Monday, December 3, 2012

English French Words

It’s incredible ("uncreaaabl") how many English words are actually French!! And every single one of them sounds so chic (oops there’s one) and glamorous!! Décor, couture, décolletage, negligee, deja vu, rendezvous, fiancé, boutique, bric-a-brac, encore...


 At this moment I am listening to my Michel Thomas audio – learning to speak French without any memorizing, writing, homework or even trying for that matter. It’s brilliant! No pressure to learn, just listening and ‘hearing’ what your listening to. Its amazing how it flows in and stays there – the next thing you know your constructing sentences in your head with so much ease it couldn’t possibly be normal. Its a practical and modern method of teaching. I highly recommend it!!

Most interesting is learning that the English language actually came from the French language. There are so many similarities that are so obvious but its getting our head around the fact that it’s really just pronunciations that are different (there are exceptions of course). A French man once said: “English is French…just badly pronounced” – this man me laugh!

So I am now flicking through my French dictionary and picked out all the english words that are actually French. We are so used to these words being part of the English language we don’t even recognize them as French…most of the time!


Adore
Ambience
Antique
Avenue
Ballet
Beau
Bikini
Biscuit
Bizarre
Blonde
Brunette
Bracelet
Budget (comes from Old French bougette (A little purse) – I love that!!!
Café
Canape
Chaffeur
Cliché
Connoisseur
Dessert
Elite
Encore
Fatigue
Fatal
Masseuse
Niche
Resume


And these are just the sounds that are clearly french. I found a stack more on Wikipedia. Now that I’m so fascinated in learning the origins of even simple words like 'table'! And the simple truth for me has been understanding that English comes from French – that's all! and with this simple ray light ... the key has finally turned! - I get it! Everything's so much easier and clearer to understand and then SPEAK. I’m almost French now LOL


Off to listen to recording 4 now!! Au revoir!

4 comments:

  1. Hi, I was very suspicious of this method when my husband first began it, but was convinced with the results. Now, I tell everyone about it! I've also used it successfully with Spanish and Italian. Bon courage!

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  2. the results are so outstanding, its all about the sound waves. i love it - my flight companion on the way to Paris in 3 weeks :)

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  3. Hi, I've just included this post in my Wednesday's bloggers' round-up: http://www.aussieinfrance.com/2012/12/croc-monsieur-meet-adam-ruck-the-man-who-cycles-in-crocs-one-mans-faith-a-visit-to-sagrada-familia-barcelona-english-french-words/.
    Hope we'll get to meet up when you're in Paris!

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  4. Oh Joy! Merci and yes lets make sure we do. I will be in touch! Merry Christmas :) x

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