French Translation
Services Agency

While French has a clearly defined set of rules spelling, grammar and syntax, there are some significant differences between the variants spoken in France, other European countries such as Belgium or Switzerland, Canada or French-speaking countries in Africa. 

The differences between European and Canadian French can be compared to those between British and American English. Social and historical events influenced the development of Canadian French, which followed a different evolutive path to European French. Canadian French has numerous English loan words, or anglicisms, which are not so prevalent in European French. There are also terminological differences between both variants. For instance, a beverage is a “boisson” in European French, but a “breuvage” in Canadian French. “Dinner” is called “souper” in Canada, but “dîner” in Europe, and an e-mail is a “courriel” in Canadian French, but not in European French.

We see the same with African French, which has taken on many distinctive traits in terms of pronunciation, vocabulary, and syntax. These differences are often country-specific, which is understandable given that there are 29 different African countries in the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie

Every French translation agency should be aware of the differences between the main variations of the French language and advise their clients accordingly. At LinguaVox we believe that translated documents should be correct linguistically, and in cultural and geographic terms. We work with in-country linguists to provide you with the correct variant of French wherever you are going to use the translation.