Is It Easy to Learn French After English
Similar, Quoi? How to Learn French Through English language
English and French have been intertwined for centuries, creating lots of overlap that language learners tin utilise to their advantage.
Simply they're not exactly twins, of course. So information technology'due south important to be smart almost how you lot learn French through English.
In this post, I'll walk you lot through the do'south and don'ts.
From shared vocabulary to grammer quirks to French-English language fusion in pop culture, in that location's a lot to help you get a caput start in your path to fluency.
Contents
- Why English language Gives You a Head Start in French Learning
- The Dos and Don'ts of Learning French Through English
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- Do: Practice Reading with Cognate Clues
- Don't: Be Fooled past Faux Amis
- Do: Use Franglais Popular Culture to Your Advantage
- Don't: Substitute English Grammar Rules for French
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- The subjunctive mood is very important in French, less and so in English.
- French has gendered nouns, but English language doesn't.
- Verb conjugation can exist more complicated in French.
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Why English Gives You a Caput Start in French Learning
It'southward not by take chances that your English puts you ahead of the game. English language and French accept a long and storied relationship.
In fact,French speakers dominated England for more 400 years. With the Norman invasion in 1066, England plant itself with a new French speaking nobility. Initially, these invaders didn't learn English, the linguistic communication of their subjects. Fifty-fifty afterwards they began speaking English, they continued learning French as a 2d language, a do that continues to this day. (For example, Queen Elizabeth speaks French.)
Every bit a result, English language adopted French words when servants interacted with their masters. For case, the farm animate being with a snout is chosen a pig, only when it's killed and served its proper noun changes to porc(pork). In other cases, English adopted French words without replacement, such as freedom (Old English origin) coexisting in English with liberty (French origin).
As a prestige language, French connected influencing English until recently. French enjoyed a condition of diplomatic and cultural prestige throughout the 18th century, long after England eclipsed French republic as the preeminent world power. Because of this, English wholeheartedly adopted such geopolitical phrases asinsurrection d'état and fait accompli.
All this means if you speak English,you already know many French words—your vocabulary studies will be that much easier. Estimates place the number of English words that come from French at virtually 45 percentage.
By the 20th century, nonetheless, the tables turned. The ascent of the U.S. after Globe War II gave English a cool factor that has prompted French to adopt many English language words in a linguistic communication soup called franglais. Franglais has been controversial for decades considering many people in France and Quebec want the French language to be free of English influences. Indeed, both France and Quebec have adopted laws limiting the use offranglais and English.
Despite this controversy, the continued exchange makes it easier for you to acquire. Today, it's not uncommon to hear the French talking about their plans forle weekend or how they're going tofaire du shopping (go shopping). Other English words that've found their way into French includejogging, emailandmarketing.
The Dos and Don'ts of Learning French Through English
Do: Practice Reading with Cognate Clues
The fact that English inherited so many words from French is a huge benefit for learners. Not only volition it brand your vocabulary flashcards get by quicker, it also makes it easier to offset reading in French and picking upwardly new, non-English words from context.
To demonstrate just how much of French you tin can already read, let's wait at an example text.
La French republic… est un État transcontinental souverain, dont le territoire métropolitain est situé en Europe de 50'Ouest. Il a des frontières terrestres avec la Belgique, le Luxembourg, l'Allemagne, la Suisse, l'Italie, l'Espagne… et dispose d'importantes façades maritimes dans fifty'Atlantique, la Manche, la mer du Nord et la Méditerranée. Son territoire ultramarin s'étend dans les océans Indien , Atlantique et Pacifique ainsi que sur le continent sud-américain et a des frontières terrestres avec le Brésil, le Suriname et le Royaume des Pays-Bas.
This is the showtime paragraph of the Wikipedia article on France. Of the fourscore words, roughly xxx are either identical in English or similar plenty to exist considered cognates (words in different languages that have the aforementioned origin or are related in another way). Without speaking French, you should be able to infer various facts most French republic'due south geography.
Don't: Be Fooled pastFaux Amis
Although many words in French are similar to or the aforementioned as English words, some French words seem similar… only aren't.
So, while similar French/English words tin can certainly assist you scan a text and empathize context, you shouldn't assume that you sympathize give-and-take-for-word until you check with a dictionary.
Hither are some famous Frenchfaux amis (false friends) to be enlightened of:
actuellement (means presently, not actually)
assister (means to attend, non to assist)
attendre (means to await, not to nourish)
aimer (ways to similar, not to aim)
blesser (means to wound, not to bless)
chair (means flesh, non chair)
coin (means corner, not coin)
collège (means middle or high school, non college)
crayon (means pencil, not crayon)
déception (ways disappointment, not deception)
éventuellement (means perchance, non eventually)
monnaie (ways coin, not money)
raisin (means grape, not raisin)
réaliser (means to reach, non to realize)
rester (means to stay, not to rest)
Of course, these are simply some common examples of the hundreds offake amis in French.
