If you know world history well, you must be quite acquainted with the Hundred Years’ War between the English and French, the main reason why both nations avoid communication with each other as much as possible. Until now, a French speaking English inside France is a big no-no, though speaking French inside England isn’t a big deal at all. However, even though the people from both countries are different in almost every way, their languages, truthfully speaking, do have similarities when it comes to having both German and Latin roots and influence. This is due to the fact that both nations are Roman Catholic in religion, which is widely influenced by the Holy Roman Empire (Germany) and the Papacy (Italy) during the Medieval ages.
Most of you must have been confused right now that you find words in both French and English dictionaries but have different pronunciations and meaning. The truth is, these are only TWO of the common differences in the two languages.
Listed below are the other factors that you must consider when trying to learn both of them:
- Article Usage – When speaking English, we seldom use articles (a, an, the) especially during conversation. However, the French language uses articles (le, a, etc.) more frequently.
- Pronunciation – In English language, you must have encountered at least two words that are similar in spelling but different in pronunciation, hence giving it a different meaning. However, this issue is more common in French, some words having at least three or more different pronunciations and meanings.
- Conjugations – Conjugations are only different in English when you are using a third-person singular form. In French, on the other hand, it is different depending on the grammatical person who is formulating the sentence.
- Gender – Unlike in English, word gender is more frequent in French. Well-known examples are fiancé (for male) and fiancée (for female).
- Roman Numeral Usage – Usage of roman numerals in French language is more common and ordinal because of its Latin roots. The English, on the other hand, rarely use it.
- Rhythm – When pronouncing English words, stress are often used in a particular syllable and another stress on an important word. French, on the other hand, uses stress only at the end of each rhythmic group.
- Singular and Plural forms – Singular and Plural forms of words are known to be different in both languages.