Oh la la! French voted the world’s sexiest language

BRITONS believe French is the world's sexiest language, a new study reveals.

A French accent attracts one in five, followed by Italian (16 per cent), English (13 per cent), Irish (11 per cent) and Spanish (six per cent).

French is clearly the language of love but, according to researchers, the sexiest French-speaking celebrities are not actually French.

Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie topped the poll of 2,000 Brits, each cited by 26 per cent, with Thierry Henry, Gerard Depardieu and Vanessa Paradis nowhere to be seen.

One in seven Brits — 15 per cent — admit they add some French to their conversation when they want to be romantic or seductive.

Similarly, 16 per cent think un petit peu of French spices up their chat with a bit of va-va-voom.

And a third — 34 per cent — of these Francophiles go all out to impress by putting on a French accent too.

The most commonly used French is deja vu (cited by 34 per cent), followed by bon appetit (23 per cent), au revoir (20 per cent), bon voyage and c'est la vie (each 19 per cent) and cliche (18 per cent).

Other French phrases and words most often borrowed by Brits include faux pas (15 per cent), merci beaucoup and oui (each 15 per cent) and creme de la creme (12 per cent).

But throwing foreign phrases into conversation is apparently fraught with danger with seven per cent thinking risque is a fish soup rather than something that is sexually suggestive.

The other French speaking celebrities considered sexiest are Halle Berry (19 per cent), Kylie Minogue (18 per cent), Orlando Bloom (15 per cent), Emma Watson, Claudia Schiffer and Elle MacPherson (all 13 per cent) and Bradley Cooper and Jude Law (each 11 per cent).

Other appealing accents are American and Scottish (five per cent), Welsh (three per cent), Australian (two per cent) and Russian (two per cent).

The survey was carried out for Renault to mark the 25th anniversary of its Clio car.

The phrase va-va-voom sped into the Concise Oxford English Dictionary in 2004 after French footballer Thierry Henry made it his trademark in Renault TV commercials.

The dictionary definition of va-va-voom is: 'The quality of being exciting, vigorous, or sexually attractive'.

And the phrase is now regularly used by five per cent of us, researchers found.

Renault's Jeremy Townsend commented: "Britain's love affair with France is very much alive and embedded in our culture, from the food we eat to the words we speak and the cars we drive.

"This year marks 25 years of the Renault Clio in the UK — the car that invented va-va-voom — so it's great to see that people are still using the term today."