41% of the ENGLISH LANGUAGE is FRENCH. How did this happen?
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- Опубліковано 24 кві 2024
- We look at the history of the English language and particularly why there are so many French words and expressions in English. We'll also discuss the Anglo-Saxons, the Vikings and more. In part two Jon and Gideon look at French expressions that we still use in English today. If you're a native speaker or you're learning English you'll find this interesting.
Check out Jon's podcast English with Monty here montyenglish.podbean.com/
And his video on French expressions in English here • French expressions we ...
0:00 Jon and Gideon on the streets of Paris
0:29 The origin of English words
1:20 The Norman Conquests and the Anglo-Saxons
4:01 The Vikings
5:53 French vocabulary in English
11:26 Pardon my French
12:42 Part 2: French expressions in English with Jon
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French was for a time the international language of communication through out Europe.
It dominated in the royal courts.
He said that in the video.
Wasn’t Latin that has well until 1100 years ago?
@@Dave102693 French was the new latin.
@@human7491 English was the language of business throughout the British empire and French was the language of diplomacy. Not Eurocentrîc.
Until the 1931 Statute of Westminster where the Yanks basically pulled rank, insisting on English first. (I think I have that right.) The USA basically had more influence after stepping in and ending WWI.
In Esprit de corps, the word corps doesn't refer to the human body, but to a body of soldiers -- corps has that meaning in English. Team spirit would be a close enough translation
Je pense que ça a plus avoir avec corporatisme et corporation, "prendre/donner corps". Le "corps militaire" vient à mon avis plus de la "corporation militaire" que véritablement un corps humain.
Même si en latin l'éthymologie est la même.
@@trorisk
C'est chouette de donner des leçons de français, mais tu veux peut-être parler "d'étymologie" ? 🙄
In anglophone Canada we try to pronounce French expressions as French with varying success from east to west.
Varying success, I agree, depending on the distance from Québec and level of education.
Words taken recently from French keep the French pronunciation like bidet, ballet, and bouquet but older words become anglicized like banquet. 'Chef' is interesting...it became anglicized as "chief" for the boss, except in the kitchen where it kept its French pronunciation "chef".
Francophone Canada can't even pronounce French expressions correctly so you're good
@@lawtraf8008 Could you elaborate on this point?
@lawtraf8008 Agreed! The French spoken in Quebec is based on an old form of French from centuries ago. To speakers of standard Parisian-style French, the sound of Canadian French, particularly the French spoken in Montréal, is harsh, sloppy and full of vulgar slang. To the non-Canadian francophone world it is an abomination to the mother tongue.
20:33 in French "Raison d'être" means more : "the thing (hobbies, job, passion, person we love) that makes us want to live for" or "the thing that gives meaning in our lives".
I think that’s what it means in English too.
This would not have a reason to exist without this particular need
Litterally reason to exist and often the only one.
In Swedish we also have a lot of French words from when French was the fashionable language among the upper classes. Interestingly enough we don't use the word cul-de-sac but "Återvändsgränd" which literally translates to return-to-where-you-came-from-alley.
hej bror jag alttför swenska🎇🎆
😂
R u not ashamed of ur country?
Or just return alley haha.
In french we say "impasse" instead of "cul de sac", which has another meaning : situation of which it can't be done to get away
As a Frenchman, I quote Georges Clémenceau (1841-1929, French statesman who served as Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909 and again from 1917 until 1920) who said, referring to the history of William the Conqueror, "What is England ? England is a former French colony which has gone wrong"....
Ouais enfin c’est du clemenceau mdr
Il avait le sens de la punchline comme on dit à présent. C'est quand même le type qui aurait dit à une belle, chez qui il toquait à la porte, et qui ne voulait pas lui ouvrir : "Si vous saviez avec quoi je frappe !". 😆
So, USA is the former colony of a former colony of France? :-)
Italy is a Greek colony that turned wrong, France is a Roman colony that turned wrong, England is a French colony that turned wrong, the US is an English colony that turned wrong. And so goes History of mankind. ;)
@@Clery75019
Excellent !
"41% of the ENGLISH LANGUAGE is FRENCH"
most french speakers know this instinctively , same for all speakers whose languages were born from latin ( spanish, italian, portuguese) . all of us can see the way english has strong latin influences despite being a germanic language at its source .
Salut Eglantine . L'anglais n'est pas une langue germanique . C'est une langue hybride . Autant latine que germanique . La raison pour laquelle les anglais disent que leur langue est une langue germanique est pour un motif d'appartenance éthnique et culturelle . Les anglais , blonds aux yeux bleus , se sentant plus proches des peuples européens du Nord , eux germaniques et blonds aux yeux bleus comme eux . C'est un affichage identitaire . Pour en tirer un prestige , selon la thèse de supériorité aryenne ou germanique sur le reste de la race humaine ... La logique veut qu'une langue qui n'a qu'un mot sur trois de sa langue , de racines germaniques , rien que par la statistique , ne peut se revendiquer comme langue germanique .
Les anglais ont le droit de dire que leur langue est germanique , mais nous ne sommes pas obligés d'adhérer à leurs fantasmes d'appartenance identitaire . Nommons l'anglais pour ce qu'il est , rationnellement , c'est une langue hybride germano-latine , une langue indo-européenne ...
@@christopherfreeman1340 The langage spoken prior to the Norman invasion can't be called english in my point of view , since what is now the english langage a build up of that existing langage in the Isle of Britain with french langage .
@@christopherfreeman1340 Normans like William or Guillaume not only were French but were French culturally too especially after 6 generations marrying and having children with the local Franks
You're all speaking as if the French were ZULUS FROM sOUTH aFRICA... The French were originally a mix of Celts and Franks. Franks were a a Germanic tribe
@@faroukabdellah4216 The English are a Celtic people and not a Germanic people. A handful of Germanic took control of the country and their language imposed itself. About 25% of English people have Germanic origins but that does not mean that these 25% of people are 100% Germanic.
I'm French speaking and I have an English-speaking friend who works on medieval history.What I find very interesting is that he is able to read and understand 15th and 16th century French texts, whereas I don't understand them at all as French texts. It's true that when you read them out loud, you find a lot of words that sound like English words today.
In fact French is not French! It is 28% Latin, 25% Germanic, ONLY 28.2% old French (Gaulish), 5.32% Greek and the rest a mixture of 8 other Euro languages! PhD Evolutionary Anthropology, University of California at Berkeley and Univ of Chicago.
@@vintageguitarz1 - Gaulish is not at all Old French. France didn't exist at that time. There are maybe 150 words of Gaulish origin in standard French. The Gaulish language is a Celtic language, which was spoken before the Romans came and conquered the area in the 2nd and 1st centuries before Christ. That put an end to the Gaulish language and the reason why French became a Romance language - it’s because they were forced to speak in the way the Romans speak.
Latin became the dominant language in the region and was a requirement if people wanted to rise up the social ranks. The Gaulish language was eliminated, leaving only about 150 words that were included in the French vocabulary. Today, around 70 of those words became the origin of some of the French words today, such as battu, which became ”battre” meaning to beat or batter and artuas that evolved into ”ardoise,” a color that is close to slate or purplish gray.
@@vintageguitarz1 That's wrong.
Gaulish isn't french.
There were tons of french languages.
The french language was refined by absolute literacy genius and France has the highest number of geniuses concerning literature etc.
@@vintageguitarz1 25 % d'origine germanique ? Si ça fait 10 %, c'est beaucoup. Par contre, l'origine latine est bien plus élevée que 28 % 🙃, sans doute autour de 85 %. Par exemple, tous les mots des 2 phrases qui précèdent sont d'origine latine. Et cette dernière phrase, aussi... à part le mot phrase (dont l'étymologie est grecque).
