3 ms·
Although it can have that connotation in English, it has to be activated by context: “Jim is not a leader, he’s a follower”. But in phrases like “a follower of
by leephillips 5y ago
Although it can have that connotation in English, it has to be activated by context: “Jim is not a leader, he’s a follower”. But in phrases like “a follower of the Chicago school of economics” it’s neutral. Maybe in French the negative connotation is more tightly bound to the word.
- jraph 5y agoInteresting. No, indeed, we can't use suiveur neutrally like this in French as far as I know. We'd probably say un étudiant or une étudiante (a student) in this specific case. Or un membre (a member). But we actually can follow a lesson (suivre un cours) without it being pejorative, so while the noun is probably always pejorative, the verb is generally not if not activated by context, as you say.