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Easy French Lesson 2: CognatesEasy French Lesson 2 Cognates:INTRODUCTION TO FRENCH COGNATES Cognates are French words similar to English words. Many French and English Words are similar, because French was the source of many English words. The Norman Conquest of England by France in 1066 resulted in a bilingual England for hundreds of years. The wealthy conquerors spoke Old French in their castles, while the conquered peasants spoke Old English in their huts. That gave England bilingual pairs of words for many aspects of life: a French word equivalent to an English word. As in any country with two languages, many people learned bits of both out of necessity. The period of greatest influence of French on English was from 1150-1300, and the resulting blend became Middle English. Around 28% of English vocabulary is of French language origin, most derived from the Anglo-Norman spoken by the upper classes in England for several hundred years after the Norman Conquest, before the language settled into what became Modern English. ============= MANY ENGLISH SYNONYMS ARE OF FRENCH ORIGIN Borrowed French words began a new life in England and found new uses. Over time, some of the French duplicate words gradually sank from prominence to become synonyms for their more frequently used English counterparts. Other French words, especially those for the more refined aspects of life, remained frequently used, and have become long since thought of as English words. Since many of the adopted French words entered the English vocabulary long ago, by now many are spelled differently, and most are pronounced differently than their current French counterparts. Meanwhile, back in France, the Old French words were evolving to become the modern French of today. In the process, many French words changed in meaning and pronunciation over the centuries, as words tend to do in all languages. Spellings also changed in both languages until they became uniform in the 19th century. All through the centuries, mutual borrowings continued. The most recent are still recognizable as French, words such as haute couture and nouvelle cuisine. ============= LEARNING ABOUT ENGLISH WHILE LEARNING FRENCH Knowing which words are similar in the two languages will primarily help you begin to learn French more easily. But this will also increase your understanding of your native language. You will see how many English words are spelled the way they are because of their French origin. You will see which French words have retained their usefulness in everyday English. You will also see which words have been relegated to being rarely used synonyms for more frequently used English words. You will also learn more about words in English that still seem French, especially ones you may have seen or heard before but aren’t sure how to pronounce or spell. You may also find some useful new words in English. So while using these lessons about cognates as the best way to begin learning French, you will also learn more about English as a side benefit. Just as when you learned English, you were unwittingly learning quite a bit about French also. What you learn about may surprise you. For example, have you ever wondered why the traditional call that goes out from a sinking ship is "Mayday! Mayday!"? Does it arouse your curiosity to wonder how sinking in a ship can possibly be connected with a day in May? The answer is that the cry for help was originally French. To English ears it sounds like "Mayday", but the original French cry is spelled "M'aidez," shortened from 'venez m'aidez', meaning "come to aid me", or help. ============= OVERVIEW OF EASY FRENCH LESSONS Easy French Lessons begin by explaining how Easiest French is easiest because so many French words are similar to English words. Easy French Lesson Two introduces French Cognates, the French words that are similar to English words. Easy French Lessons next introduces English words that have been adopted into French, in the Lesson English Words in French Then Easy French Lessons focuses on French words that have been adopted into English, in the Lesson French Words in English. The next lesson covers French Words Spelled Like English. Words similar to English but with accent marks in French over some letters are in the lesson French Words with Accent Marks. The next lesson is French Words Spelled Somewhat Like English. Progressively it will show you French words increasingly different from their English relatives, although still clearly recognizable as related. The next lesson examines a different topic – a French word that looks similar to an English word but has a different meaning -- although it is somehow related enough to suggest the correct meaning of the French word. For example, 'LIBRAIRIE' in French means bookstore. So 'librairie' in French is different from the English word it resembles (library) because it means bookstore, but similar in that both have to do with books, making it easier to remember. This will take you to another level of similarities-with-differences between the two languages. The lesson French False Cognates reveals how some treacherous French words that look like English words have different meanings, which can be misleading. The last chapter, French Pronunciation You Know from English, unlike preceding lessons about look-alikes, focuses on sound-alikes. These are French words you know how to pronounce, because some French words you already know how to pronounce in English. Sound similarities are far fewer than spelling similarities. So this lesson will take you a step farther from the likenesses between the two languages toward the differences. It will prepare you for one of the logical next steps of learning -- listening to and then speaking French. ============= LENGTH OF EASIEST FRENCH LESSONS So exactly how much French do you already know -- just because you know English? These Easiest French Lessons -- 11 webpages in length -- total the equivalent of 165 pages of Microsoft Word processor. This means several things: 1. You already know a great amount French just because you know English. 2. These Easy French Lessons will not take long to read through, because they are an easy Review of English that is a quick Preview of French -- no study required. 