10 weird things about French
1. The word "eau"
It's "aqua" or close in most romance languages. Here, we have three letters just to say "o".
2. Qu'est-ce que c'est que ça ?
3. Œuf
What's up with the O and E getting close together just for this word? Pretty sure most people forgot about it because it's too hard to make on the keyboard, so it became okay to simplify it to "oeuf".
The plural is "Œufs" but it's pronounced like "eux", which is basically just like the Swedish "ö".
4. "Euh"
Close to "Œufs", this is just a filler word equivalent to "um...", but I feel like French speakers use their filler word way more than in other languages. In my observation, "euh" seems to be omnipresent even among the most eloquent people.
5. It used to be the international language
How did that happen and why is it not the case anymore?
6. Oignon
It's now allowed to write "ognon". But how about we just write it like we do in English? Onion.
7. Connoisseur / Connaisseur
The word "connoisseur" in English was borrowed from French back when it was still spelled like this. Later, the French language went through a spelling reform which turned it into "connaisseur", but it remained "connoisseur" in English.
8. Le passé simple
Why do we have a tense that's only used in literature? I find it pretentious, unnatural, and just plain annoying.
9. It's considered romantic
Where does that come from?
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