Tu es une quiche mec.
Le français du 15ème et 16ème est très largement compréhensible pour un français du 21ème.
I, as an English speaker of Australian origins, have often said that "English is a very humble language, it's not ashamed to steal words from anywhere/anyone."
Except for French and latin it was more forced upon the anglo-saxon than borrowed or stolen .
"English and humble" in the same sentence...what a joke 🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂😂
It tends to follow other languages into a back alley and mug them for their loose vocabulary... billabong, kangaroo...we'll take those...you can keep your jumbuck...
Já o português, que tem três letras a menos que o inglês (em português não tem as letras K, W e Y), tem umas três vezes mais palavras que o inglês além dos substantivos terem gênero masculino ou feminino. Os tempos e os modos verbais em português são um verdadeiro terror para quem tenta aprender português.
I just tell my students it's a mess! LOL... Don't bother with grammar terms because half the rules you have to ignore half the time. It's a mutt. But that makes it flexible and good for detailed and nuanced uses.
I am a native Hungarian who currently learns French with a native French teacher and our common language is th English. So, I found your video très interessent et utile :)
intéressante : adjectif verbal au féminin
@@marcclassic True but he was speaking Frenglish so gender is not that important while mixing languages.
INTERESSANT, LOL !!
3 languages, c'est classe ! Courage !
Bonne chance mon ami, I wish you good luck in learning French
As an Italian speaker I can tell you for a fact that I can recognise over 40% of the English language due to its Latin roots which found their way through the French language
That would be rather 56%, because besides French, there is a direct Latin input.
@@tatianaes3354 you are 100% right I should have said that and it is a fact!
Many words in Italian are similar to English because of other reasons too. Many words are similar between many European languages due to other influences. For example, sugar and zucchero: one of many Arabic loanwords. Similar: orange versus arancia, giraf versus giraffa, ... Arabic loanwords.
Hey and you guys owe some reparations payments for your invasion from 43 to 410 AD .
Seriously , Romans brought urbanization - Londinium - Christianity - Bricks and Mortar , mosaic tiling , Roman Baths and most famously Roman Roads , to Britain . Parts of the Roman Wall still exist in London .
Currency was already in use before the Romans invaded .
Also , the Anglo Saxons were not Protestants - as the false stereotype goes . They originally were Pagans and converted to Christianity ( Catholicism ) . They went on Pilgrimages to Rome - which is why there is a Saxonia in Rome .
.
Because Italian comes from Vulgar Latin, French Ecclesiastics worked a lot to make it language and influence a lot on the pronunciation and also using the regional language and incorporate it... even Italians who were part of the French dominion were influenced by the French Latin.
There's a fact not mentioned in the video, French influenced English also by medieval litterature and songs, most of medieval tales introduced in England were originally in french language like the tales of King Arthur, the knights of the round table....the traduction of these tales and troubadours songs introduced French words into English language
Everything from the « English culture » comes in fact from French culture, even the hat of your royal guard comes from France
Yep, except troubadours' languague isn't french but occitan
@@sampi2082 And trouvadours from Galicia/Northern Spain
King Arthur is Welsh.
@@123Andersonev Actually he's from brittany. The welsh version came later.
As a French native I have a few favorite English words (demise, dismiss, miscealleanous). Don't know why but I love these words and pronunciation
*miscellaneous
Le mot "miscellanée" existe en Français, même si son emploi est devenu rare. Je suppose que le mot anglais vient de là, car cela a le même sens de "choses diverses".
@@guzy1971 Oui je pense aussi, car j'ai vu ensuite que ce mot a des racines latines ... [early 17th century: from Latin miscellaneus (from miscellus ‘mixed’, from miscere ‘to mix’) + -ous]
@@gabor6259 mischief :)
C'est normal. Moi, en tant qu'anglophone, j'adore certains mots français ... "inéluctable, crépuscule, époustouflant, gésir, certes" parmi certains autres.
From a historical perspective, you had one mistake (which ironically the truth supports your argument even more), during the Norman rule of English, a lot of the Kings actually held palace in Normandy, Anjou, or Gascony and spent very little time in England itself. For example, Richard the Lionheart spent less than a year of his life in England.
He stayed 4 month in England in his all life if i'm remember.
Volbound1700, the reason for this of course is because in 911 the king of France Charles III the simple gave Rolon, the Viking chief, the duchy of Normandy and one of his daughters in marriage in exchange for his loyalty. Rolon also had to be baptised. Guillaume le Conquérant (William the conqueror), heir to Rolon was also Duke of Normandy as were all his successors.
Many wars between the two kingdoms and also within the kingdoms were a consequence of this decision by the king of France in 911.
Volbound1700 richard coeur de lion spent 2 months in england and spoke only french.
English kings where french, from anjou ( plantagenets).
Have a nice day
@@nicolashommerin7729 thanks for further explanation of my point. I remember it was a very short time.
@@yvespetit je suis normande et j'adore écouter les histoires qui ont fondé ma region telle que je la connais 😌
All these expressions are used in French, except, as you said, "double entendre" - the correct form is "double sens". "Crème de la créme" is used and I think everyone would understand it in France. There is also another way to say "crème de la crème", and it is also coming from fooe: you can say "le gratin", the best of the best.
I wonder if "double entendre" is an old usage that in modern French has been displaced by "double sens."
I am French as well, I would only say "le gratin" to talk about the elite ("le XVIème arrondissement est le quartier du gratin parisien"), same as "le haut du panier". I wouldn’t use these expressions to describe something as being the best. I would say either "le top du top" or something like "c’est le haut podium"
@@OceanChild75 Americans say "au gratin" for sprinkled with cheese and or breadcrumbs.
La crême de la crême plus personne ne dit ça , ça fait ringuard
@@Lostouille Ah bon? Qui l'a décrété? Il y a une liste quelque part des mots qu'on peut utiliser et ceux qu'on ne peut pas? Sur tik tok peut-être?
"Esprit de corps"
In french, you find it in teams, military corps, syndicates, work corporations and strongly united groups involved in a cause or values. It's a strong feeling of belonging to the same group and the solidarity within.
When a member of the group is in danger, difficulty or attacked, the whole group gather to help, defend, protect, fight back depending on the situation due to that feeling.
"Double entendre"
Not used in french, we use "double sens".
"En suite"
Not used, no equivalence.
"Cul de sac"
You're right, we don't pronounce the "l".
@Fenris De Guyenne
- "...En suite" Not used, no equivalence..."
C'est une salle de bain attenant à une chambre à coucher
adjectif
(d'une salle de bains) attenant immédiatement à une chambre et faisant partie d'un même ensemble de pièces. "toutes les chambres ont une salle de bain attenante"
adverbe
(en référence à une salle de bain) de manière à faire partie du même ensemble de pièces qu'une chambre à coucher. "chaque chambre a une petite salle de bain +en suite+"
nom
une salle de bains qui jouxte immédiatement une chambre et fait partie du même ensemble de pièces. "la salle de bain est entièrement carrelée en noir et blanc et dispose d'une double douche"
We see "Ensuite" advertised all over Ireland and I am sure that it must greatly intrigue French tourists. It means that you have a bathroom adjacent to (or in) your room!
"French"!
It’s say espirit de corps is equal to “morale”, used on a more defined group of people like a military organisation. Morale is again from the Latin
omance language group.
I'm German and at school we had to have English and could have another language. I tried French first but struggled so hard that I switched to Spanish instead. Now that I feel very comfortable in English I began to learn French again and I can't believe how much I can already understand.
I just hope that one day I'll reach the level of fluency in French, and Spanish again, that I have in English now.
