--- title: France and the French-speaking world — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «France and the French-speaking world», a lesson of the french course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: French is not only the language of France: it is spoken on every continent, and all the people and places that speak it together are c --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/34-france-and-the-french-speaking-world/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [French](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/) / France and the French-speaking world # France and the French-speaking world Lesson 34 of the french course of Mova's primary school: 15 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/french/34-france-and-the-french-speaking-world/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/34-france-and-the-french-speaking-world/0/) — French is not only the language of France: it is spoken on every continent, and all the people and places that speak it together are called la francophonie. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/34-france-and-the-french-speaking-world/1/) — In fact more French speakers live in Africa than in Europe, in big cities such as Kinshasa, Abidjan and Dakar, and many of them speak an African language at home as well. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/34-france-and-the-french-speaking-world/2/) — Picture a video call with four penpals: one in Brussels says septante for 70, one in Montreal says "Mets ta tuque !" for "Put your woolly hat on!", one in Dakar mixes French and Wolof, and one in Paris says it all the way your textbook does. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/34-france-and-the-french-speaking-world/3/) — Each place has its own words and habits, just as English sounds different in Glasgow, Texas and Sydney - none of them is wrong. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/34-france-and-the-french-speaking-world/4/) — France itself reaches far beyond Europe: Martinique and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, La Réunion in the Indian Ocean and French Guiana in South America are all part of France. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/34-france-and-the-french-speaking-world/5/) — La francophonie means all the people and countries that speak French; French is spoken on every continent. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/34-france-and-the-french-speaking-world/6/) — More French speakers live in Africa than in Europe; big French-speaking cities include Paris, Kinshasa, Abidjan, Montreal and Dakar. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/34-france-and-the-french-speaking-world/7/) — Belgium has three official languages, French, Dutch and German; French-speaking Belgians say septante (70) and nonante (90), and Bruxelles is said "bru-SEL". - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/34-france-and-the-french-speaking-world/8/) — Switzerland has four national languages, German, French, Italian and Romansh; French is spoken in the west, around Geneva (Genève) and Lausanne. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/34-france-and-the-french-speaking-world/9/) — In Quebec, Bonjour ! can also be said when leaving a shop, a bit like "have a good day"; in France you say au revoir. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/34-france-and-the-french-speaking-world/10/) — Quebec has its own words: une tuque is a woolly hat (un bonnet in France) and un dépanneur is a corner shop. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/34-france-and-the-french-speaking-world/12/) — In Senegal many people speak French and Wolof; in many West African countries people speak French and one or more African languages. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/34-france-and-the-french-speaking-world/13/) — In Côte d'Ivoire, "On dit quoi ?" is a friendly "What's up?", and "Ça va un peu" means "I'm okay, so-so". - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/34-france-and-the-french-speaking-world/14/) — Martinique, Guadeloupe, La Réunion and French Guiana (la Guyane) are part of France; people there use the euro and often speak a Creole as well as French. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/34-france-and-the-french-speaking-world/17/) — Paris, the capital of France, is said "pa-REE" and stands on the river Seine; the Eiffel Tower, la tour Eiffel, was built for a world fair in 1889. - ← previous: [14 juillet, poisson d'avril and other French days](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/33-14-juillet-poisson-d-avril-and-other-french-days/) - next →: [False friends](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/35-false-friends/) - ↑ back to [French](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/)