French and Beginners' Portuguese
French and Portuguese together span two of the most geographically expansive language families in the world. French is spoken across Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, and Canada, and carries with it one of the richest literary and intellectual traditions in Western history. Portuguese, shared between Portugal, Brazil, and several African nations, is equally expansive and connects a set of cultural traditions that are often underrepresented in university language programmes.
Studying both languages opens access to an unusually wide range of societies and creative works.
At Oxford, this four-year full-time degree combines practical training in written and spoken language with an extensive introduction to the literatures and thought produced in French and Portuguese. You will learn to write and speak both languages fluently, and you will study literature across a broad range of periods and genres, from medieval texts to contemporary writing. The programme allows you to explore subjects including linguistics, philology, film, gender studies, and, in the French component, advanced translation, giving you significant flexibility in shaping your degree around your own intellectual interests.
The beginners' route in Portuguese means the programme is accessible to students with no prior knowledge of the language.
Graduates from modern languages programmes at Oxford are among the most widely recruited in the UK, moving into careers in diplomacy, international business, journalism, the law, the civil service, publishing, broadcasting, translation, and international organisations. The combination of French and Portuguese is particularly distinctive, opening doors across Francophone and Lusophone contexts in Europe, Latin America, and Africa. Postgraduate study in translation, comparative literature, area studies, or international relations is a natural continuation for those who wish to develop specialist expertise, and many graduates pursue academic careers in modern languages or related fields.