Many French cities and regions have names that come directly from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire. When the Romans conquered Gaul, they founded new towns, renamed existing ones, and recorded these names in their documents and on their milestones. Some of these Latin names survived with little change, while others evolved into the…
Laisser and lasser are two regular French verbs that look and sound almost identical, but they mean completely different things. Laisser means “to let,” “to leave,” or “to allow.” Lasser means “to tire” or “to weary.” The only difference in spelling is a single letter, which is why French learners often confuse them in writing….
De la sorte is a French adverbial phrase meaning “in this way,” “in that way,” “thus,” or “in such a manner.” It is used to refer to a manner, method or situation that has just been mentioned or that is understood from context. It is a phrase, not a single word, and it functions as…
Se tenir is one of the most flexible reflexive verbs in French. It comes from tenir (“to hold”), and adding the reflexive pronoun opens up a wide range of meanings, from physical posture to behaviour, to whether an argument makes sense. Because it covers so much ground, it is worth learning through its main categories…
The French prefix é- sometimes comes from Latin ex-, meaning “out of”, “away from” or “from”. In these words, é- can express separation, removal, extraction or movement away from something. It can also have related meanings such as completion or intensification. However, not every French word beginning with é- contains this prefix. Some words simply…
The French adjective dernier means “last.” Its place in the noun phrase often tells you whether it means a past time period or the final item in a group. It changes form to match the noun: dernier (masculine singular), dernière (feminine singular), derniers (masculine plural), and dernières (feminine plural). In the masculine singular and masculine…
French has a small set of verb forms that are spelled the same, or come extremely close to it, and are also pronounced identically, even though they come from completely unrelated infinitives. Sometimes an accent is the only thing keeping the spelling apart, and sometimes there is no difference on the page at all. Working…
Huit jours and quinze jours are French time phrases meaning “a week” and “a fortnight” respectively. Literally they translate as “eight days” and “fifteen days,” but in practice they refer to seven and fourteen days. The mismatch is a long-standing feature of the language, with roots in Roman methods of counting and in legal and…
The French expression l’air de rien literally means “the air of nothing” or “the look of nothing.” In practice, it describes doing something in a casual, offhand, or seemingly indifferent way, while often achieving a real effect underneath. It carries a sense of quiet purpose hidden behind a relaxed exterior. A close cousin is mine…
The French forms quoique and quoi que sound alike, but they do not mean the same thing. The first is usually a conjunction meaning “although” or “though.” The second means “whatever” or “no matter what.” The spelling depends on the meaning and on the role of the phrase in the sentence. Quoique: “although” or “though”…
