Which parts of Switzerland speak French?

France is not the only country in Europe where French is an official language. The language of love is also spoken in Monaco, Luxembourg, Belgium and Switzerland, although in each of these countries it shares official status with other languages. Belgium, for example, has three official languages - French, Flemish and German - while Switzerland has four - French, German, Italian and Romansch.

The nation now known as Switzerland came into being in 1848, when the Swiss cantons were united in a federation after the Sonderbund civil war, although it has existed as a more or less distinct political entity since early medieval times.

The country has always been multilingual and a melting pot of different cultures, thanks to its valuable strategic location in the Alps. Romandy, the region of Switzerland where French is most widely spoken, has traditionally spoken a Provencal dialect, although the Burgundians introduced French to the area in the Early Middle Ages. As the Kingdom of France became a more important power in Europe, the influence of French spread throughout Europe in the early modern period.

Romandy comprises the cantons of Geneva, Vaud, Neuchâtel, and Jura, as well as some of the French-speaking areas of Fribourg, Valais and Bern, where the country’s capital is.

French is the official language of the city of Geneva, Switzerland's second-largest city with over 200,000 inhabitants. According to a 2010 census, 85% of the city's population speaks French as a first language. Geneva is home to the highest number of international organisations in the world, including many of the agencies of the United Nations.

Swiss French is similar to French as it is spoken in France, with a few key differences. For instance, the Swiss will often use a different word from their neighbours to the west to refer to the same thing. A petit-déjeuner (breakfast) in standard French is simply a déjeuner in Swiss, while if you want to ask for cutlery, you should ask for les services rather than les couverts.

Then there are the numbers. While in standard French - the kind we teach at Learn French With Alexa - the numbers seventy, eighty and ninety are rendered soixante-dix, quatre-vingts and quatre-vingt-dix, in Swiss they are more simply septante, huitante and nonante.

And of course, the accent is a little different, too. TEF applicants may be expected to familiarise themselves with the Swiss accent for the listening comprehension part of the exam.