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French being my first language, I can says the same things with fancier words in english. But sometime I will use English turn of sentences in French and it so
by courgette 3y ago
French being my first language, I can says the same things with fancier words in english.
But sometime I will use English turn of sentences in French and it sounds weird ( just did it a l’envers here, pretty sure “turn of sentence” does not exists in English )
I’m ok at Spanish too. My main motivation is to be able to talk to random peoples when traveling.
English came de facto because of the internet and US soft power.
Not sure it makes me better at writing or speaking.
- rib3ye 3y agoYou don’t think English propagation had anything to do with British colonialism?
- tick_tock_tick 3y agoI mean them colonizing the USA.....
- thaumasiotes 3y agoThe presence of English in India is pretty clearly due to the efforts of the British, not the Americans. Same thing in Australia. Presence of English in France and Germany might be more due to Americans.
- courgette 3y agoIn France I would blame post ww2 soft power. The old cliché about French gents not speaking English is irrelevant for anybody under 40yo. It’s interesting to see French word in English from the William the conqueror period, too. ( like “phrase” from above or the tired example “sheep” vs “mutton” )
- klodolph 3y ago“Turn of phrase” is an English idiom, but it sounds like it does not mean the same thing.
- torstenvl 3y agoLe truc c'est qu' «une phrase» en français veut dire "a sentence" en anglais.
- courgette 3y agoOui, but I also forgot that “phrase” exists in English. I grew to like English this way: massive corpus made of anglo-saxon plus French.
- klodolph 3y ago“Anglo-Saxon” is a bit of a broad term… you might describe Modern English as Mercian (an Anglian dialect), with lots of Saxon, Old Norse, and Old Norman influences. As well as other influences; I think those are the big ones. Just to give an example of why “Anglo-Saxon” might be too broad a term—surviving Old English texts like Beowulf are in what you might call Late West Saxon, and the differences between Saxon and Anglian dialects help explain why Chaucer, who spoke something you might call Anglo-Norman, is much more accessible to modern readers. If you want more of that Saxon influence, listen to West Country English, where it survives today.
- courgette 3y agoThanks,while typing it I was unhappy about that category but I did not know better.
- gsk22 3y ago> pretty sure “turn of sentence” does not exists in English We do say "turn of phrase" in English, which means something similar. I wonder if both have the same origin.
- courgette 3y agoHa. Silly me. It’s “tournure de phrase” in french. It actually goes to show that my command of English is limited. I know both words but “phrase” did not occurs to me even so it’s the same damn word :)
- cpursley 3y agoFwiw, we can also say fancier things in English by using some French words ;)
- denton-scratch 3y ago> pretty sure “turn of sentence” does not exists in English Yeah, that jarred for me. We do say "turn of phrase".