¿Y aprendiste algo siempre? Avez-vous appris quelque chose? Und hast du etwas Spanisch gelernt oder nicht?
English is like a house that's been built by a German, but has been given a makeover by a French interior designer. It's a sort of Esperanto, but with terrible spelling.
Then warum do you have bloody russia in your symbols?
@@josevilas4927 sorry for the late and English reply. Somehow, youtube didn't notify me of any responses until today. I had Spanish for 6 years at school and even became a foreign language correspondence clerk (Staatlich geprüfter kaufmännischer Assistent für Fremdsprachen) for commercial English and Spanish in 1995 but I never worked in that field and completely lost my Spanish since I never got to use it.
@@PUARockstar because I don't think that Russian people or culture can be blamed for what's currently going on. Instead of the hate for everything Russian I show love for ordinary Russians who didn't want this war either but are suffering from being subjected to hate like athletes (just look at how badly Russian tennis players are treated at the Australian open or other tournaments), dancers and musicians (ballet dancers and orchestra conductors lost their jobs simply for being Russian), Russian plays and concerts have been cancelled, Russian monuments have been vandalised.
I don't support that behaviour at all therefore I stand with the other side.
You didn't see that behaviour when Yugoslavia or Iraq were bombed even after it was revealed that those attacks were based on lies and illegal.
When Georgia attacked those two regions in 2008 and Russia fought them back everybody was quick to blame Russia. People still blame Russia for the war in Georgia in 2008 to this day even though the European Union released a statement in 2013 that Georgia started the aggression.
People blame Russia for things Russia had no influence over. Russia's official stance on Ukraine has been to settle the conflict peacefully since 2014 to 2022. Even though today we know today from people like Poroshenko, Merkel and Hollande that Ukraine never had the intention to resolve the conflict, Russia still gets the blame. But remember, it takes two to tango. So if you want to blame Russia, fine. But you should at least look at the entire picture and realise that Russia might not have had another option anymore because all other attempts to settle the conflict were exhausted.
For 8 years since 2014, 9 years now, people have died in Eastern Ukraine, women and children, old folks who survived WW2, killed by their own government in Kiev. Their only "crime" was that they spoke Russian and did not support the unconstitutional, thus illegal coup d'état in Kiev in 2014.
Don't get me wrong, I am against war. When I was 18, military service was still mandatory for men in Germany at the time. I, however, did my duty volunteering for the Red Cross, helping sick and injured people, regardless of their nationality, ethnicity, religion, language. If I was still working for the Red Cross I would have to be neutral, help both Ukrainians and Russians and be impartial.
The Red Cross worldwide operates based on 7 fundamental principles. Neutrality and Impartiality are two of them. The first principle, however, is Humanity.
The way I understand Humanity is that you don't blame the general population for actions of their government. You take action when you see suffering. We observed suffering and killing in the Donbass since 2014. Russia could have stood by and watch another 8 years or they could decide to try and end the war. Particularly since we know now, as mentioned before, neither France and Germany nor Ukraine had the intention to end it. On the contrary, they signed the Minsk Accords in 2014 and 2015 to give Ukraine the time to prepare for a war with Russia.
It should have been France's and Germany's tasks as well as the EU's tasks as a Nobel peace prize laureate to prevent this war. They didn't, for 8 years they let it happen and even helped Ukraine to escalate.
One of the best videos I have ever been able to watch on the History of the English Language, particularly regarding the influence of the French Language on English and vice versa.
I think this is ok for British English but American English probably has a large chunk of Spanish influence.
As a frenchman, I can tell you that "c'est la crème de la crème" is a pretty common expression in France ! Whilst we don't use at all "double entendre" and would say "double sens" instead.
In England we say 'The cream of the cream'.
In Australia we used to say the cream of the crop. Not used much now by younger folk.
@@sunisbest1234 Another expression we use here in England is: "The Cream always rises to the top."
@@mikeoglen6848 same here.
@Real Aiglon don't what?
As a Spanish speaker, after learning English I started to learn French. I knew I was going to find many similar words because Spanish and French are romance languages. What I didn't know was that I would find many English words similar to French.
For example: to pay (English) payer (French) pagar (Spanish)
to change (English) changer (French) cambiar (Spanish)
combination (English/French) combinación (Spanish)
capable (English/French) capaz (Spanish)
Many similar words. Knowing another romance language and English makes you learn French vocabulary faster and easier to remember
Absolutely! In your comment alone, aside from the words you pointed out, "similar" is "similaire" in French, "vocabulary" is "vocabulaire", "romance" is the same for both languages, and oh "language" is "langage" or "langue" in French.
Si, yo también me di cuenta hace un tiempo la cantidad de palabras que comparten el inglés y el francés
Combination doesn’t exist in French, use the word « combinaison » instead.
combination doesn't mean anything in french , the correct word is : combinaison
a journey = jornee en ancien français (c'est-à-dire le voyage qu'on fait dans sa journée) etc.
This is also true in Japanese where 1/2 the vocabulary is Chinese. And as in English, we have several Chinese pronunciation depending on the time of entry and the Chinese dialect/language it came from.
For example a child is written with the Chinese character 子 and the native Japanese pronunciation is KO. However we have 電子=denshi-electron 餃子=gyoza=dumpling 椅子=isu=chair)
So we have ko and then shi,za,su from some Chinese dialects.
Japanese has thus, like English, 1/2 of its vocabulary from a foreign source.
This is one aspect of Japanese that makes it hard to understand because in Chinese many similar sounding words are differentiated by tones. Which Japanese doesn't have so when these words came into Japanese they sounded the same (but written differently in Kanji of course). So, in the spoken sense you have to go by context.
Yes, we definitely use coup d'etat in Japan, though the pronunciation is a bit diffrent and Japanized. Actually we do not have any corresponding word in original Japanese that is commonly used meaning coup d'etat. Thank you for your interesting lessons!
but do you use coup de grace?
@@Joe-ij6of No, we don't use coup de grace!
But there were quite a few in the history of Japan, are they called differently? Maybe always referred to by single name for the events?
@@rhbb8796 Wow, you know a lot about the history of Japan! Sure Japan had many occurrences of violent uprising or rebellions, and I think those that happened before Edo era (before Japan as a nation was established) are called differently like "muhon(謀反)" as you pointed out. There may be some other words as well which are used for events back in olden days. After that, they are called coup d'etat, like the one that Yukio Mishima planned. But don't quote me on this. This is my personal opinion😀
@@chipmunkforest Haha no, I actually don't have much detailed/in-depth knowledge, just a general overview. But nice to know. Here in German we'd also still nowadays rather say something like "Umsturz" (literally "overthrow"), "Putsch" (of onomatopoeic origin) or "Staatsstreich" ("state trick") but "coup d'état" would be understood by most
Wow, really fascinating video! Amazing research.
As a Canadian, some of your level 3 French idioms are more commen here. Probably with our heavy French influence.
Keep up the great videos!
As a french Canadian, I agree with your comment !
French language is the basis, c'est la vie 🤩
I think french speaking countries away from France have a tendency to stick with an older version of the french language, where france's french evolves much more. I've read it's the same with south American spanish compared with spain's spanish.
@21:55 When I was learning French I would often watch english movies or series with French subtitles. I was amused to hear a character say something like: "That actress is so passé", with the French subtitles saying the actress was a 'has-been'.
C'est vrai mais "has-been" devient un peu "has-been".
Hm. Since you DID mention the faux pas of double denim - "denim" actually means "de Nîmes" - yes, denim fabric is actually totally french and was originally made in Nîmes, France. So there.
