<p>The rise in the use of <i>du coup</i> in spoken French in France has been confirmed by scientific research. This study has a two-fold objective: to find out if the rise in the use of <i>du coup</i> in France is true for other francophone contexts, namely Benin, and thereby compare its use in these two varieties of French. The second objective is to examine the use of <i>du coup</i> by French learners from Ghana who participated in an immersion programme in France and Benin. A comparative corpus (24,098 words) of oral interactions in pairs between 50 speakers of French in their respective groups (Benin, France, Ghana) was constituted and analysed using a corpus-driven approach. The statistical analysis of the study found the use of <i>du coup</i> by the French statistically significant as compared to French learners (<i>p</i> = 0.003) and Beninese (<i>p</i> = 0.033). <i>Du coup</i> is absent in the immersion student’s data and has a low frequency in the Beninese corpus. A qualitative study shows <i>bon</i> replaces certain functions of <i>du coup</i> primarily in Beninese and Benin immersion student’s corpus. The use of <i>bon </i>by Beninese and Benin immersion students corroborates research concerning a high use of <i>bon</i> in Francophone Africa particularly Mali. It could also signal a possible acquisition by Benin immersion students. However, statistically speaking, its use is not significant. The widespread use of <i>du coup</i> in French spoken in France does not seem to have affected other contexts outside France, at least in our corpus.</p>