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…
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…
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…
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”…
Ça a été is a common French phrase that can mean “it was,” “it went,” or “it was okay.” Its exact meaning comes from the context and tone of voice. It is often used to ask about a past event, give a short report, or say that something was acceptable. The basic meaning The phrase…
English attaches “else” to pronouns and adverbs to point to an additional or different one: something else, anyone else, nowhere else, nothing else, somewhere else. French has no single word that does this job. Instead, it builds the same meaning from a small set of parts, chiefly autre (“other”), d’autre (“else”), ailleurs (“elsewhere”) and autre…
Many French expressions ending in que are followed by the subjunctive. These include expressions of condition, purpose, doubt, necessity, emotion, concession and events that have not yet happened. Other expressions ending in que take the indicative instead. The word que itself does not determine the mood. Expressions that take the subjunctive Here is an alphabetised…
