated 1983).

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ljculver64@reddit

Louisiana is the only place that comes to mind unless youre including those who studied languages and speak several. I wouldn't say its common. I know a couple people from different parts of Africa who speak French, but i have dozens of friends who speak Spanish. I studied French, but now im working on my Spanish. Louisiana has a few French dialects. Cajun French & Creole French are the ones ive heard spoken.

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Parking_Champion_740@reddit

It used to be very standard to take French as a foreign language in school but these days Spanish is probably more common

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Consistent_Damage885@reddit

German and French are available as electives at many high schools as an alternative to Spanish.

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I-Love-Buses@reddit

Very few people here speak French, it’s not really a thing. Sure there are some, but it’s mostly English and Spanish.

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schonleben@reddit

I would say that a lot of people will know a bit of French, but relatively few speak it with any level of fluency. As a very wild guess, out of 100 people, I’d guess that 3-5 might be relatively fluent, 10-15 might know enough to travel (read signs, order food), and 40-50 might recognize a handful of words.

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Shonky_Honker@reddit

I mean we have two, possibly four if you count smaller ones, separate cultural regions known for speaking it so yeah

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350ci_sbc@reddit

Up until about WWI, German was the second most spoken language in the US. While French is well known, it’s mostly because it’s offered in high schools alongside Spanish. Very few becomes fluent in it or use it after HS. Spanish is much more useful. So no, French isn’t very common or even well known here. I studied French in HS and then German in college. I’m still pretty good with my German and know a bit of Pennsylvania Dutch from working with the Amish, but I wouldn’t say I am fluent in any language other than English.

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Decent_Cow@reddit

There aren't nearly as many Americans who speak French as Spanish. I think several other languages are higher than French. But it is still usually an option to learn it for a couple years in school.

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JenniferJuniper6@reddit

“Are there a lot of Americans who speak French?” You really do need to invert questions in this way. It’s nowhere near the number of people who speak Spanish. Outside of Maine or Louisiana, there aren’t really whole French-speaking communities. But it’s offered as an elective in a lot of high schools.

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AppointmentStatus845@reddit

French is commonly offered in school, but not commonly spoken all over. English is number 1, Spanish is number 2 Not just because of immigration- but because the entire southwest was Mexican prior to joining the United States (California, Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado… all preciously Mexican territories with Spanish-speaking people) & Florida was where the Spaniards came (and later Cubans. Pockets of language exist due to immigration. Polish is common in Chicago-land. Asian languages are more common on the west coast. French is listed as a top language - but I wonder if that’s just because it’s a common high school course. In the Midwest, I’ve met people who really speak Spanish, Tag-a-log, Urdu, Japanese, Polish, Serbian, German, Arabic, Chinese via their family and background… no actual heritage French. Just people who took it in highschool.

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DepthPuzzleheaded494@reddit

Famous? Like popular? Yes, in parts of Maine and New York closer tot he border of Quebec you’ll find people that speak French natively as well as parts of Louisiana. The closer you get to the border with Quebec in New York the highway signs become bilingual.

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ScatterTheReeds@reddit

It’s so popular that it’s one of 2 languages (Spanish is the other) that’s taught in public schools. I remember when it was Spanish, French and German. Before my time, it also included Latin.

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ElevatorOrganic5644@reddit

No French isn't famous in the us. Reason Spanish is the second is very numerous. One we have a lot of immigrants that speak Spanish dialects. And also have you ever looked at the border south of us all the way down to Antarctica.

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9for9@reddit

There's a lot of French mixed into English like fiance, sabotage, mirage, etc ....and there are populations that speak dialects heavily influenced by French, the Cajuns for example. However in the Americas French is more heavily spoken in the islands and Canada. It mainly follows colonization patterns. From what I remember of history the French were more interested in setting up temporary trade outpost than long term stable populations so that limits the influence felt in the present. Still historically France has been an important ally to the US. Helping us with the revolutionary war, gifting us the Statue of Liberty and where I live a lot of things have French names like Illinois, Des Plaines, etc....

