Why does English have a lot of French words?
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Why does English have a lot of French words?
Most of the French vocabulary in English entered the language after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, when Old French, specifically the Old Norman dialect, became the language of the new Anglo-Norman court, the government, and the elites.
Why are there so many French cognates in English?
Why Do French and English Share So Many Cognates? Both English and French are Indo-European languages. If we want to get technical, French and English both trace their origins to an extinct proto-language spoken some 4,500 years ago.
Why do English have so many words?
The Oxford Dictionary says it’s quite probable that English has more words than most comparable world languages. The reason is historical. English was originally a Germanic language, related to Dutch and German. English shares much of its grammar and basic vocabulary with those languages.
How many English words are actually French?
Even if you’re just starting to study French, believe it or not, you’ve already got a pretty extensive vocabulary! The reason for this is over 10,000 English words come from French. Many others come from Latin, the language from which French originated.
Who was first English king to speak English?
Henry IV was the first English king to speak English as his first language. Other Kings had spoke it but their first language before was French (Due to the Norman Conquest).
Why are there more French words in English than French words?
Another reason why there may be more words of French origin in English than there are French words could be that a lot of Old French words have disappeared in the French language and still exist in English.
Why does Etymonline always mention French before Latin?
This is because Etymonline always mentions French before Latin if the word entered English through French and the word changed sufficiently from the root. A word such as “origin” (from “origo”) will therefore return French, whereas a word such as “provide” (from “providere — provideo”) will return Latin.
Why is the French language so popular in France?
Two reasons for that, first the aforementioned fact that French was actually the native language of part of the population, also, it was the time during which France rose as the leading nation in Europe in terms of culture, science and pretty much everything else.
Why are there so many Latin words in the English language?
Latin words came to the English language through French and France during the Middle Ages. French was simply the everyday language while Latin was the scholarly language, but they were spoken by the same people (that’s the ones who were educated) and those are the same people that brought both to England.