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Exploring the French Language

This quiz explores various aspects of the French language, including its usage, dialects, and historical influences.

#French language #language learning #linguistics #dialects #orthography #cultural studies

1 Thus, while the word "stop" is accepted in international French, the Government of Quebec has mandated the French translation "arrêt" for use on ________.

2 What region does the French language belong to?

3 Louisiana is home to many distinct dialects, of which ________ has the largest number of speakers.

4 The language was also spoken by the elite in the leased territory Guangzhouwan in southern ________.

5 (See ________) Since the 1990 orthographic rectifications, the circumflex on most i and u may be dropped as there is no change in pronunciation.

6 In the territories of the ________, the French language is often spoken alongside French-derived creole languages, the major exception being Madagascar.

7 This reform arose after the ________ to unify the different counting systems (mostly vigesimal near the coast, because of Celtic (via Breton) and Viking influences).

8 The majority of French words derive from Vulgar Latin or were constructed from ________ or Greek roots.

9 A large portion of words of the ________ (originating in Great Britain) are of French root or origin.

10 naïf—naive, Noël—Christmas) as in English, specifies that this vowel is pronounced separately from the preceding one, not combined, and is not a ________.

💡 Interesting Facts

  • the 1539 Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts, which mandated the use of French in official documents, contributed to the rise of French nationalism.
  • due to the insistence of Joseph-Hyacinthe Bellerose, the record of debates in the Senate of Canada was translated into French as early as 1877.
  • despite plagiarizing a Chinese-French-Latin dictionary ordered by Napoleon, Chrétien-Louis-Joseph de Guignes went on to become a member of the French Academy of Sciences.
  • A Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem at Easter A.D. 1697, based on the diary of Henry Maundrell, was translated into French, Dutch and German by 1792.
  • the manhwa Recast was published not just in Korean, but also in German, French, and American English.
  • the Murat Centre is the only Shrine temple with a French name, and is the largest Shrine temple in North America.
  • the lyrics of one of the most popular French folk songs, Marlbrough s'en va-t-en guerre, which has the same melody as the English song For He's a Jolly Good Fellow, were written on a false rumour.
  • the early 13th century romance Guillaume de Dole is the first extant French literary work combining narrative and lyric, a form which by the end of the century had become canonical.
  • the Simca Aronde (pictured) was named after the French word for swallow, a bird which appeared on the Simca logo when the model was presented.
  • Du battant des lames au sommet des montagnes (French for "From the beating of the waves to the summit of the mountains") is a legal description of the manner in which the island of Réunion was divided into parcels.
  • Sabine Ehrenfeld, the Overstock.com spokesmodel, is fluent in German, French, English, and Italian and that she is an experienced pilot and equestrian.
  • Avenue Charles de Gaulle in N'Djamena is a rare street in Chad to have retained its French name despite President François Tombalbaye's Authenticité Africanization program.
  • Allen Bares, a former member of the Louisiana State Legislature, was awarded the Medal of Merit by France for promotion of the French language.
  • "Comme Ci, Comme Ça" was performed in French at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, despite being the Cypriot entry.
  • Soviet literature declared Russian the "world language of internationalism", denouncing French as the "language of fancy courtiers" and English as the "jargon of traders".
  • charcuterie, derived from the French words for flesh (chair) and cooked (cuit), is the branch of cooking devoted to prepared meat products primarily sourced from pork.
  • HMS Fifi, a German warship captured and added to the Royal Navy during the First World War, was named to mean 'tweet-tweet' in French.
  • Reinald, a 13th century Cistercian monk and Bishop of Ross, was nicknamed Macer, French for "skinny".
  • Merten de Keyser printed the first complete French and English Bibles in Antwerp.
  • Joe M. Rodgers, who spent six hours a day for four months learning French after being named U.S. Ambassador to France, later became CEO of language school operator Berlitz International.
  • Alabama lawyer and Republican Party pioneer John Grenier of Birmingham was self-taught in four foreign languages: French, Spanish, German, and modern Greek.
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