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Yankee_chef_nen@reddit

I live in both Maine and Louisiana. There a few francophone communities left in Maine but even in those towns English is spoken. In Louisiana the French dialect has mostly died out. It was active suppressed at one point. Some people are trying to resurrect the language but most native speakers died years ago, the Boomer generation doesn’t really know it so they were not able to teach to my generation and younger. Most of my generation (Gen X) only know a few words. Cajun French is close enough to Haitian Creole that my father could talk to the older people in Louisiana and be understood and understand them, but I only understood a few words.

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GateDeep3282@reddit

I took three years of it in high school. Never got a single chance to use it. I went to Paris when I was 40. My French was long gone. Waste of my time. My kids learned Spanish. That occasionally is useful. My grandkids are learning mandarin. We will see how that goes.

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SocialPsychProj@reddit

Creole French spoken down south and some folks north near the Canadian border speak some

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BlackSwanMarmot@reddit

Growing up in suburban southern California, I almost never heard it. Then I moved to the high desert near Joshua Tree, where there's a fair amount of French expats. I still don't hear very often but I'm not surprised when I overhear it in the grocery store.

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Icy-Blacksmith-313@reddit

French is the most common after Spanish.

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eggwhite0@reddit

No, not at all.

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Icy-Whale-2253@reddit

In New York I hear it almost as much as Spanish…

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cryptoengineer@reddit

Kids in school generally have classes in a second language. Most common is Spanish, but French, German, and Latin are also common.

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Comediorologist@reddit

Common, no. Famous? Sure. If someone speaks fluent French as a second or third language, they're perceived as being more worldly or sophisticated.

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maxman1313@reddit

French is not widely spoken or known in the US. There are pockets of communities that speak a French dialect, but not many. French is the 7th most commonly spoken language in the US.

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BusyBeinBorn@reddit

Within 100 miles of the border with Quebec I’d say it’s common. I’ve never lived there and I’m not sure if I’ve heard it spoken, but I have seen restaurants offer French menus and signs at businesses posted in French in upstate NY and Vermont.

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blbd@reddit

It's way less common than Spanish but it's still one of the languages that high schools generally make available. Along with Spanish, German as the three classics. And increasingly Japanese and Chinese. Sometimes Latin in traditional old or religious schools. The other places you'll find it are Maine and Louisiana. And there are some places with a lot of African French speakers.

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Aware_Acanthaceae_78@reddit

Oui. Je parle français. It’s especially popular in New England. We even have a dialect. I think it’s third to English and Spanish.

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LivingGhost371@reddit

There's a lot of us that probably remember a few words and phrases from when they tried to teach us it in high school. French, German, and Spanish are the three popular languages for when you need to or want to learn a language in high school. It's extremly rare for it to be used in ordinary conversation.

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Interesting-Phase947@reddit

You can choose to take French classes in some high schools, but there are not very many people who are fluent in French. It just isn't practical for us. The most French speakers you will find in the U.S. are in New England, which is right next to Quebec.

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longganisafriedrice@reddit

In many places it has had a resurgence because of Haitian and African immigrants. It is the common language of different groups even though it might not be their first language

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lithomangcc@reddit

In New Orleans or where there are Haitian immigrants

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I_Weep_for_Willow@reddit

As far as the whole country, no. Most Americans use French sayings though. C'est la vie. Touché. En Garde!

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xscott71x@reddit

French is a dead language, they just don’t know it yet

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smurphy8536@reddit

After Spanish its the most popular. I grew up in New England and my school offered lessons starting in 6th grade. I took classes all through college and visited twiceZ

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franklinchica22@reddit

I believe you mean common. It is the second most common language taught in high schools. Spanish is the first. German and Chinese trail. We don't teach second languages that frequently in the first 8 or 9 grades. I studied French in HS, German at University then Spanish when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer.

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VapeThisBro@reddit

We know what French is. It's very rare for any American to know French or eat French food. I'm from a region of the US where I have to drive over 500km to reach the nearest French restaurant, about 1000km to reach a state with French speakers.

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Duque_de_Osuna@reddit

People study it in HS and some in college, but it is more common to take Spanish. I do not think most Americans think about the language requirement beyond getting the grade they need so they do not get to a level where they can communicate effectively. So, nao, nao se gala muito frances en Estados Unidos.

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SisyphusRocks7@reddit

Americans are largely aware of France and the French language, without much specific knowledge of either. The average American without French or Acadian heritage is probably most likely to encounter French in Quebec or a rare trip to France as a tourist. Few Americans speak French relative to Spanish, Tagalog, Hindi, Chinese dialects, etc. these days, and while most secondary schools used to have French language classes as an option when I was in school, that’s becoming less common in favor of Mandarin or German.

