Grammaire 1: cognates
On étudie !
Les mots apparentés
Cognates – or mots apparentés – are words that have a similar spelling, pronunciation, and meaning across two languages.
French and English share many cognates because they have a shared history. After the Norman Invasion in 1066 by Guillaume le Conquérant, French became the language of law, religion, government and administration in England for three and a half centuries. By the end of the middle ages, around 45% of English was of French origin. Today, it makes up 29% of all English vocabulary. You can learn more about the ways French has influenced and changed English on the French Together website.
Modern French language has also adopted an enormous amount of English vocabulary and expressions. This long tradition of borrowing vocabulary from each other is alive and kicking. Take for example, the French word mél which was acquired from the English word email.
Cognates are particularly helpful for students who speak Latin-based languages like Spanish or Italian (2 sister languages of French).
Recognizing cognates can help you understand common French words that are also common in English, like différence, classe, montagne, acteur and résultat.
Look to these French words and notice their similarity with English words:
Similarities and Differences between English and French Words
| Français | Anglais |
|---|---|
| abondance | abundance |
| cercle | circle |
| furieux | furious |
| exactement | exactly |
| activités | activities |
| différent | different |
| aventure | adventure |
| commun | common |
| animal | animal |
| bicyclette | bicycle |
| guide | guide |
| hôpital | hospital |
| correctement | correctly |
| musique | music |
| humain | human |
| observatoire | observatory |
| négocier | negotiate |
| plat | plate |
| université | university |
| solidifier | solidify |
The biggest difference between these French and English words is their pronunciation, even when they are spelled the same. For example, compare the way we pronounce the word “different” in English to différent in French.
Building on your knowledge
As you can see with these examples, you already know a lot more French than you realize. Your first challenge is to recognize them when you hear and read them. Then you will need to learn how to pronounce them. It’s very common for an English speaker to pronounce a word in English when it looks the same in French, so take some time to get acquainted with French pronunciation.
There are many French words that we use in English that have retained their original French spelling and pronunciation (more or less). Words like: “déjà vu”, “mirage”, “façade”, “pot-pourri”, “hors d’œuvre”, “cul-de-sac”, “matinée”, “encore”, “cliché”, “faux pas”, “R.S.V.P.”, “souvenir”, “fiancé”, “risqué”, “coup d’état”, etc.. Visit this site for a description of 96 French words that we already use often in English (along with their pronunciation).
Fun
Exploring the historical relationship between English, French and other languages can be fun. You may be surprised to discover connections you may otherwise have missed. For example, the distress signal “mayday!” was derived from the French m’aider, a shortened version of venez m’aider! which means “come help me!”
Finally, performing amusing verbal acrobatics on these cognates will help see the English words they are related to. Creativity and thinking outside the box are key when learning a new language. Take the words:
étudiant → Swap the é for s and you get ⇒ student
forêt: → remove the ^ and pop in an s after the vowel to get ⇒ forest
Make it a game and do these tweaking tricks on other French words such as état, époux, hôpital, île. Note, this only works on cognates words and you can perform the é swap trick on words which begins with é. For more examples, watch the last video in the supplement resource below.
Ressources supplémentaires
- To learn more about the shared history between French and English, read this article on English words of French origin.
- Here are 99 French words we use all the time in English.
- Watch these entertaining three clever tricks to translate French words without knowing French.
