Question

What are some English words with French origin?


Answers (1)

by Lucy 13 years ago

There are thousands of these. First, there are the French words that have been adopted straight into Engish with no change; these are often more modern words and include very everyday terms like garage, cliche, menu and many more. You can find a list here.

There are also words of French origin that have been changed over time, and these are often much older. Very many French, mainly Norman French, words were added to English after the Norman Conquest in 1066. The total could be as high as 30 per cent of the language. Some of our most basic words like fork, chair and law are derived from Norman French. Also, words like beef, mutton and pork are of French origin while cow, sheep and pig are English or Saxon/Germanic. This is because the wealthy Normans mostly ate the meat while their Saxon subjects looked after the animals!

To get an idea of how many words in English have a French root, you can look at this list.


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