When the Académie française’s position on spelling was misconstrued in early 2016, a public debate arose about spelling and language. This paper explains the Académie’s views on spelling, which are in fact descriptive, be- fore detailing the Académie’s other roles, notably the creation of its own nor- mative dictionary and its involvement in the development of French tech- nical vocabulary. This paper thus contrasts the different roles the Académie plays and describes the different attitudes the Académie is thus able to adopt.