Canada's Official Languages: English and French

English and French are Canada's two official languages, and the fact shows up across the citizenship test, from history to symbols to the rights of citizens. This summary follows Discover Canada's chapters on who Canadians are and Canadian symbols, checked on 23 September 2026.

Two official languages

The guide describes English and French as defining day-to-day life for most people and as the country's official languages. The federal government is required by law to provide services throughout Canada in English and French. The guide also calls the two languages important symbols of identity: English and French speakers have lived together "in partnership and creative tension" for more than 300 years.

The Official Languages Act

Parliament passed the Official Languages Act in 1969. The guide gives it three main objectives:

1. establish equality between French and English in Parliament, the Government of Canada and institutions subject to the Act
2. maintain and develop official language minority communities
3. promote equality of French and English in Canadian society

The Charter of Rights and Freedoms also protects official language rights and minority language education rights, and gives French and English equal status in Parliament and throughout the government.

Where French is spoken

Most French speakers live in Quebec, but French-speaking communities also live in Ontario, New Brunswick and Manitoba, with a smaller presence elsewhere. New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province.

Acadians

The Acadians are descendants of French colonists who began settling in what are now the Maritime provinces in 1604. Between 1755 and 1763, during the war between Britain and France, more than two-thirds of them were deported, an ordeal known as the Great Upheaval. Acadian culture survived and is a lively part of French-speaking Canada today.

Quebecers

Quebecers are the people of Quebec, the vast majority French-speaking and most descended from French settlers of the 1600s and 1700s. In 2006 the House of Commons recognized that the Québécois form a nation within a united Canada. Quebec also has a long-established English-speaking community.

In the citizenship process itself

The two languages appear in your own path to citizenship too:

• you can take the test in English or French
• language proof can be in either language
• IRCC encourages new citizens to repeat the oath in both languages

For the test

Remember the 1969 Act, New Brunswick as the only bilingual province, and the Great Upheaval of the Acadians. Our study notes on who we are and Canadian symbols cover the rest.