Exact ! ;-)
Serge de Nîmes. The fabric is actual just another serge - which had great durability (‘serge’ refers to the diagonal weave in the fabric which makes tear resistant)
Levi's invented denim
@@ThanxBeToGod Levi Strauss invented blue jeans with rivets at stress points.
Nimes fabric houses created 'denim' which Strauss used for his pant.
@@fsinjin60 i know, I'm just trolling for laughs
6:46 From my scandinavian perspective, I find it kind of interesting that there are at least five-six words used for the same animal in our "germanic" languages: pig, pork, gris (cognate grease), fläsk (cognate flesh), svin (swine), perhaps even boar. Also interesting that deer (djur) still means animal here, and that its orignal meaning was "medium size mammal", that is, just like a deer (rådjur).
In German "Tier" just means animal, but sounds very familiar to "deer". In another video someone pointed out that the English "fee" (monetary) and the German "Vieh" (cattle /livestock) are cognates from a time people paid their debts with some cows or pigs.
@@henningbartels6245 Yes, there are lots of interesting etymological backgrounds like that. One related is that salary was once payment in actual grains of salt(!), which I guess must have been expensive to produce in the Roman empire.
@The505Guys More because so many people confuse it with the English term for Tyskland, Deutschland, l’Allemagne.
@@henningbartels6245 In Dutch animal is 'dier'. And livestock is 'vee'. Yet pig is 'varken'. We use 'zwijn' for boar.
Tierchen (little animal) has been used as a non-specifc term for insect/bug. e.g. Es gibt Tierchen im Schlafsack. "There are bugs in the sleeping bag."
Thank you for this genealogy of english language. I Also notice the prefix "fitz" for instance in the family name "Fitzgerald"where fitz means "fils de " in french (son of in english) and finally "son of Gérald and the same in Irish.
Exactement !
Indeed. Many french words imported during the time after the Norman Conquest when many landholders in England held lands also in France.
Je savais pas
Fitz means also illegitimate for instance Fitzpatrick means illegitimate Patrick’s son.
French was also language of aristocracy in Russia before revolution. And there are many words of French origin: душ, багаж, билет, капюшон, библиотека etc. and one word Шаромыжник or beggar has rather sad origin. When frozen napoleon solders we’re knocking Russian peasant doors and begging Cher Ami which became sharomiznik or beggar
I've heard these things many times before but never with that much clarity, details, history facts and exemples. Great work sir !
As Clémenceau said : "England is an old French colony that turned bad"
You'll have to fault Joan of Arc
for saving the English language.
@@kaewakoyangi8071 You are right: if England had won the 100-year war, the french language was still the language in England
Lol. Looking at the influence the English achieved in the world compared to the French, it's clear that he was indeed a silly old duffer - almost as bad as the nauseating de Gaulle!
Every single french colony turned out bad, as in neglected. but that's colonialism for the most part.
As Clemenceau said : "English? It's just badly pronounced French."
I absolutely love when you mix language and history classes! Thanks very much for this lesson 😍😘
It's a passion of mine. Many thanks.
I totally agree. This explanation of the origins of the English language was great.
I liked it very much, too. I think it was informative and educational.
dido!
I've been learning French for ten years,
It's a beautiful language 🙂
@TheClassicalSymphonyit's a matter of taste
@TheClassicalSymphony I'm hiding nothing but my superior French which is far better than your average English.
@@Soclean07 Plutôt par jalousie. Le français est la plus brillante langue.
@TheClassicalSymphony bruh the first three are the good sounding ones 💀
@@vincentlefebvre9255 si brillante qu' elle s'éteint peut-être due à son arrogeance étouffante?😂😂
As a Portuguese person who speaks both English and French, I loved this video. We use in Portugal some of these expressions, as we also have a strong French influence in our language. In some of these expressions we will use the French version, and in some others, the translated to Portuguese version.
As a Greek living in UK I found a huge amount of words to origin from Greek language. Especially when I have to talk with doctors I feel I speak half-Greek
Yes, indeed lots of Greek words in English. I think especially in science and medicine
Or Greek via French (or maybe Latin, not sure) such as "ecclesiastical" (ἐκκλησία = originally meaning 'assembly', then 'congregation' and eventually 'church'), which is the example at 10:32.
Ignore him Begnis this complete fake is talking the usual rubbish he insists on inflicting on UA-cam.
In science and math Greek had an influence on most European languages. Often it would enter Latin vocabulary, then spread around Europe and then enter various local languages when latin stopped being the language of instruction at universities.
This has been noted by people for centuries but notice how there is no mention of it in this video. So English is mostly a synthesis of French and Greek. Hey, the French and Greek tend to have the most Neanderthal genes in Europe. Nowadays most "scientists" seek to obscure, not to clarify.
Enjoyed that - thank you very much guys. Some of this I knew - some I was surprised to learn 😊
As a French, it is interesting to see all the similarities between our languages. 22:05 Also we use "Savoir-faire" but in most cases it is when we talk about a professional doing hiss job like a jeweller or someone continuing the traditional uses.
Can you do a video on the double sayings that emerged from the Norman period e.g. 'aide and abette'. I've heard these were used to make sure everyone, English and Norman, understood what was being stated.
good idea
Amazing video, You and Jon together are a hit! Beware this baguette can be a weapon, I wanted to eat it..🥖. 😀 I marvel at things that have been happening in the last 1000 years, influence of Latin, Anglo Saxon Vikings, English language, I am more enriched now... Excellent work of yours, as it always is, I love this channel, it has my heart here.💝Thanks for sharing ✨
Much appreciate your comments. Yes, believe or not, I like working with Jon. He always has an interesting take. I like making history videos, there is a lot more to talk about on the subject of the Anglo-Saxons, the Vikings etc. Stay tuned.
@@LetThemTalkTV I have no doubts Jon is great. I will stay turned
I'm native Russian but some of these expressions are very familiar to me too. I use them from time to time and everybody understands me. French influenced all of us significantly as I see.
I believe when Peter the 1st wanted to uniform Russian, he did so and imported a lot of french vocabulary.
@@charlesleninja yes and Russians used much more Frech words in the 18-th century than now. Also, our aristocracy knew and used French in everyday life. We abandoned a lot of French words since that time but it influenced us greatly. There are a lot of French words in our language.
In 18/19th century French was a bit what English is today (before it was Latin).
Lingua franca was the language of diplomacy but now English is lingua franca. At least 41%
Yeah, too much.
Hello. Your new subscriber here. As someone who has a quite good command of French, this particular knowledge has helped me a great with my English study journey. Most of the time, I understand an English speaker through my French background. Interesting topic, indeed. Keep up the great work, sir. 🙏🤝💖💖💖
English language spelling conventions are based on Medieval French spelling conventions. The "w" sound which is so common in English has become "v" in most European Germanic languages. The reason for the strong survival of "w" in English may be the influence of Medieval French pronouciation on English. English has the most Romance language influence of any Germanic language and French has the most Germanic language of any Romance language!
For sure. I speak Spanish natively. I could understand spoken and written Portuguese and Italian very well without previous knowledge of these languages. With French, it's another story. I could understand much more written than spoken French. I have studied these languages and now I can understand them without trouble but French was the hardest of them all.
