Differences between French and English

Adam   Sun Jul 24, 2005 9:34 pm GMT
Differences Between French and English

Introduction to some of the key differences between French and English



French and English are related languages in a sense, because French is a Latin language with German and English influence, while English is a Germanic language with Latin and French influence. Thus there are some similarities between them, most notably the same alphabet and a number of true cognates. Perhaps more importantly, however, there are a number of differences, both major and minor, between French and English. Here are some brief explanations with links to further information.



Comparison of characteristics

.....................French ...........................English

accents......... in many words ........rare; only in foreign words

agreement..... many types.................. none

articles ........more common............ less common

capitalization ......less common ........more common

conjugations ......different for each grammatical person .....different only for third person singular

contractions......... required........... optional

gender....... for all nouns and most pronouns .........only for personal pronouns

liaisons ......... common.......... none

negation .......... two words ........one word

prepositions .......certain verbs require prepositions phrasal verbs

rhythm stress ........at end of each rhythmic group ............stress on important word

subjunctive ..............common ...........extremely rare



Other differences between French and English

false cognates - Words that look alike don't necessarily mean the same thing.

pronunciation - Many differences; most notable are vowels and the letter R.
punctuation + numbers - Different uses and spacing.

silent letters - Many in both, but not the same letters.

spelling equivalents - Patterns in spelling differ in the two languages.

word order - Adjectives, adverbs, negation, + pronouns may cause problems.


-----------------------------
Sander   Sun Jul 24, 2005 9:41 pm GMT
=>because French is a Latin language with German and English influence<=

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!

The only GermanIC influence French come from Frankish,and according to the last statistics,only 250 words in the French language is related to Frankish.

=>while English is a Germanic language with Latin and French influence. Thus there are some similarities between them, most notably the same alphabet and a number of true cognates. Perhaps more importantly, however, there are a number of differences, both major and minor,<=

Believe me,English has more in common with French them with Germanic languages with the possible exception of the core of the core of the core vocabulary.
Sander   Sun Jul 24, 2005 9:42 pm GMT
Them = than
Lazar   Sun Jul 24, 2005 10:17 pm GMT
<<liaisons .......... none>>

That depends on your dialect. British English has liaisons (the linking R).

<<negation ........ one word>>

With the exceptions of "be" and "have", English verbs are negated using the construction "do not", which is two words.

<<subjunctive ........... extremely rare>>

That depends on your dialect. American English makes regular use of the subjunctive.
Lazar   Sun Jul 24, 2005 10:19 pm GMT
<<With the exceptions of "be" and "have", English verbs are negated using the construction "do not", which is two words.>>

Correction: With the exception of "be", English verbs are negated using the construction "do not", which is two words.
JJM   Mon Jul 25, 2005 3:40 pm GMT
"agreement..... many types.................. none"

No "agreement" in English, eh?

What do you call the following?

Which boys did this? THEY did.

I AM
you ARE
he IS

The girl is pretty. SHE is pretty.

THIS house. THESE houses.

I walk
He walkS
Travis   Mon Sep 12, 2005 9:00 pm GMT
>><<With the exceptions of "be" and "have", English verbs are negated using the construction "do not", which is two words.>>

Correction: With the exception of "be", English verbs are negated using the construction "do not", which is two words. <<

Actually, depends on the dialect and register, with respect to "have". In some dialects, and in particular in more formal registers, "to have" *is* negated with postfix "not", even though it is not in informal spoken North American English.

That said, one must remember that all classical modals negate with postfix "not" or a postfix clitic, all "new" modals including historical "to" (whether cliticized or grammaticalized) negate use "not" (but *not* a clitic) after them, and all classical modals with perfect inflections negate using an infix clitic placed after the modal's root.
Travis   Mon Sep 12, 2005 9:06 pm GMT
One corollary to what I just said above: all classical modals with perfect inflections may negate with a following *uncliticized* "not", and also, for certain classical modals in certain dialect, such as for "might" inflected as perfect, this mode of negation may be preferred over the use of an infix clitic for such.
Brennus   Mon Sep 12, 2005 9:36 pm GMT
The writers of the "Loom of Language" once pointed out (quite correctly, I think) that there is some holophrasticism in French similar to what exists in Eskimo and many American Indian languages not found in other modern European languages. In a holophrastic (or polysynthetic) language, it is difficult to tell where one word ends and another begins. Two or three words, sometimes even entire sentences are slurred together as if they were one word. For example, English 'false friends', and even Spanish 'falsos amigos' are sounded as two distinct words but French merges them together more like one word e.g. faux amis (fo-za-mi).
Rick Johnson   Mon Sep 12, 2005 9:42 pm GMT
The French don't know what a bar of soap is. That's one difference!
Travis   Mon Sep 12, 2005 9:59 pm GMT
Brennus, though, one has to separate the notions of phonological words and syntatic words. Remember, through processes such as cliticization, it is very easy to construct phonological words which consist of multiple syntactic words; I know such is most definitely present to a very significant degree in informal spoken North American English, if not most English dialects today across the board, for example. Furthermore, one must disregard phonological phenomena that may occur across word boundaries, such liaison (which occurs in both French and English), assimilation (which I know occurs in at least some English dialects), elision, and syllabification which is not affected by actual word boundaries (which I know is rather standard in Romance languages). To actually really call something polysynthetic in nature, one must truly look at the underlying nature of the overall *morphology* in question, rather than just at the surface level realizations of the same. This is why I don't call English any more agglutinative than, say, German and Dutch, even though I find it quite easy to construct phonological words which correspond to three syntactic units in it, and it isn't too hard to construct ones composed of four syntactic words either.
Travis   Mon Sep 12, 2005 10:16 pm GMT
One note about the above: when I say phonological words corresponding to three or more syntactic words in English, I'm referring to just informal spoken North American English, and such things are unlikely to be reflected in actual writing (just like the equivalents of such in French), except for some informal writing, where things such as "shouldna" and "d'y'ave" may be potentially seen.
Kirk   Mon Sep 12, 2005 10:29 pm GMT
Brennus, French is nowhere *near* being a polysynthetic language.
Travis   Mon Sep 12, 2005 10:40 pm GMT
>>Brennus, French is nowhere *near* being a polysynthetic language.<<

Most definitely agreed, at least from what I know about French.
Kirk   Mon Sep 12, 2005 11:04 pm GMT
<<Most definitely agreed, at least from what I know about French.>>

Yeah, typologically French is classified as a synthetic language, along with the other Romance languages.

--Brennus (or anyone else interested), here are is a helpful link explaining polysynthetic languages:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polysynthetic_language

--Here is the one explaining synthetic languages (which French is):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_language