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Awkward_Tip1006@reddit

They say French is spoken in Louisiana, I’ve never been there so I can’t confirm if it’s actually spoken. Also maybe states like Vermont or Maine because it’s next to Montreal. But I imagine it’s not as common as Spanish, in south Florida you can walk outside and only hear Spanish

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blablahblah@reddit

In many schools, students are given a choice of languages to learn, and French is the second most common option after Spanish. But there aren't anywhere near as many people who speak French in their daily life as there are with Spanish.

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freebiscuit2002@reddit

Famous? Well, most people know the French language exists. Very, very few people speak it, though. In Louisiana, the connection with French is historical and not current. In a state like Maine that borders Québec, you can find a few people.

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jessek@reddit

Outside of Louisiana, the only French speakers you’ll meet are expatriates or immigrants from other countries. People know of French, it’s not uncommon but it’s pretty low on spoken languages compared to Spanish and Asian languages here.

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w1n5t0nM1k3y@reddit

I think the word you're looking for is "popular". Famous isn't really the right word to be using in this context. Anyway, french isn't that popular at all. It will vary from one place to another, but in general, the major languages are English and Spanish, and then all other languages are much further behind. [See this article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_United_States) French ranks 7th in spoken languages, with about 1.18 million speakers.

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Coyoteatemybowtie@reddit

In school middle school and high school we could take either French or Spanish, college had more options but not many. I’m in ca and have met quite a few people who can speak French fluently but way more people speak Spanish fluently.

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bojackho@reddit

French is not widely spoken, but it is probably the second most studied language in schools and universities (after Spanish) and most people can recognize it from other languages without understanding it.

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213737isPrime@reddit

I bet you could google that and get exact numbers.

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Unsolven@reddit

In New Orleans somewhat. In most of the country no. 9 out of 10 Americans couldn’t tell you Lafayette was French and there’s a street named after him in practically every city in America.

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Current_Mongoose_844@reddit

There were parts of the US where French was a prominent language, especially Louisiana, New England, and oddly enough Missouri. You can still find Cajun French in parts of rural Louisiana, but sadly the language isn't supported. There are a lot of French-speaking immigrants from Haiti and West Africa in parts of the country. I used to translate for immigrant kids in schools sometimes. New York has a couple of French-language schools

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NS_8099@reddit

I’d say yes but there are far more Spanish speakers in the US than French ones.

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GeronimoHero@reddit

No not at all

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Skatingraccoon@reddit

In this context you'd want to use popular or common instead of famous. I'd say French is common in that it and Spanish are frequently taught as second languages in public schools. But a lot of people take the bare minimum to graduate (if they even need a foreign language to graduate), which is like one or two years. It is more common in some areas that were historically French dominant. Like around Louisiana. Some stats say it's the fifth most common language in the US.

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ghostwriter85@reddit

French is not widely spoken in the US outside of a handful of places where the language survived early French colonialism in North America. That said, it's still widely taught in American schools.

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baldbuthappy@reddit

Opposite of oui

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ballrus_walsack@reddit

IUO

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Certain-Monitor5304@reddit

[https://youtu.be/Mw9W2s6L2WM?si=Knjs1jxP611wkvLK](https://youtu.be/Mw9W2s6L2WM?si=Knjs1jxP611wkvLK)

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trinite0@reddit

Yes. French is taught as a standard foreign language option in many high schools. My high school offered Spanish, French, and German. And also Latin, which is what I took. :)

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Rheumatitude@reddit

Also Vermont and northern parts of New York

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silvahammer@reddit

Not many French speaking areas outside of Louisiana, and they speak their own dialect.

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CrosstrekJawn@reddit

its commonly taught in schools but nowhere near as popular as spanish

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buginskyahh@reddit

Maybe up until about 50 years ago

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Responsible_Trash_40@reddit

I learned French in school, it’s the common second option to Spanish for non English language.

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pmorter3@reddit

I mean culturally, it's pretty well known, but not a lot of Americans speak it.

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RelativeSweet9523@reddit

Not at all

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bunbun8@reddit

No lol.

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