@@mep6302n
@@estaymaxime6010 Il suffi de changer le "W" Anglais par "Gu" pour retrouver le mot Français ainsi William devient Guillame, soit Guillaume. Passionné de Moyen âge, j'ai référencé un millier de mots qui ont les mêmes origines. Un autre exemple, l'accent est tardif en Français, un "s" était placé après la voyelle et cette dernière disparaîtra souvent en langue Anglaise. Ainsi "school", vient de l'ancien Français "Escole" aujourd'hui "école", le surf de Surflot (la dernière syllabe disparaît). Après il y a l'écriture à la "sms", le basket vient de la Basse-quête", un panier percé utilisé lors de la quête à l'Eglise, pour les plus pauvres qui pouvait récupérer la pièce donnée, un moyen de donner l'impression de participer. Le plus marrant ce sont les "comiques" , une case de bas relief d'une église et un ensemble qui racontait une histoire s'appelait une "merveille". Elles étaient peintes de couleurs vivent et les saints présents étaient souvent représentés d'une plus grande taille tout comme le malin. Vous avez l'origine des BD US soit les Comics (Comiques) de Marvel (Merveille) et Spiderman, Superman ne sont que de Saints ce dernier est vêtu d'une braie (culotte), de Chausses (des collants) et d'un manteau (la cape). Pour donner une idée : facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1534087069936631&set=pb.100000060574925.-2207520000.&type=3
it's true the French language is Latin, but also with Celtic roots and Germanic influences
@@mep6302 Probably French is so hard because it is the less pure of all the Latin languages (or the more mixed language): mostly Latin but also Gaulish (Celtic) and Germanic.
I'm a Quebecois (French Canadian) and found your video very funny. As English was influenced by French since Guillaume le Conquérant, our French is influenced by English since The conquest of Nouvelle-France by the British Empire. We had words like pennetrie (pantry) cygne (sink) taiyeurs (tires) and our famous pont-bridge every time we have to cross a river. And if we talked to an English-speaking person in French, this person would say with an angry voice «Speak white!» Guess what does-it means.
It's like Italian influencing Latin makes no difference since they shared vocabulary.
@@arolemaprarath6615 what do you say ? Simply, latin is the mother of Italian, french, spanish, Portuguese, Rumanian... languages
They call him William the bastard... they didn't know that bastard is a french word too
@@fabs8498 bâtard, qui vient du latin bastardus... le français est juste une évolution locale du latin (vulgaire, essentiellement)
'Chum' is an english too
As a French partly living in Germany i'm struck realizing how English is litteraly old German with French vocab.
The construction of sentences, certain way to manipulate the words are very very similar and we clearly see that English despite all the external sources of words remains undoubtedly a Germanic language. But on the other hand so many French words that some phrases are almost transparent, which makes it even more confusing that us French struggle learning it lol.
I heared dutch people saying that English sounds like "a drunk Frisian trying to speak French" 😆
@@casinoheimdall9328 That's interesting, linguisticly, the Frisian dialect is the closest match to English of the Germanic languages.
@@casinoheimdall9328 Lol he has a point !
It s a creole language,you express yourself better in English than in German
English is no German it s not even close to the similarities between Dutch and German which is indeed closer.I study German now and grammar ist somehow dificult
As always, very interesting footage. I learned so much. Thanks.
Very sincere love from France ! I'm a Norman, I lived for 45 years in Caen, were William the conqueror is buried, and my mother was born in the region were the norman army weapons for Hastings were made. The master blacksmith was Henri de Ferrières, (from the village of Ferrières Saint-Hilaire). He crossed the channel and fought with William who, as a reward, gave him 210 counties in England. That made Henri de Ferrières one of the richest men of England. Later, he contributed to the creation of the Doomsday Book. He became known through History as Henry de Fereers, (from the anglicisation of de Ferrières), and is the oldest known ancestor of W. Churchill and Georges Washington ! That's why, although I'm french, I can't help considering the English as very close cousins of mine and once again : love from Normandy - France, and thank you for this very interesting video !
The Saxons brought several words that their forefathers had borrowed from Latin, such as "wine" from "vinus" or "street" from "[via] strata". Such words are also alive and kicking in modern High German.
"Voilà" is used in many different situations in French. The equivalent to the English "Voila" is "Et voilà!" (as in "there you go", "here it is", "that's it"...)
Voili voilou
@@fiz2659 😆
Voilà is literally vois + là = see + there
Voila - there it is; Voici - here it is. Something I remember from French class decades ago (in Michigan, USA). Always thought it was funny only "voila" was common in English.
@@asonetuh6094 Absolutely! Memory works in mysterious ways :) Voici is also less common in French, especially in spoken language. Voilà has largely taken over; as it's often the case, the ease of use has won against the added precision.
Thank you Gideon. I enjoy your videos. They're educational and entertaining 😊.
"...candlestick maker..." Lol!
Love this one too, Gideon. Great job and nice one again for my students in Paris. I'm always telling them that they have more English vocab than they think, just through the mere fact of being French.
I'm quite certain you've seen BBC's "The Adventures of English", the one on the Norman conquest. My very favourite episode. As Bragg says: "English animal; French meat".
Thanks!
But I'm pretty sure we pronounce "coup" as "koo", as they do in French, no? Not "Q"... Phonetically, we say a "military koo", not a "military Q", no?
For any fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Cul-de-Sac was used in the French Translation for Bag-End (and the name Baggins was rendered as Sacquet).
I knew all these expressions and would you them when warranted.
The "pour parler" scene in Pirate of the Carribean is hilarious, Jack stutters over the words
Better Bag-End than Bell-End.
@@lohphat Dead-end. The literal translation of cul-de-sac is ass of bag.
@@sylviemanson9761 «Coup de grâce !»
Fascinating. I never finished college, but am apparently “better educated” than I realized, because all of these expressions are well-known to me, and I have frequently used several in regular conversation. One not mentioned in the video - fait accompli - I used just the other day. However, honesty dictates that I would have some difficulty spelling two or three, and would need to look up if using in written form.
During my military career (British Army), "Esprit de corps" was most certainly a level 1-2, and was hammered into us right from the beginning of training. Perhaps, that is what makes the British Army so effective? And let's not forget the "panache" element of their drill.
war criminal scum
"Perhaps, that is what makes the British Army so effective?"
Just by this phrase of self-praise, we understood that you were British...😆
Double entendre (lit. "double hearing") in modern French is "sous-entendu", literally "under heard", but means under/hidden meaning. :)
@Real Aiglon I'm french, i know that entendre means "hearing", when "hearing" is a subject or an object in a sentence.
Entendre is the infinitive in french, yes, but you should know that a french infinitive does not equal to the infinite in english.
OBJ : Il a du mal à entendre → He has trouble hearing.
SUB : Entendre est devenu difficile avec l'âge → Hearing has become difficult with age.
You wouldn't say "He has trouble to hear" or "To hear has become difficult"
When you use "double entendre" it's never used as a verb. So it shouldn't be translated as one. You need to differentiate names and functions.
In Dutch, we also have a lot of French words. A lot is the same as the English/French word (like garage, just like in English or vaccin/vaccine) but we also have some others like douche witch means shower, portemonnee witch means wallet or paraplu which means umbrella. There are a lot more french words in dutch.
On the Dutch coat of arms and passport is the phrase "Je maintiendrai" (I will maintain).
There are also a lot of Germanic words in English that are similar to Dutch like: grass/gras, house/huis, water/water, blue/blauw, red/rood, knight/knecht (Dutch: male servant), pound/pond, or children/kinderen and a lot more.
I believe that those "Germanic words in English" essentially belong to the "33% Native English" group. In the food-animal table in the video, I would like to have seen an extra column listing the Dutch name for the food; thus kalfsvlees, schapenvlees, varkensvlees etc. for veal, mutton, pork etc. (with Dutch vlees being cognate with English flesh, kalf with calf, shaap with sheep etc.). Learning French and Dutch would cover 41% + 33% = 74% of English. Together with much overlap between the 15% of Latin words and modern French (the latter having descended from vulgar Latin), that might cover some 89% of English! Even the spelling of Dutch gives insight (inzicht) into the nowadays incomprehensible spelling of English, harking back to more Germanic days; thus: enough (genoeg), light (licht) etc. Saying these English words of Germanic origin as they are actually written brings them close to their counterparts in (their cousin language) Dutch.
