The French They Never Taught You 16: Social isn't Always Social
The French adjective social has three basic meanings, two of which are fairly obvious to English speakers and one of which is not. First...
The French They Never Taught You 15: Countries and Their Leaders
There are so many countries whose names can be translated from English to French by changing the IA ending to IE that it would be...
The French They Never Taught You 14: One More Thing
Two of the very first things that you learn in French class are the indefinite article (un, une) and the numbers (un, deux, trois). In un...
The French They Never Taught You 13: Translating the Infinitive
Infinitives, which consist of "to" plus a verb in English but are a single word in French, are one of the first things that French...
The French They Never Taught You 12: A French brouhaha is not an English brouhaha
Although English apparently borrowed the word "brouhaha" from the French, which in turn took it from the Hebrew "baruch habba" (the...
The French They Never Taught You 11: Word Order
Because word order in French is generally similar to word order in English, learners of French are only told about the one main case...
The French They Never Taught You 10: A Different Way of Expressing the Past
Students of French spend a long time learning when to use the passé composé and the imparfait because the distinction between these two...
The French They Never Taught You 9: The Present Isn't Necessarily the Present
In French class, students learn that the present tense in French can be translated in three ways in English. For example, je vais means I...
Two Legal Terms to Watch Out For
Two legal terms that are often mistranslated into the Romance languages are "comparative law" and "derivative work." Comparative law is...
The French They Never Taught You 8: "pouvoir" is not the only way to say "may" or "could"
One of the first irregular verbs that French students learn is pouvoir, which means "to be able." Thus, je peux means "I can" or "I am...
