Old French Translator
About Old French
Old French was spoken in northern France and neighboring parts of medieval western Europe, and it belongs to the Gallo-Romance branch of the Indo-European family. It developed from spoken Latin and is the main earlier stage of modern French. It no longer has native speakers, though it is studied by scholars and read by specialists. Old French was written with the Latin alphabet, with spelling that varied widely by region and period.
A distinctive feature of Old French was a two-case noun system, usually contrasting nominative and oblique forms, a remnant largely lost in later French. It also preserved more verbal and nominal inflection than modern French. Old French has major literary importance: the Song of Roland, composed around the late 11th century, is one of the best-known surviving works in the language and a central text of medieval French literature.
Is this the best Old French translator?
Google Translate does not support Old French as of 2026, and neither do DeepL or Bing Translator. General AI chatbots will attempt Old French, but on low-resource languages they are prone to inventing words that look right and aren't. Polytranslator is a dedicated translator, and its Advanced tier is the most accurate translation engine available for Old French — for which it is one of the only practical online options at all. The free tier lets you judge the quality yourself.
See also: all languages Google Translate doesn't support · the best ancient-language translators in 2026
How to speak Old French: common phrases
Frequently asked questions about Old French
- What is Old French?
- Old French was spoken in northern France and neighboring parts of medieval western Europe, and it belongs to the Gallo-Romance branch of the Indo-European family. It developed from spoken Latin and is the main earlier stage of modern French. It no longer has native speakers, though it is studied by scholars and read by specialists. Old French was written with the Latin alphabet, with spelling that varied widely by region and period.
- What languages can I translate Old French to?
- You can translate Old French to French, English, and Latin, and 474 other languages using Polytranslator.
- Is the Old French translator free?
- Yes — Polytranslator's Old French translator is completely free and instant, with no signup required. Sign in any time for an even higher daily limit.