English words in French

Ready, Steady, Stop!

Niall O'Donnell 6 Comments

You might understandably be confused if you heard someone say this. At least if you’re in an English-speaking country. Continue reading →

Calque or Loanword?

Niall O'Donnell 12 Comments

Reading about Anglish yesterday, I realised that one of the most useful methods for proponents of this form of English is creating calques.

What’s a calque, I hear you ask?

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Le Grand Chelem

Niall O'Donnell 3 Comments

Watching Roland Garros this summer, I learned a new French term: Le Grand Chelem. Not that it was very new, as it’s not different from an English term I was already aware of.

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H is for Honesty

Niall O'Donnell 20 Comments

While listening to the radio today, the DJ introduced the song “Honesty,” by Billy Joel. Only, being a French speaker, he pronounced the H as we do in words like house and happy. This might seem odd though, because the letter H is always silent in French.

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Parking in the Zoning

Niall O'Donnell 4 Comments

I mentioned yesterday that I wanted to write about English words which are used in French in a slightly different way to how we use them. And this morning I thought, as I’m still using an AZERTY keyboard, I might as well do that today.

I’ve already written about some English words that are used in French, but today I want to focus on three that are a strange combination of seeming logical yet slightly odd to an English speaker’s ear. I should also state that I’m not criticising or mocking French speakers for using these words. Their use makes enough sense for non-native speakers, and once a word enters another language it doesn’t have to follow the rules of its original language. Anyway, the three words are:

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