Practice: Employ Franglais Popular Culture to Your Advantage
Equally I explained earlier, the tables have turned. Thanks to English-dominated popular civilization, French has incorporated many anglo words into its dictionary. Knowing that you can utilise a lot of English language words in French makes your vocabulary acquisition easier.
For example, French rap borrows from English language all the time. Check out the rapper Booba for some keen examples.
Youtube is also a treasure trove of informal French. Far from being a degraded French, it'due south how the language is spoken.Franglais, but likeargot (slang) andverlan (a form of French slang), is integral to the language today. Y'all're sure to see a comment like this, which I establish within a few minutes of searching:
Like si tu écoutes ça en Juillet 2017(Like if you're listening in July 2017)
At that place are certain French YouTube genres that are particularly filled withfranglais: gamer videos and cosmetics/shopping videos. I recommend these topics considering they garner high viewership in French and English language.
If y'all can't understand everything however, don't worry. But listen for English words you recognize. You lot can find some cool videos under searches like"Let's play Minecraft francais" in the case of video games, or "Monday haul de Londres"for shopping videos.
If you lot desire to find more French pop-culture videos, there are plenty of resources that can help. For instance, you can turn to a linguistic communication learning programme like FluentU, which uses authentic French videos with interactive captions to teach French. You tin discover hidden pop-culture gems by watching French videos made past native speakers for native speakers.
Don't: Substitute English language Grammar Rules for French
Although English and French have some grammatical aspects in common, they're just also different. You can't substitute English language and French word-for-word and expect it to make sense. Equally you'll read below, from the subjunctive mood to genders for nouns, French grammar includes many structures that either don't exist in English or are infrequently used.
The subjunctive mood is very important in French, less then in English language.
In French, the subjunctive mood is used to limited emotions like hope or fright, as well as uncertainty. It can also exist used after certain expressions, such ascascade que (in order that) and pourvu que (provided that), etc.
In English, on the other hand, the subjunctive is rare.
If merely hewerenicer.
This is of import because the French subjunctive has detail conjugations. You tin can't merely swap in the infinitive form of the verb, every bit nosotros oftentimes do in English:
Correct: Je veux que tu sois avec moi.(I want you to be with me.)
Incorrect:Je veux que tu être avec moi.
French has gendered nouns, but English doesn't.
Every substantive in French has a gender. One time upon a fourth dimension English did, likewise, simply all traces of noun gender in English disappeared by the 11th century.
That means vocabulary memorization has an actress, frequently frustrating step. You lot can't just learn how to say a word in French unless you too memorize its gender. Otherwise, the grammar of the rest of the sentence can get thrown off.
Fortunately, there are some tools that make it easier. Vocabulary Stickers help y'all naturally absorb nouns' genders with labels you can put all over your home and function. Each label is color coded depending on the gender. The visual element supports your memory that, for example, it'due southla fenêtre (the window) and notle fenêtre every fourth dimension yous look out of it.
There are more 130 labels covering everything from kitchen equipment to tech to apparel, which you can check out here.Verb conjugation can be more complicated in French.
Understanding verb conjugation in English can help somewhat with French conjugation, but think that it'south more circuitous in French. Let's check out some of the forms of the verbavoir (to have).
Present:J'ai (I have)
Passé composé (Compound by):J'ai eu (I had)
Imparfait (Imperfect):J'avais (I had)
Passé uncomplicated (Literary past):J'eus (I had)
Futur simple (Simple future):J'aurai(I will have)
Plus-que-parfait (Past perfect):J'avais eu (I had had)
Passé anterieur (Past anterior):J'eus eu (I had had)
Check out how many different tenses in French are translated into English simply as "I had" or "I had had."
This is because French sports more tenses and more complicated conjugation rules. For example, in French, both the passé composé and imparfait refer to events in the by, but under different circumstances. Similarly, French has literary tenses such every bit the passé simple and passé anterieur that are unremarkably only used in writing.
If you want a detailed explanation of French grammar from an English language perspective, I swear by "English Grammar for Students of French."
Despite French existence a romance linguistic communication and English beingness Germanic, they have much in common. The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) classifies French equally 1 of the easier languages for English speakers to larn, and I can't disagree with that. Whatsoever linguistic communication tin be learned with sufficient endeavour, but it'due south undeniable that French vocabulary and the history of exchange between the two languages give you invaluable advantages.
Download: This blog postal service is available every bit a user-friendly and portable PDF that you tin take anywhere. Click hither to get a copy. (Download)
Source: https://www.fluentu.com/blog/french/learn-french-through-english/
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