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Script Module 1 3 1 Spice - Up - Your - English PDF

- Vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation are the three major differences between English and French. - English has over 500,000 words compared to around 100,000 words in French. Many French words have multiple translations in English depending on context. - English grammar is simpler, lacking conjugation of verbs. Nuances are expressed through tenses like continuous and perfect, which do not exist similarly in French. - Pronunciation differs significantly between the languages, with English having more vowel and diphthong sounds and stress on certain syllables, affecting its distinctive rhythm.

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100 views

Script Module 1 3 1 Spice - Up - Your - English PDF

- Vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation are the three major differences between English and French. - English has over 500,000 words compared to around 100,000 words in French. Many French words have multiple translations in English depending on context. - English grammar is simpler, lacking conjugation of verbs. Nuances are expressed through tenses like continuous and perfect, which do not exist similarly in French. - Pronunciation differs significantly between the languages, with English having more vowel and diphthong sounds and stress on certain syllables, affecting its distinctive rhythm.

Uploaded by

Kensony Tanis
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Script

“THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ENGLISH & FRENCH”

When you learn a new language, it is difficult not to compare it to your native
language and you’re right: there are a lot of similarities between languages which
have common roots or origins. It is the case for French and English.
But there are also differences and it is important to know them.

We are going to work on 3 major differences:


- Vocabulary
- Grammar
- Pronunciation

Let’s look at each of these aspects in detail:


Vocabulary
First of all, how many words are there in English? Do you think there are more or
less words than in French?
There are more words in English than in French: 500,000words in English against
100,000 words in French. I think this is a surprise for you.
In fact, a lot of words in French have 2, 3 or 4 different translations into English.
The context helps you to know which word to use. When a word is not correct, it
can be a problem for communication. Look at the example: in French, I want to say:
Je voudrais repasser mon examen. “Repasser” can have different meanings in
French: “repasser un vêtement” or “repasser un examen, refaire un examen.” With
the first meaning, I can say: “I would like to iron my exam” This sentence is really
strange because this does not make sense. You don’t iron an exam but you
“retake” an exam. It is the context that gives you the correct meaning.

Fortunately, there are a lot of words that are the same in French and English, we
call them “cognates”.
You also have words which are not exactly the same in French and English but you
can guess their meaning because it is close to French. Words like “common” or
“compare” or “decide”.
But there are also a lot of false friends, words which look like French but do not
have the same meaning in English.Ex: library – bookshop. A library is not “une
librairie” in French. It means “une bibliothèque”. I use the word “bookshop” in
English to say “librairie”.

The last important point to remember is that there is a big difference in terms of
register. Register means the type of language you use. We have 3 types in English:
informal register, neutral register and formal register. You use informal register in
everyday life with your family or friends. You use formal register when you talk to
your boss, to a director or a professor. This is a more polite version of the
language. The neutral register is of course neutral and you can use it all the time. In
French, the differences between registers of vocabulary are not as marked. Most of
the time you will use only the neutral register.

Grammar
It is interesting to know that children do not learn English grammar or conjugation
as we would in French-speaking schools. I remember learning all these long
tables of conjugation to know how to conjugate French verbs. Sometimes it was
really difficult. You know that the English language works differently. There is no
conjugation as such. In the present, you just add an -s to the third person singular.
There is no conjugation but there are more nuances. These nuances are expressed
in the use of what we call the continuous and the perfect tense (le continu et le
parfait in French). These 2 nuances do not really exist in French. I will give you
more information about this in the section “Grammar Bites” in module 2 and module
3.

Pronunciation:
When you listen to English, you immediately hear that the rhythm of the language is
really different from French. That is what we call the “music” of the language. Listen
: “When I first started learning italian, I found listening quite challenging because
the musicality of the language is so different from English.” “I love cooking because
it’s so relaxing after a hard day’s work”.

Are there more sounds in English or more sounds in French? There are 26 letters of
the alphabet in both languages but there are more sounds in English than in
French: 44 sounds in English against 36 sounds in French. It means that there are
sounds in English that you do not know in French and that are completely new to
you.
A big difference is in vowel sounds. English has 20 vowel sounds. French has only
16 vowel sounds. The difference comes from the fact that, in English, there are
short and long vowels like the difference between hit and heat. In French, there is
only one length of vowel. Ex: hit vs. heat

In English, there are also diphthongs, a combination of 2 sounds like in the words :
now, boat and same. Something also quite typical of English is the stress (what we
call in French l’accent tonique). There is no stress in French, each syllable has the
same weight and the same importance. It is not the case in English.Let’s have a
look at an example:
In French I say “développement” but in English I stress the second syllable and I say
“deVElopment”.
There is also sentence stress: when you put more importance on some words in
your sentence.That is why English has a special rhythm. I must say that I really like
this rhythm. English gives me the impression that I sometimes sing.

So you see that there are similarities and differences. It is good to know them to
continue learning and to have an open mind. Remember that learning a language
means accepting these differences.

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