@@posfr292 - At university in Canada, on our year-end exam in our required English Literature class, we had to translate a long passage from Chaucer (1340 -1400 AD) into modern English, and speaking Dutch and French made it a cinch.
@@posfr292 is Dutch a language or a dialect of German? lowen Deutsch? Lowland German.
Isn’t Dutch really Anglo-Saxon’s parent tongue? (Or cousin or bastard uncle?)
How similar is Dutch and Frisian?
Hello! The video is amazing and I do congrat you and thank you for sharing it with us. One thing, though, that I would like to highlight given that we're speaking about languages and history, Norman was a language in its own right, it was not a dialect of French as you mentioned. French (as francien) and Norman were (and still are) two different and independent languages. Have a good one! Zeke
I am an U.S citizen and Have found that having a expanded vocabulary has always aided me in reading French, Or Spanish by knowing multiple words for the same basic meaning. Example Blue and Azure. On your list of common French based phrases I only did not know 2. I can remember one time I help a secretary who spoke both English and French. She was translating Aqualung and wanted to say "water Lung" and I said use Scuba or Self Contained Breathing apparatus to make it more clear. I also remember my mother who said she at one time was taking Both French and Spanish at the same time and had to not mangle both,.
6:46 I just want to point out "venaison" is still a word in Modern French, although maybe not as common as it used to be, compared to the other ones
'veneson' is the old French spelling of venaison
Very interesting and funny video! I made a little research in the past and I fund many many words from French language..
For instance, as you say in the video, jeans "double Denim" means De-Nimes (from Nimes) a town in the south of France :)
Thanks Gideon and John for an interesting video. As a Dane🇩🇰 I'll represent the Vikings to day 😏. I simply don't understand why you didn't let us win at the battle of Stamford Bridge. The Normans landed a few days later. If we had been there we would of course have offered our help at Hastings. The outcome might have been different then, and you didn't have to bother with all those French Words. You made your own bed....😉😊
Your right about the mix up between English and Scandinavian up north.
There are so many Scandinavian words especially in the Geordie accent.
I'm from the western part of Denmark (West Jutland) I spoke the local accent as a child. The grammar in it is much closer to English than Danish, and there's a lot of English words as well.
Thanks again for brilliant and video. Looking forward to the next one.
Thanks for your comments. If you'd won the battle of Stamford Bridge we'd be communicating in Norse now (which would be the international language).
@@LetThemTalkTV Surely no connection with Chelsea's ground... 😄
No
@@soundscape26 nope.😅 Sheer history.👍
@@ejlufpedersen742 I figured so... interesting to read that historical tidbit, thanks.
Esprit de Corps is the name of a Canadian military magazine, while _esprit de' corps_ is a common enough term used by both Canadian and US military services, but pronounced with a silent _e_ and _t._
Same thing in french
I speak English as a first language and French as a second language. I also "For fun" help my friends learn both as second languages. We always remark whenever we find a word in common with both languages. In common conversation there are hundreds if not thousands of words that are the same, with only the pronunciation being different.
Thanks a lot to my favorite teachers for another impressive video...history, origins and usage of french words in english. C'est formidabile. 🤩Au revoir.. e Buon fine settimana 😘👍❤️
Merci beaucoup et buon Natale
@@LetThemTalkTVThanks, Merry Christmas to you all🌲🎅✨
The problem with looking at the percentage of words is that it doesn't consider frequency of use. Very basic building-block words are much more likely to be of Germanic origin than Romance. And we use each of those word far more often than others. So even if by the number of words only 33% are native English, when you're speaking English maybe 50-60% or more of the words you use are native English.
@The505Guys Well as a french, though I can't speak latin, I understand of these words in latin.
Because we have a latin language.
Only 50% according to weird numbers. But greek, gaulish and especially latin are our roots.
@The505Guys Do you not think it could be said that it's a pretty wide assertion that "almost no-one knows the meaning" of the words you chose? English has the widest vocab of any other language - but a large part of our vocabulary is only used in specialist disciplines. e.g. I both know & use the words above, but the minute an IT expert starts talking to me I have no idea what most of what they are saying means. And "Business English" is becoming almost a second language, where existing words are assigned totally different meanings.
So perhaps there are people who don't know what some of these words mean: but to educators, writers, actors, Lit. students, politicians, translators, avid readers etc. they hold no mystery. Whereas a lot of the words used by statisticians, lawyers, designers, mechanics, - even gardeners - have me scratching my head and begging for understanding! That, to me, is one of the joys of English (I do speak a couple of other languages)- no matter what you do, or who you are, there is always a word which means exactly what you want to say. So you never stop learning. :)
@The505Guys I agree that the words you listed are not common, or - apart from peripatetic - even 'Standard English'. But my point was that with the vast store of English words available to us, the more of them we know, the better we can express exactly what we want to say clearly & with an accuracy that allows for no "wriggle room" or misunderstanding. And the better we can understand what it is others down the ages have said to us.
People know far more words than they actually use in casual conversation - in a casual conversation with one's doctor, vet, chemist they aren't going to lay any of their vast store of technical words on us.(Tho' often a person who isn't a native speaker will understand a term if its of Latin derivation : it will be the same in their language.)
I speak French and my favourite language of all to speak - Melanesian Pidgin where there often aren't actual words for things, one has to describe them! I spoke enough Mandarin in China and Afrikaans in South Africa to get by - and understood more Zulu than I could actually speak. As what I do concerns the English language, I also speak & understand Middle English - but my Old English is rather rusty, as I discovered only last week!
Cheers.
Yes ,im french and speaking a little German , and it s obvious English'' speaking '' has more germanic influence than french one .
Fascinating, many thanks , liked and subbed . I’m trying to learn french at age 60 . Not easy but this helps.
As an American, one of the things that is so funny is that Gideon has a heavy British (or as he said in another video, cockney) accent, whereas Jon - from the Midlands - has only a slight accent which makes me think he might have lived in the U.S. for a number of years.
A intresseting fact is, that when i read the old butter taxavation ledgers of "England" of the eleventh century, I could read and understand these, as a swede with a knowledge of swedish (present day 1950s) ,and the old peoples dialects of the north of sweden.
A working mate of mine, an english man in his fifthies, whit a swedish speaking wide, couldn't!
Here in morocco french for me is a lifebuoy , every time I get stuck I write on the board the word and use one of its french synonyms used in English ,for instance "loathe= detest" est voilà.
Anyway thanks for the video.
An excellent method.
The japanese use Préfecture as well. Denim means "de Nîmes" (textile from the city of Nîmes). "Force Majeure", "laisser faire", "savoir vivre", "en route". "Double entendre" is unknown in France.
Hello. Laisser faire, force majeure and savoir vivre are very common in France. En route has a different meaning (En route pour Londres !). Double entendre is double sens or sous-entendu in French.
it's because we say "double sens", "double entendre" mean nothing
Double entendre ? We don't use it in France
Fascinating video. I’m surprised that you didn’t mention all the words that end with ‘ tion ’ or ‘cion’ are French. Fascination and mention are two I’ve just used. International is one with the tion in the middle. We have hundreds of these words. Intention, superstition, superannuation, suggestion, remuneration, oxidation, fraction, friction, nation etc. I could go on … delusion, irrational, , pronunciation, suppression, comprehension and suspicion…
great !
