French OCR

French Language

The French language is a Romance language that descends from Latin and has evolved into one of the most widespread languages in the world. According to the Ethnologue database, approximately 220 million people speak French worldwide, making it the second most spoken mother tongue in the European Union after German, and the fourth most spoken first language in the world, behind Standard Mandarin Chinese, English, and Spanish. As an international language of commerce, diplomacy, literature, and academe, French is also one of the official languages of more than 20 countries.