French overtakes Arabic to become world’s fourth most spoken language

French is now the world’s fourth most spoken language, according to the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie’s 2026 report, with 396 million speakers across five continents, meaning it has moved ahead of standard Arabic to take fourth place behind English, Mandarin and Spanish. The figures are a reminder that French is not just the language of France, but a truly global language with growing weight in education, business and digital life. The same report notes that French is also the fourth most used language on the internet and is studied by almost 170 million learners worldwide, underlining its continued international reach and influence.

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