You probably know that English and French share many of the same words. There’s a very good reason for that, and if you’re at all interested in history, you may enjoy this article about the influence of French on the English language during the Norman Invasion in the time of Guillaume le Conquérant*.

To paraphrase, when William the Conqueror invaded England, he brought with him the French Norman language which was spoken at court. The masses, by contrast, continued to speak English. For this reason, words used by farmers, such as cow, pig and deer remained English, whereas when the flesh of those animals was prepared to be eaten at the lavish banquets of the court, the words ‘boeuf’ (beef), ‘porc’ (pork) and ‘venaison’ (venison) were used instead. Though the Normans sont partis* 300 years later, traces of the French language of course remained.

La bonne nouvelle* is that we can use this little history lesson to our advantage when speaking French.

If you find yourself stuck on a word, say for example ‘money’, try elevating your thinking to that of a king. Would he waste his time talking about grubby money? No, he’d be talking finance* of course.

Or perhaps you want to describe something that is ‘over the top’. Rather than search your brain for those three words, which are unlikely to translate directly as the phrase is somewhat idiomatic, try for a more formal way to explain the same sentiment. Extravagant is a word shared by both French and English, so apply your best French accent to it and you’re away! The fact that up to 45% of French and English words are the same or similar means it’s definitely worth a try. And the more soutenu* the word, the more likely you’ll be to pull it off.

As an example, in a recent class, one of our students, Tracey, was searching for the word ‘weather report’. She looked at me quizzically for help and I told to her to ‘go high’, hoping she’d choose the word meteorology (la météo is used in French for the weather bulletin). Instead, and almost as a joke, she said ‘la prédiction’? and guess what? She was right.

Conversely, if ever you’re getting yourself tied up in knots about how to say a word in French, try to bring yourself back to basics. Imagine the vocabulary of a young child. Do they know the word ‘novel’? Probablement pas*, but they do know the word ‘book’ and I bet you do, too, in French.

Perhaps you want to talk about a politician addressing the nation. Could you instead say she was speaking to them? I know it can be uncomfortable to express yourself in such a rudimentary (simple?) way, but rather get your message across than stop, stumble and then give up. As I’ve said before, the aim of the game is to keep the conversation flowing.

Go high or simplify