3. Beginners can skim through these Easiest French Lessons first -- to quickly and easily get ready before any other language course, which will make that difficult course work much easier. ------- Easiest French Lessons -- Length In number of pages of Microsoft Word WEBPAGE -- PAGES of MS Word Easy French Lessons -- 3 Lesson 1 Easiest French -- 8 Lesson 2 Cognates -- 7 Lesson 3 English in French -- 17 Lesson 4 French in English -- 9 Lesson 5 Spelled Like English -- 15 Lesson 6 Accent Marks -- 13 Lesson 7 Spelled Differently -- 33 Lesson 8 Suggests Meaning -- 8 Lesson 9 False Cognates -- 10 Lesson 10 Pronunciation -- 42 ------- TOTAL pages of MS Word -- 165 ======== PRONUNCIATION GUIDE Although the main purpose of Easy French Lessons is to present the similarities between English and written French, the secondary purpose is to prepare you for the next steps in learning -- listening to and then speaking French. Since you are already familiar with these look-alike words in English, it is easier to focus on learning the new French pronunciation of a familiar word. Mispronouncing French Words that Look Like English Even while reading, which is the focus of these Easy French Lessons, you may find yourself trying to pronounce these French words that look like English ones. Seeing any unfamiliar word in print sometimes prompts the urge to try to pronounce it. In our native language we often can come close to the correct pronunciation of a new word by following pronunciation guidelines we have unconsciously assimilated over years of speaking our native language. Your first reaction when you see a French word spelled exactly like an English one may be to pronounce it as you would in English. With French, that is often NOT the way it is pronounced. You have previously learned to associate a certain English pronunciation with a cognate that has a different pronunciation in French. So whenever you see the word in French, your previously learned English pronunciation of it may interfere with your attempts to pronounce it the French way. French pronunciation gives some people trouble, because when first seeing a new word and attempting to pronounce it, the natural tendency is to follow the rules of English pronunciation that most people assimilated subconsciously. So when it comes to guessing how a word is pronounced in a foreign language, the guess is often wrong. A printed pronunciation guide is included so you will have help when you try to pronounce these cognates. French words may fool you at first. French words are not always pronounced exactly as they are spelled, because the relation between spelling and pronunciation is complex, and French spelling seems to have little relation to pronunciation. By sounding out the pronunciation guide, you should get the basic sound of the word — and a French person would probably understand you. This pronunciation guide describes the sounds of French in a very simple way. Wherever possible it uses letter combinations of sounds from English that are closest to the sounds in French, so that you can combine these common English sounds into French words. You don't have to try to make the word sound foreign -- yet. Be aware that it is difficult to reproduce the sound of French perfectly, just from reading a phonetic guide. French has a different system of pronunciation than English, so you would hear these words pronounced somewhat differently by a native French-speaker. Especially the words containing any of the letters "r" or “u”, which the French pronounce differently than they are pronounced in English. However, you don't need perfect pronunciation to make yourself understood in a French-speaking country (even though it would help greatly because French people like it). Tourists are not primarily concerned with perfect pronunciation -- they just want to communicate their needs. ============= EQUAL EMPHASIS IN PRONOUNCING FRENCH WORDS In French it is important to say each syllable with equal emphasis. This may sound somewhat mechanical to your ear (because in English some syllables are emphasized more than others in most words). But pronouncing each syllable with equal emphasis will help French people understand you better. ============= FINAL CONSONANTS ARE GENERALLY SILENT In American English words most consonants are pronounced, except for ones like the final letter in dumb (“dum”) and numb (“num”), and often the final –g in words ending –ing (e.g. "runnin"). And the famous New England –r, which is silent in words like PARK and CAR, as in “pahk the cah”. These silent letters in English are important in that they can help you remember the otherwise seemingly mystifying French pattern of silent consonents, especially silent final consonants. For example, some French words imported into English fairly recently still show this pattern of silent final consonents, like 'debris', pronounced “deh-bree” (not pronounced “deh-brihs”, as it would be in the usual English pattern of pronunciation). The final –t is silent in imported French words that end with an “-ay” sound in spite of their spelling -- such as ballet, gourmet, parquet, ricochet, and valet. Also as in English, French forms the plural by adding --s to the ends of words, but in French this final –s is always silent. So these Easy French Lessons provides you with the easiest introduction to French pronunciation, through French variations of familiar English words. The next step is listening to French pronunciation, which is the best way to learn correct pronunciation. ============= SUMMARY These Easy French Lessons is the easiest way to introduce yourself to French, by concentrating on the likeness between the two languages. This progressively leads you into French by using its similarities to English to make learning less difficult. So read through these Easy French Lessons first, before trying to listen to a recording of tourist phrases, because most of the similarities are in the written form. In the spoken form, few French cognates sound identical to their English counterparts. The many written resemblances between the two languages will enable you to read a little French more easily than speak it or listen to it. While words that look alike can help you learn French, care must be taken with any differences in meaning (explained in later lessons), because some meanings have drifted apart in the two languages over the centuries. Care must be also be taken with differences in pronunciation (which are explained more fully in a later lesson). In order to keep the following lessons simple, all lists of French words similar to English contain the most familiar examples to demonstrate the point of each lesson. These lists are not intended to be complete, and more examples exist for each category. These Easy French Lessons are the easiest way to begin learning French – guaranteed. These Easy French Lessons will prepare you easily and enjoyably for your next steps in learning French. -------
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