Many people who choose to learn French don’t really bother to find out the background to this wonderful language. If in fact, you look at some of the facts about the French language you will find out some amazing things. Did you know, for instance, the biggest French-speaking city is not in France? Many would assume that it is Paris but in fact, it is not even in Europe. The biggest French-speaking city is Kinshasa, Congo, in Africa. You didn’t see that coming, did you? Well, we don’t want to leave you high and dry so here Thelanguageclass.co.uk has listed  5 more amazing things that you didn’t know about the French language:

 

1.    It is spoken as a second language in many countries like Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Lebanon, Syria, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and many others. In fact, French has official status in 32 countries – this means that it is recognized by the countries as one of their official languages. In case you are wondering how this compares to other languages, you should know that English is not that far ahead; it is the official language in 45 countries.

 

2.    You may know this already but here we go anyway: French is the language of   romance. In fact, French men and women are thought in many countries to be some of the most romantic men in the world. The language itself is descended from Latin and it has common roots with Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian. If you have been trying to impress someone without success, how about you put some French into the mix? They may not understand what you are trying to say to them but at least, they will know that you are trying to be romantic.

 

 

3.    English, in case you didn’t know, owes a big debt to French – more than 45% of all English words are of French origin. The influence runs into all spheres of life ranging from the military, with words like soldier and officer, to cuisine and gastronomy, to law and the economy. In other words, without the French language, the English language would have a hard time describing everyday things.

 

4.    Most of us know this one: It is the top language with it comes to gastronomy words. In fact, it is hard to talk about good cuisine without thinking of the French. They didn’t just develop the words; they developed the foods too – some of the best food to be eaten in the world is found in Paris. Are you thinking that you may never get to taste it? You’re wrong because you have already. Common foods such as casseroles, marmalade, mayonnaise and many others were given to the world by the French.

 

5.    French uses five diacritical (accent) marks (the circumflex accent, acute accent, grave accent, diaeresis, and cedilla) and the two ligatures. This one might not be so easy to figure out unless you are a linguist but hey, now you know it anyhow!

 

Don’t stop here; go online and you will find more than 50 fun (and serious) facts about the French language!

P.S.: Note: if you want more information about how you can learn the language, you can find it about this website with tips and information on learning French (and sometimes on living in France).

Similar Posts:

• A Perfect Accent?
• What Languages Should You Know if You Want to Travel the World Freely
• Common European Languages Framework (CEFR) and Vocabulary Size
• Quickest Way To Test Your Language Level!
• English Like Iz Speaked in Da Future