Corps means body, but in that expression it's related to the word (another French word) corporation. Esprit de corps is initially a military expression, I guess (the expression "un corps d'armée" is still used). It means the strong sense of solidarity of a professional, sport group.
Indeed.
Not to mention the wetnurses, etc.
"Veal" though must have have been identical to the Norman French, as "veau" shows the relaxing of the L. This letter commonly evolves into O or U in linguistic evolution.
Seasoning does indeed have a Germanic ending, interesting enough.
Funny hearing those words in a British English pronunciation.
"Coup" sounds like "cul" 😳
Brilliant video!
I've learned more about the language I speak here than my entire schooldays.
Good to see this material being aired and a decent classification,well done for that. But gven the length of the piece I'd have expected more examples to be covered. Or perhaps a list of those identified? It is a very long list of list of lists, but why not point us to further resources you recommend?
French/latin origin words extracted from your comment ;) :
- Material => Matériel
- Aired => Air (dans les airs)
- Decent => Décent
- Classification => Classification (all the words ending with "tion" come from the french : Constitution, Declaration, etc...)
- Length => Derivated from "Long/Longueur"
- Piece => Pièce
- Examples => Exemples ("e" instead of "a" or vice-versa)
- Covered => Couvert
- List => Liste
- Identified => Identifié
- Long => Long
- Point => Point
- Resources => Ressources (with 2 "s")
- Recommend => Recommande
@@Rilcy2003 very clever!
As a french , this video is super interesting because i now know if an expression is casually understable by an english person or not . i didn't know "raison d'etre" was not common or "creme de la creme" was know by nearly everybody .
PS: double entendre doesn't make any sense if french , like you say ! (we called it "double sens" )
DOUBLE SENS....almost contrary to a cul de sac...almost.
Pas de surprise ! The Swedish language got 32 % French.... The official language to the Royal family was French until 1906.... Bernadotte family are the Royal in Scandinavia... And they come from the Béarn in France.
wow never knew this
Absurdité. Lorsque la reine Victoria s'est disputée avec Albert, son mari, ils se sont criés dessus en allemand.
@@klauskruger6187 ja, Victoria kunde inte låta bli, hon kunde inte svenska, franska och knappt tyska... Hon var inte riktigt "klokt"...
@@felixlafleurie7856 Det är synd att jag inte pratar svenska. Då kunde jag förstå dig och skriva till dig att drottning Victoria talade tyska och franska mycket bra.
@@klauskruger6187 🇪🇺🇫🇷🇸🇪🇪🇦🇳🇴🇺🇲🇯🇵
I do love english accent, so elegant. Thank you for this very interesting video.
I love your word "dandelion" which comes from the French "dent de lion" ; in French we usually call it "pissenlit" which literally means "pissing in bed" because this plant is diuretic. (Pissenlit is the Genus, and Dent-de-lion is the species of this plant.)
The English name of the flower pansy comes from pensée - 'thought.'
Dent de lion = lion's tooth
Very interesting ! I discover the great influence of french in english language. I am very surprise. I 'am french and now i am feeling a little english. Thank you so much for this voyage in languages history
A cul-de-sac(bottom of the sack) in the USA is a description of a particular type of dead-end road. The end of the road has a circular area that is about three times as wide as the road. This makes it easy to turn around to get out of the dead-end.
Cul-de-sac in the UK is universally known as a place where there is a bulbous dead end with houses surrounding it. Without the houses it's usually just a dead end or a turning circle.
In French, un cul de sac, is the dead end of a street or a road. Not meaning what size has this end.
In the USA city design house ring the circle and it has to be big enough for Fire Trucks use it like a roundabout. It's the layout that is the Cul de sac the dead end is just a feature.
This was Tolkien’s first etymological joke in the Hobbit. Bilbo was a lowly hobbit so he lived in Bag End not in a fancy cul-de-sac.
Beyond what was already said, a cul de sac has become has become a classy feature for a home location in the USA, which costs more (because of no traffic.) Cul de sac was no doubt selected by real estate developers for its name because it sounds French, even if you don't know French. French implies something classy in style. (The creme de la creme of real estate locations!) The cul de sac's not far from me were not impeded from continuing by anything. You would in fact get into the rest of the neighborhood much easier with a few more feet of road. People that miss the correct turn to get into the rest of one neighborhood evidently turn down the next streets (which are cul de sacs), logically thinking that works, so they have put up signs saying "DEAD END," to reduce traffic.
OTOH people are not exact about what exactly a dead end is. Unlike every other major road, one of them near here stops at a T, where they have never built a bridge over the wide stream, and the road picks up again the other side. People generally say it's a dead end, even though there is this T where you can turn and proceed. (There are steel barricades there, which have to be periodically replaced, when yet another car slams into them. That's besides the stop sign and the giant "ROAD ENDS" sign.) Of course there are lots of streets that seem to end in a T, but jog over about a block, and it continues with the same name, and people don't call it a dead end.
I once saw an example of a paragraph of English written in three ways: one using just French-derived words, one using just Anglo-Saxon-Germanic-derived words, and one using directly Latin-derived words. Does anyone have that or a similar example?
Not quite the same but it's interesting that Churchill's famous "we will fight them on the beaches..." speech is constructed so that every word (some a bit archaic) is anglo until the last European-derived word: surrender.
To Robin Ryan So that his speech will be as......german as possible and not... french !
@@robinryan4429 surrender is a french verb. (Rendre = To give... Se Rendre = getting to) in english Surrender is used only for military purpose, not in french.
@@alwantamalus3709 But doesn't Mark Knopler have a song called "Sweet Surrender"?
@@jamesdonalfaulkner Tim Buckley
When I started to read French books, I did it on my smartphone. And I used a dictionary app (Fora dictionary), that you had to download and add dicts to use it. Then you long-press a word and the dictionary article pops up.
I had French-Russian and English-Russian added.
And to my surprise, the English-Russian translations started also appearing for many simple French words, like "ennui".
But that was sort of High English.
Thank you for your kind explanations from an italian listener.
Frenchman here:
Esprit de corps: In French is said in the army: spirit of your unit (corps, regiment, quartier)
Crème de la crème is still somewhat used in France (never heard of top to top), but often replaced with le fin du fin
Double entendre! I never heard it it France. We rather say that there is a "double sens" to an expression
En suite: not used in modern French and is replaced with suite (a room plus accommodations like an "entrée" (Foyer is another French word), a bathroom)
Cul-de-sac was used until mid XX century in France and now is replaced with impasse
Bëte noire is very much used in France and sometimes can be replaced with "tête de turc" (the favourite person you chastise)
Thanks for the interesting subject. I tried many time to convince my English colleagues to try French because we had so many words in common (more than 50% I think) but there is a reluctance by most Britons to learn foreign languages.
Yes, corps in "esprit de corps" has nothing sense about the body. Corps is a part of the army. So that mean the strong feeling of being part of this corps : We call esprit de corps the loyalty that we give to our peers in relation to society, to the nation, or to beliefs. Concretely, this requires having lived common experiences (positive or negative) which give the feeling of being "apart". Subsequently, when the survival, or simply the interests of the group are threatened, its members will mobilize more in its favor: they "unite".
More to the point French speakers should use the French word with ‘German’ pronunciation (hard consonants) to get an English listener to comprehend.
Quartier => kwa rter, pour example.
I think he said "top du top" (c'est le top du top ce truc) et je t'assure l'entendre très souvent (I often hear it in France)
@@astree214 Yes Top du top belongs to modern French (TV language)
We still use cul-de-sac...
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thanks. Happy New Year
As French, I used to live in England. First reading of the tenancy agreement of the letting agency , it was all about "pied-à-terre" near a "cul-de- sac" :D :D
We simply love using French words when we want to sound posh!
