French Words used in English Everyday

[Chuck]

This thread is great, but I think everyone's trying too hard. Believe it or not, England was speaking French less than a thousand years ago (after William the Conker), so there's a lot more French in the English language than most people even realize. (N'oubliez pas: "Honi soit qui mal y pense.")

A few of my favorites are:
Courage
Voyage
Portage
Montage
Fromage (?!)
Eclairs
and of course
Rendezvous
which all come from the French.

Same with most of our military terms, right down to "bullets". All the ranks we use in the U.S. are derived from French: "private", "corporal", "sergeant", "lieutenant", "captain" and so on, etc. ... these are all are French in origin. (And so is "et cetera", for all practical purposes.) "Platoon", "Regiment", "Brigade"... Eventually, one gets the idea that when languages were being solidified, the French were the ones that knew how to get things done!

...Plus they were the only ones who knew how to make the fromage...

[Philippe]

Do you really use fromage? don't you say cheese? Is there a difference ?

[lefty12357]

Everyone I know uses cheese, but I think many of them know the word fromage.

[Un-rêve]

Originally Posted by Philippe

hi !

as a French I'd say (and there are too many to mention) :

restaurant
rendez-vous
cabaret
casserole (not the same meaning in French, it means "pan")
beau
tour like Tour de France
Grand prix
crème fraiche
brioche
courgette
menu
chef
café
vol au vent ( we call them bouchée à la Reine)
Champaign (that we write Champagne, that's a region in France, wher it's produced)
rosé
blanc de blanc
mademoiselle, madam
garage
etc etc etc

some words borrowed from French do not even exist in French : double entendre doesn't exist, we say "sous-entendu"

There sure is too many to mention, I've wonder if "counting coup" should be included, I'm not even a trekkie but this scene has always been stuck in my head for some reason.





BTW welcome to the forum Philippe.

[Rev]

Yes. It should be counted. American Indians would "count coup" (manage to perform non-lethal contact and get away alive) on an opponent as proof of bravery.

[Philippe]

Thanks for the welcome

there are as many french words in English than English words in French.
Both languages mix together perfectly.

You use French words mostly in cuisine (anotherone) and probably in fashion, you know like Haute couture, de luxe.

We have English words in music (pop, rock...) in sports (football, volleyball etc) and everything about computers.

I love songs that are sung both in French and English, I'm thinking of Enrique Iglesias and Nadyia and there have been many duets like this.

And I prefer Mylène Farmer than the song "Mylène Farmer" , this is a faux-pas

[Un-rêve]

Chandelier comes to mind right now.