Is English just badly pronounced French?

Are we speaking more French than you thought? Let me know below. And join the Lingoda Language Sprint to let your language skills bloom this spring. Click my link and use my code ROBWORDS20 for 20€ off! try.lingoda.com/RobWords20

Isn't French just poorly pronounced Latin?

A Frenchman saying the English should be grateful to France for English's popularity is one of the most French things I have heard in a while.

Being a native French speaker, I found it quite easy to read English after I got the basics back in elementary school. It was like starting to learn a new language but already knowing half the vocabulary.

everything is just badly pronounced caveman grunts

French was my worst class in grade school. Now, thanks to this little piece, I can now say that I am fluent in bad French. Merci!

Actually modern French is just badly pronounced French.

En tant qu'un Asiatique, je suis fier de parler la langue française et qu'elle devient ma deuxième langue ou bien plus que ça. 🙂 Merci, la France. J''espère de vous revoir un jour ou bientôt!

I love how both the words "state" and "estate" both come from the same french word.

“The flesh-monger” sounds like some secret boss from a fantasy game, not someone you buy your lunch meat from.

It absolutely blows my mind how complex this whole tapestry of the English language is! Thank you Rob for unravelling a bit of it so we can better understand it!

I speak both language and my tip to both learners is that, " complicated " words are the same. Vaccine - vaccin, expedition - expédition, so on.

Most interesting video on the web about the English language. Fantastically delivered by Rob.

Peu importe le langage, qu'il est plaisant d'écouter des propos lorsqu'ils sont exprimés avec autant de clarté et d'intelligence ! Félicitations

Fun fact: American Sign Language is more similar to French Sign Language than spoken English, because it was directly derived from French Sign Language. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (yes the guy Gallaudet University is named after) went to Europe to learn to teach deaf students. He actually went to a school in England first, but left because they wanted him to stay for a while. That was important, because they taught deaf people to speak and speechread and not sign. He visited other nations and eventually ended up in France. They used sign language. Eager to get back, he brought back a teacher named Laurent Clerc and they established the first permanent school for the deaf in the US. It has changed names and locations a few times, but still exists. They bought over French Sign Language, which has obviously been altered and is the basis for ASL. His son, Edward Miner Gallaudet, was the first president of what we know today as Gallaudet University.

I’ve been learning French for over a year and I love finding words where I’m like “wait a minute, those are actually related. This is especially true when I read older books. For example in Oliver Twist: “She essayed to speak” is not something that is commonly used today.

Excellent video, Rob. Just my two-cents: when you mention that we can either say "ask" or "demand", "begin" or "commence", you might have added that the Germanic word usually conveys a more casual tone, whereas the French word tends to be used in a more formal setting, a difference inherited from history as you mentioned before. Compare, for example, "I ask you to begin right away" and "I demand that you commence immediately".

I also noticed that a majority of the words ending by « tion » Are the same in English and in French Obligation Formation Alliteration Aviation Civilisation Transformation Abolition Mécanisation Accélération Condition Fabrication Fonction Inscription Interdiction Invention Innovation Traduction Solution Émotion Discrétion …

English recently added katsu, a Japanese word to the dictionary and it refers to a cutlet (katsu curry = cutlet curry). The irony is both the word katsu AND the dish itself were given to the Japanese by the British. Katsu, aka カツ was originally katsuretsu/ カツレツ from the English "cutlet". The curry dish itself was introduced by our sailors to the Japanese who took it and made it a local cuisine. It's no wonder katsu curry rose in popularity in the UK so fast over the last decade. So just like the French reimporting their old words from English we have done that with Japanese once, and given how distant the two languages and places are I find it more interesting.

Of course English isn't just badly pronounced French. It's also badly pronounced German, Greek, and several other languages.