Differences Between English And French

Last Updated on January 3, 2022 by QCity Editorial Stuff

The English and French languages are quite similar, but there are some notable differences between them.  We will explore a few of the most important ones to help you understand each language better. While both languages have Latin roots that stem from the same Proto-Indo-European language, they have developed into two different dialects over time with their own distinct rules and words. This can be seen in many ways such as pronunciation, spelling conventions, sentence structure, and grammar rules. By learning more about these differences between English and French it will give you a better understanding of how to communicate effectively when using either one of these languages or even if you decide to learn both.

The French language is historically one of the most influential in the world. Differences between English and French are not only vast but varied. While some differences seem to be minor, others can be significant enough to change a sentence’s meaning entirely. This blog post seeks to answer questions about differences between these two languages that may arise when speaking or writing, as well as provide tips for learning them both. 

One of the most notable differences is how we use articles in both languages. In English, an article is a word such as “the,” “a,” or “an.” In French, articles can be used to refer to a specific noun when speaking about it in general, but they cannot stand alone without being accompanied by another word. 

Comparison Between English And French

Parameters of Comparison	English	French
Language	West Germanic language	Indo-European Romance Language
Letter	27 letter	26 letter
Negative	the double negative in English means you’re telling someone they don’t have something	a double negative in french means you do have it.
Nouns	nouns are capitalized and verbs aren’t	both nouns and verbs are capitalized
Yes	word for “yes” in English is spelled with an ‘i’	the word for “yes” in French is spelled with an o

What Is English? 

The English language is an ever-changing entity that is constantly evolving. New words are added to the dictionary daily, some of which come from other languages while others are created in new ways. For example, using a word like “google” has become so commonplace that it was recently entered into the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary on March 14th, 2013 (Word History). This constant change leaves many people wondering where exactly English comes from and how it began. Luckily for us, there are several sources available that can help us understand this complex language better.

English is a language spoken around the world. It is one of the most popular languages used in business and technology, but it can be difficult to learn if you don’t know where to start. Luckily, there are many English learning courses available online that will help you understand how the language works and give you some basic skills with which to get started. If you’re interested in learning more about these courses or want to check out some free resources for getting started on your own, just keep reading.

What Is French?

French is a Romance language spoken as a native language in France, Canada, and many other countries. It is an official language in 29 countries. French uses the Latin alphabet with diacritics for pronunciation guidance and it has somewhere around 7 million speakers worldwide. The number of people who speak French as their second or third language exceeds that figure to about 77 million people.

French is one of the most important international languages and enjoys widespread use across different domains such as diplomacy and commerce; tourism; aviation; journalism; film-making; television programming, etc. Moreover, it was estimated that by 2020 there will be more than 500 million users of French all over the world which makes this language very relevant on an international level.

10 Differences Between English And French

Western: English is a West Germanic language while French is an Indo-European Romance Language.

Hello: The word “hello” in French can be translated to “bonjour”.

Letter: There are 27 letters in the English alphabet, but there are only 26 letters in the French alphabet.

Negative: A double negative in English means you’re telling someone they don’t have something, but a double negative in french means you do have it.

Food: In France, one must wait for all of their food before beginning to eat while this isn’t necessary with American culture.

Cafeteria: The word “cafeteria” comes from the French term “cafe au lait” which means coffee with milk or tea with milk these words were originally used as slang for restaurants that served those beverages and then became known as cafeterias over time.

Nouns: In English, nouns are capitalized and verbs aren’t; in French, both nouns and verbs are capitalized.

Plural Noun: In English, the definite article “the” can be used before an indefinite plural noun to indicate that there may be more than one of something (e.g., “The kids were playing outside.”); in French, this isn’t done.

Yes: The word for “yes” in English is spelled with an ‘i’ whereas the word for “yes” in French is spelled with an o.

Date of birth: When speaking about periods longer than one day or date of birth, numbers are written differently between the two languages – e.g., 6/6/06 vs 06 Juin 2006.

Interesting Statistics Or Facts Of  English

1. English is the most widely spoken language in the world.

2. The word “set” has been used more than any other word in history.

3. The letter “Q” does not exist in a standard keyboard layout.

4. There are over 1,000 words that start with the letter ‘Z’.

5. In English, there are only 26 letters and 10 numbers – this means that one out of every six words is a number.

6. A large proportion of people who speak English as their first language live in North America or Europe.

Interesting Statistics Or Facts Of French

1. French is the most spoken language in Europe.

2. The word “French” comes from Middle English, meaning “from France”.

3. There are over 100 million native speakers of French worldwide.

4. The first novel written in French was published in 1740 by Antoine François Prévost.

5. The longest word in the standard French language is which means “contrary to the constitution.”.

6. One of the most famous paintings ever created was painted by Vincent van Gogh – it’s called Auvers-Sur-Oise and it depicts a wheat field with cypress trees near an asylum where he spent his final months.

Conclusion About The Differences Between English And French

The main difference between the two languages is that French has grammatical gender, while English does not. This means that in French you have to choose a masculine or feminine pronoun depending on the person being spoken about. For example, “Elle” for feminine and “il” for masculine. If this was confusing enough already, it gets even more complicated with words like nouns which are both genders at once- so what do you call them? You can’t use either of those pronouns because they’re different genders! In English, there’s one word for all things- chair – so no need to worry about how to refer back to something when talking about it later on in the conversation. 

French is a beautiful language. It’s rich in history and culture. If you’ve ever been interested in learning the language or just exploring its background, we hope this blog post has helped guide your way to understanding some of the key differences between English and French. Have you learned any new words lately? What are they? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

References:

Resource 01: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language
Resource 02: https://www.mustgo.com/worldlanguages/french/