text: French only for Federal government? You're a bit outdated. In Montreal, 73% of the businesses now operate in French. There are very few CEOs that cannot speak to the media (and share holders such as the Caisse des Dépôts) in French. French is ranked the sixth most widely spoken language after Mandarin Chinese (over a billion speakers), English, Hindi, Spanish and Arabic. There are currently over 220 million French speakers worldwide, including 72 million so-called partial French speakers. After Brexit, it remains to be seen what language will predominate in Europe.