3 ms·
In french there's also the curious case of "pesanteur" (gravity), which is feminine; so "la pesanteur" (the gravity). But the absence of gravity is "apesanteur"
by astrobe_ 12y ago
In french there's also the curious case of "pesanteur" (gravity), which is feminine; so "la pesanteur" (the gravity). But the absence of gravity is "apesanteur" (weightlessness), which is also a feminine word; so "l'apesenteur". So we have two slightly different words that actually sound exactly the same with their articles. It's only a few years ago that people decided to change the prefix and use "impesanteur" instead (which is however a bit less accurate - see the difference between "im-possible" (not possible) and "a-gnostic" (without belief)).
- ComputerGuru 12y agoThanks for sharing that! I've been learning French for the past two years and it's really opened my eyes to some things. I am already a native bilingual English/Arabic speaker, and thought Arabic was a very heavily-structured language, but learning French has made me realize that more than anything it is English that isn't. Discovering the French Anglo-Norman influence on the language I speak most often has been a very introspective and eye-opening experience for me.
- jarnix 12y agoThey are two different words though. The prefix "a" means "without" in many other words too. Never heard "impesanteur" but I have few friends who are cosmonauts obviously :)