Wolof is not closely related to French. They are from different language families: Wolof is a Niger-Congo language, while French is a Romance language. However, Wolof has borrowed a significant number of words from French, due to the colonial history of Senegal. As a result, there are some superficial similarities between the two languages. For example, the Wolof word for "hello" is "naaw", which sounds similar to the French word "bonjour". However, the grammar and syntax of Wolof are very different from French. So, while Wolof speakers may be able to understand a few French words, they will not be able to understand French conversation without significant training.