A year back, everything in this world lay toppled over due to the pandemic and we found ourselves replying to RSVPs, for the then intimate and less than fifty guest weddings. Respondez s’il vous plait (reply if you please) is one of the many French terms that we toss around, not knowing that like it; there are several quaint words that the French have given us, that we use quite liberally.
The French influence in our lives is immense, it ranges from the macarons we love to devour, the very chic fashion styles we imitate to the huge glossary of words that we use in communicative English. English includes 30 percent of French words and the reason for this, dates back to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. As Norman, French became the language of the elite, Old English took a back seat.
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French words began to influence the English Language and that influence can be seen to this day. In fact, it is not only the très chic fashion sense and irresistible delicacies that English had borrowed from the French, it also changed a lot of the spelling and grammatical rules of Old English. The words ‘queen, sheep and bridge’ as we spell it today were initially spelt as ‘cween, sċeap, and brycġ.’ Quite unrecognizable, you would say, as is the work of Geoffrey Chaucer, the Father of English Poetry, whose Old English writing resembles French more than modern English.
This immense change in spelling has occurred only because of the influence of French. English grammar rules suggest that an adjective should be placed before a noun, however, terms such as ‘attorney general’ portray the French influence of the adjective following the noun. Words such as director, salad, utensil, critic and manoeuver have originated from their French counterparts directeur, salade, utensile, critique and manoeuvre.
Throwing in a few French terms simply makes our communicative English more fancy and colourful. Bon voyage, déjà vu, rendez-vous, a la carte, etc are all French terms we have used when a rare opportunity presents itself. But were you aware that words such as bureau, cadet, debut, venue and silhouette, are all words that are borrowed from the French language? It is the food industry in fact, that uses the most French words such as baguette, chef, menu sauté soufflé and sous-chef. Though, not all of us have been able to visit the city of love, in a way, as speakers of English we have had a French connection all along.
(Avril Antao is an English teacher. The name ‘Avril’ means April in French and the interest in
French peaked during her days at Goa University, where besides English Literature she opted for optional beginner courses
in French.)
