It has a double role, i.e. watching over French language and performing patronage acts. Its statues gave it the first mentioned mission; the academy worked in the past to fix the language, to make it a common patrimony for French people and for the ones who know the language itself. Nowadays the academy works to preserve the quality and to follow the necessary evolutions of the language, defining its proper use, through working out its dictionary, recommendations and taking part to many terminology commissions. The second mission – the patronage – was not conceived at first but it was given to the academy thanks to gifts and heritages. Every year the academy confers about 60 literary prizes.