Did you know?
French is the official language of 29 countries. The international organisation representing French-speaking countries and regions is called la Francophonie, which consists of 88 member states and governments. This means that there are different forms of the French language and a variety of accents across the board. All these French-speaking countries have idioms that are unique to them. A native French speaker from France will never understand them. For example:
- Pickpockets are referred to as les deux-doigts which literally means two-fingers, in Mali. A French speaking person from France would normally say pickpocket (which is anglicism/English loan word) or voleur à la tire, voleuse à la tire.
- A free range of chicken is un poulet-bicyclette in Ivorian French. However, in France this would be les poulets fermiers or les poulets élevés en plein air.
Did you know?
TV5 is the greatest accomplishment of the Francophonie. It is the third largest television network after BBC and CNN.
Did you know? The French Language has a lot of expressions with food. For example:
- It’s none of your business! C’est pas tes oignons! The literal translation is “they’re not your onions!”.
- Stop telling tales! Arrête de raconter des salades! The literal translation is “stop telling salads!”
- I have lots of energy. J’ai la pêche. The literal translation is “I have the peach”.
Did you know?
Over 30% of English words are of French origin. Most of which are cognates – words that look the same or similar and have the exact same meaning in both languages. For example: souvenir, fiancé, déjà vu, pot-pourri (a mixture of dried petals and spices placed in a bowl to perfume a room.), abbreviation, academic, accent, accept, access, baggage, duvet, fabulous, fatigue, omelette, pair et cetera, et cetera.
French SMS Language or Textspeak
- Bonjour is Bjr!
- Salut is SLT!
- Ça va? is CV?
- Merci is Mr6
- Ciné is 6né
- Rendez-vous is Rdv
- D’accord is Dak
Did you know?
Verlan is a French slang use by teenagers and in hip-pop music. So, they take a word in French, then swap around the syllables, add or leave the letters out. For example, la musique changes into la sicmu, and café changes into féca.