{"id":3489,"date":"2020-08-02T01:22:44","date_gmt":"2020-08-01T21:22:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.cudoo.com\/?p=3489"},"modified":"2021-02-02T03:11:18","modified_gmt":"2021-02-01T23:11:18","slug":"10-unique-things-about-the-french-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cudoo.com\/blog\/10-unique-things-about-the-french-language\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Unique Things About the French Language"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\"><p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It takes years and years to master a language. Even when you\u2019ve finally got it mastered, there\u2019s still so much to learn! It\u2019s easy to understand how intimidating learning a new language can be. The French language is no different.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">French is a beautiful language and is the spoken word in the city of love, Paris. However, the language can be confusing. Just like English, there\u2019s no shortage of quirks in the French language.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.daytranslations.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DayTranslations<\/span><\/i><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">laid out some unique aspects to the French language;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>How many people actually speak French?<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are 80 million native French speakers and only roughly <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/worldpopulationreview.com\/countries\/france-population\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">65 million<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of them are actually from France. However, that\u2019s not all &#8211; there are an additional 190 million who speak French as an additional language. In fact, French and English are the only two languages that are taught in every single country.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Where is it spoken?<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">French is the official language of 29 countries! That\u2019s only second to <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">English<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Did you know it was the official language of Switzerland? No matter where you land on the globe, if you don\u2019t find someone who speaks English, you might be able to find someone who speaks French.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are almost 10 million French speakers in Canada, where both English and French are the native languages. Interestingly enough, French was actually the native language in England for more than 600 years. Today, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Languages_of_the_United_Kingdom\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">23% of the English population<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> speaks French.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>What\u2019s up with the numbers?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unfortunately for some, counting isn\u2019t as easy as une, deux, trois\u2026 There\u2019s some math involved. This language doesn\u2019t have a very literal translation for the English words; seventy, eighty, or ninety. Instead, 70 turns out to be \u201csoixante-dix\u201d or seventy-ten and so on. They base the language on the \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thelocal.fr\/20190320\/so-how-did-the-french-end-up-with-their-crazy-numbers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">vigesimal system<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u201d This means they base the latter half numbers on a base of 20, rather than 10 like English.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Culture: An Essential Part of Learning the French Language<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most people know the basics of ballet are from France but did you know that it\u2019s actually the official language of the art? Ballet is a historically French and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbt.org\/learn-and-engage\/resources-audience-members\/ballet-101\/brief-history-ballet\/?gclid=CjwKCAjw-ITqBRB7EiwAZ1c5U5qkVquW6r2of3wOSa-2Yxx8Y9lL6MezHMy4pQMx-F7Xy6ld_lzIdBoCNzwQAvD_BwE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">originated in the 15th century<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When it comes to slang, just like English, it can be hard to keep up with. Slang varies from region to region and from age to age. Contrary to popular belief, \u201cOh l<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00e0 l\u00e0\u201d isn\u2019t used to express sensuality. It\u2019s mostly used in a silly way to compliment someone<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> but is also used to express disgust or disdain.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A part of French slang is to invert the syllables of the words you\u2019re saying such as \u201ccimer\u201d for Merci.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019re ready to start learning this beautiful language, check out Cudoo\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/cudoo.com\/learn-french-online\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">online French courses<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> you can do right from the comfort of your own home!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What\u2019s your favorite French quirk? Let us know in the comments!<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=&#8221;3493&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; alignment=&#8221;center&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]It takes years and years to master a language. Even when you\u2019ve finally got it mastered, there\u2019s still so much to learn! It\u2019s easy to understand how intimidating learning a new language can be. The French language is no different.\u00a0 French is a beautiful language and is the spoken word in the city of love, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":3499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2825,2333,2823,2824,2821,2822,2826],"yst_prominent_words":[999,2820,2801,56,69,1539,2796,831,203,122,55,621,153,2799,268,2795,266,2798,2797,353],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cudoo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3489"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cudoo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cudoo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cudoo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cudoo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3489"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/cudoo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5602,"href":"https:\/\/cudoo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3489\/revisions\/5602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cudoo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cudoo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cudoo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cudoo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3489"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cudoo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=3489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}