As a foreigner, i enjoy your video : you speak slightly slower, Beautifull clear English accent , clear to understand ! A marvel to listen ! Thank you
I confirm, as a dual citizen (USA and France), that "double entendre" makes no sense in French. The French would use "double sens" instead
In English, ‘Double entendre’ should break theFrancophone rule and be pronounced as ‘dubble entendre’. It clarifies that one means ‘the second interpretation should taken as being sexually risqué’ not just the ‘two meanings’ of « dooblay sens ». The use of French in English is fraught with connotation added to the French words based on the English bigoted view of the French.
Thus « bon mot » does not mean a good word or even the proper diplomatic way of putting forth an idea, but brings in the feeling that it is not exactly true. Flattery, if you will.
If you think that makes little sense you should hear the French spoken in Quèbec Canada.
@@buckodonnghaile4309 I listen to WNYC where the French evening show alternates between Caribbean and Canadian. (Mostly Caribe though). It is hard to understand either and it doesn’t help with Poitevin where my belle-sœur has a home. Parisian is the only accent I can understand clearly. Damn Berlitz and British French training.
@@Gally-Leo QUOI???
"Bête noire" refers to older boars, as the fur of the boar darkens with age. And as it ages the beast also becomes more cunning and dangerous.
This expression originated in the middle age when boars had to be hunted with spears...
Interesting thanks I always wondered where that expression came from
Black beast
@@kevin080592 oui je parle francais
I'm discombobulated because I miss the difference between craftsmen and artisans? Is there any? Or are those two synonyms and we can freely exchange them? Great video by the way.
Looking forward to more of this kind, the history of the British Isles is so intricate but fascinating at the same time.
I remember in the 1960's our French speaking Swiss au-pair girl was shocked when she saw "Cul-de-sac", she said it translated as "The Arse of the bag".
lol. That is what Google Translate says if you put the words in separately.
You're much more likely to find a "cul-de-sac" street sign in an English-speaking country than in France (where I only ever remember having seen "impasse" on signsduring my extensive walks across the country).
Here in Canada, I have seen "cul-de-sac" used as the single bilingual term on street signs (in those provinces that have bilingual English/French signage), but I'm not certain what sign is used in Québec (where signs are typically unilingual in French).
In french too, you can use "bête noire" to speak about a thing, like a nemesis or a weak point.
"Savoir faire" is more used in french that "know how", which I actually never really heard anywhere except in the mouth of technocrats fond of anglicisms.
And if I have to share my own level 3, I would say "Oye Oye". It comes from ouïr, and means to listen. Oyez, Oyez ! Listen listen !
The English use "oi" all the time to call someone, or to call attention to something.
Indeed I would hasard a guess that "savoir faire" is also more used in English than "know how"...
That was really interesting to watch. The stunning thing with "savoir faire" and "know how". You'd have the "savoir faire" of preparing an excellent dish or pastry but the "know how" of repairing the electric heater. This is sort of the generic difference between anglo-saxon craftmenship and french-romanic fine arts.
Hmm I use the term "savoir faire" for any sort of impressive skill...
For your information. The expression cul-de-sac, in the sense of a dead end street still commonly used in Quebec French. In addition, this same expression is used universally in medicine/anatomy which is called: Douglas cul-de-sac. It is a part of the female anatomy.
You make an excellent teacher. Great delivery and explanation of, what I consider to be, an interesting subject. I did notice we have more words, sometimes, for something, than french. Though I have a french friend who aske me a translation from a phrase he was using and that he could say it a number of ways. In english it was only possible to say it one way.
You ought to make a video on interconnections between French and English with the presence of a native French.
"French speaker"?
The law to this day continues to employ legal doublets to satisfy the ancient needs of Norman occupied England: "Aid and Abet", "assault and battery", "free and clear", "hue and cry", and "cease and desist" are just a few. In each case half the couplet is of Norman-French origin and the other of Anglo-Saxon origin.
"Cease and desist" is from Latin/French. Also, it is unclear if "battery" and "abet" are native English words, or if they are loanwords from French. But, if they are loanwords from French, then those words were loanwords into French from Germanic languages. "Battery" is cognate with the English word "beat" and "batter", and "abet" is cognate with "bite" and "bait", either in the sense that if you are "abetting" someone you are helping them, or *feeding* them, or in the opposite sense that you are *inciting* a crime by "setting you dogs" on someone, thus *feeding* your dogs
Not quite. I'm not sure about the etymology of "abet", but in several of these cases, both terms are actually derived from the French and have slightly different but complementary meanings (e.g. "assault" is identical to the French and "battery" is derived from "battre" and has the specific legal meaning of an assault that succeeds in making physical contact). The same is true of "cease" (from "cesser": same meaning in French) and "desist" which in French is a reflexive verb, "se désister", that means "refrain from", just like in English. The first obviously means to stop doing something, the second to not doing it in the future.
@@tjstarr2960 To beat a person in french is battre une personne. Battre and battery are obviously related.
Assault and battery are both clearly French words, and they mean different things. Assault is to jump towards (ad saltare) someone in a threatening manner, and battery is from the French via the Latin battuere, to beat
This is all piffle, squire. Evidently, you've lapsed into old habits. Cease and desist from this Ginger Beer malarkey, with its inebriated snail-in-the-bottle. I'm shocked and stunned at your behaviour in cyberspace. Who needs further and better details, so try inhaling one of Carlill's carbolic smoke balls. That should sober you up, squire...
To my knowledge, cul-de-sac is a particular layout of a dead-end street, where you get a kind of a roundabout at the end of the street which is usually surrounded by houses. It's a very popular street layout in the US suburbs.
Same in Australia, I think. Otherwise, you would just call it a dead-end street.
18:48 "Esprit de corps" => yup, definitely level 3, I didn't even know it lol
"esprit de corps" is more like a state of mind relative to solidarity and brotherhood among a military unit. ex.: The US Marines Corps instills a very strong esprit de corps to his members.
quite right!
The Romans only directly brought: street, wall and port (perhaps one or two others I have forgotten.) The Welsh language hardly merged except in place names such as coombe (cwm) and Avon (afon). Another example of a double import is royal and regal. The number of words is one measure of French vs Old English, but their frequency of use is another measure. I think that might tilt the balance more towards Old English. Incidentally some Anglo-Saxon words were so common that no-one could not change the plurals: mice, lice, feet, sheep, deer, children, men and women.
Spot-on. Usage frequency and essentiality are the important parameters. It's all but impossible to make a sentence without English words because the basic building blocks of the language are all from OE. Most French input is in the form of synonyms for objects. They give more flexibility but don't have more credence purely by their numbers.
@@Westwoodii... In your sentences there is 14 french words, try to reformulate your sentences without these words if it's possible.
@Jmcc159...french didn't influence Welsh because french was spoken only among the ruling class, who put the rules and laws and lead the army, not by the people, cos the french didn't create a colony with french people, like the previous invaders (Saxons) that merged with th locals. But there's an important thing brought by the french to the Welch: the myth of King Arthur (who never existed).
Clever. Well paced. Nice show.
Since one could argue that the French language (in its many different versions over the centuries) is really just an evolution of Latin, I would love to see you do a video comparing the English words that derive from Norman vs those from "proper" French as a logical extension of that evolution. For instance:
- What percentage of English vocabulary comes from each of the two versions of French?
- What are good examples of words in common English usage that come from each? (Not just words with Norman and French versions, such as warden and guardian.)
- Roughly when did the words in question enter the English language (Middle Ages vs Renaissance vs modern times, for example)?
I enjoy your videos very much. Many thanks for them!