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I am retired in a Spanish speaking country. Conocer vs. Saber, yes we do need two words for the verb "to know." And I agree forv word for the singular YOU. We could make "y'all" for plural you, but that really would be "all y'all" and that is cumbersome. Do work on that for us, Rob.
@@RobWords You also have a penchant for our French language. Just don't be shy, and take a 3-weeks vacation in our beautiful country. Like the South-West of France, you would like it, half of England's retirees are already there, anyway. 😉
By the way, "la gourmandise" is the enjoyment of good food, but "une gourmandise" is the thing you eat for the sake of gourmandise: a delicate and delicious piece of food, an off-meal little treat like chocolate, a piece of cake or a sweet, something you eat not to feed you, but to please you :)
@@FlorianBaumannoh, ich wusste dies nicht! Danke für dieses schöne Wort - es wird sicher mir helfen, wenn ich mich in Deutschland nach Currywürsten ein wenig hungrig fühle.
There is one word that actually MUST become a thing in English from French : papouilles. "Faire des papouilles" (to do papouilles) means to slowly and extremely gently graze someone's skin. It is a very sweet and affectionate gesture, that feels amazing for everyone involved. And anytime I grew close enough with a non French speaking person to do papouilles, they were surprised it was an actual thing that people can do, and that has a name. So everyone who doesn't know this word yet, take a page from the universal language of love, and do papouilles! (consensually of course)
11:43 In Bengali, we also have a similar distinction with three levels of formality for 'you' just like French has 'tu' and 'vous'. We use: তুই (tui): Very informal, like 'tu', used with close friends or younger people. তুমি (tumi): Polite, neutral, comparable to 'tu' in less formal situations but respectful. আপনি (apni): Formal, similar to 'vous', used with elders or in professional settings to show respect. It’s interesting how different languages express formality in similar ways!
In Québec, flâner is used to refered as hanging out, do nothing, sometimes in some prohibited place. For example, in my childhood school, there was an "interdit de flâner" near the passing of school buses
As a French, here are 5 words from English we need to steal: - Cheap (we can only say "non-expensive") 🔖 - Accountability (we can only say "the fact of taking one's own responsibilities") 🤷♀ - Challenging [a claim] (we can only say "to put back in question") φ - Supportive (we can only say "that plays a role of support") 🫂 - Badass (closest we have is "manly", so we just use English with French accent) 🕶
I'm french, recently living in the south of France. I would have bet Julie is from this part for the first word she said you probably even didn't notice. "Et" (and). "Et bonjour", "et salut", "et coucou"... (same meaning). It's very typical of the South. That's all, folks!
One of the problems I find in most language tutorials is that immediately teach "tutoyer" right off the bat. So, I have to spend extra time trying to find the formal you forms. As for "to know", we do have "to be acquainted" with someone/something, and "to know" meaning to have deep knowledge about something. Now we tend you use "acquainted" with people. However, I can remember my grandparents differentiating between the two - "Do you really know that or are you just acquainted with it?"
Flaner, flaneur. We Dutch have our own take on that too. Yes, we also got it from the french. But our take on it is "flaneren". Meaning to walk about the town (usually in places like boulevards, parks and promenades) to watch others but also to be seen! So, in your nicest get up, hiking togs, gaudy dress up.
"we've already stolen so many words from French" You mean we've been forced to use French words in English because of William's conquest and hundreds of years under the rule of French nobility. That's more like it.
Regarding the "si", you used to have it in English. If you're familiar with the four forms yes/yea/no/nay, the current "yes" is the old "yea" and the old "yes" would be the translation of "si".
There is an older (maybe old-fashioned) Dutch word "flaneren" that is derived from flâner. However, it means almost the opposite: to take a stroll with the only purpose of *being seen*. What you diid when you wanted to show off your fashionable outfit, basically.
this would'nt surprise me that it was perhaps the meaning of the original verb in French too, but the romantic and impressionnists periods changed things. I always thought it as something to do with "flanelle" wich is a kind of upper fabric (that's the idea). So basically : walking with no goal in your valuable clothes.
I had to fill in a form on-line recently where I had to tick yes or no to the question "Do you not have a mobile phone". I've still no idea which box I should have ticked.
One word that English should definitely steal from French is "Débrouillard" and its derivations (the verb débrouiller, and the noun débrouillardise). It can be translated "good problem solver" with added independence and self-reliance.
Here in Quebec we have the verb « magasiner » that derives from the English « to shop » and has no equivalent in European French. We can either « magasiner » or « faire du magasinage » to refer to shopping, window-shopping or to look for good deals. It is interesting to see that some regional expressions have no exact translation in the main or standard dialect.
J'adore ce mec! Non seulement je comprends tout ce qu'il dit, ce qui n'est pas peu dire! Son niveau de langue est séduisant, son accent british m'enrobe, je veux parler anglais, si, mais comme lui. Je comprends, grâce à lui, maintenant, le sens de THOU et de THEE qui m'échappait depuis toujours. Merci Rob, merci beaucoup!
And I am pleased he referenced the quakers as using thee and thought. We have many Amish colonies across America that use these pronouns as well as Pennsylvania dutch.
Connaitre - To be familiar with. Makes it a little easier to explain to an English speaker in that way. So we do differentiate the types of knowledge in English, but "to know" is still used for both. We don't have a singular word for specifically having knowledge of a fact. So, arguably, that's the word we need. Not connaitre. But savoir. So bringing back "savvy" to popular use sounds like the best idea.
I live in New Brunswick, a province in Canada. We are officially bilingual….English & French. Lots of our words migrate to each other’s languages so you will find French sprinkled into English and vice versa. I love these French words and I am going to use them…..especially goûter and goumandise!
this is PERFECT for my fantasy novel. one of the things i want to do to distinguish between different people groups is to have some people use more ‘norman’ and latinate features of english, and others use more of ‘anglish’ side of english
I also like Tutoyer to reference being in “first name basis” with people. Particularly with children. Here in America, at least there’s been an increase in the last decade or so to address young adults put in a position of supervision as “Mr./Ms. First name.” A good example is your child’s summer camp counselor. But, depending on how familiar you are with them, you might eventually just call them by their first name without the Mr./Ms. Essentially Tutoying them.
10:37 I've always had trouble with this one, took me a while to realize as a child that yes or no essentially have no real meaning when answering negative questions, like "You didn't do your homework did you?", "No". To me, obviously, that means I did my homework, because "didn't" do my homework is false. So I did. Eventually I came to the realization that I just need to be extremely explicit and verbose, but I can never feel confident that people will understand me, because the words used to verify understanding can mean whatever the listener or speaker expect them or want them to mean...
Hey Rob! I like how you treat other languages without envy or disrespect but with pure interest and dedication. When I saw "chez" and your 4 letter-to-4-words comparison (being Swiss) I though "wait a minute, in German we use 'zu' in the same sense, so we may beat the French by 2 letters? ;)
Thanks for another language "lesson". Always interesting and nicely presented. When you start letter counting for chez.... thousands of french words have numerous letters and you pronounce only half of them! So don't be exited for this one exception 😆😆😆. Just look into an international manual. Half of the pages is in french, less pages in english and a couple of pages in german. With the same contend but usually more confusing in french than helpful 😆. Mean comment from a German living in France.
You probably know that but we also use plural you(εσείς) in greek to be polite and singular you (εσύ) when we aren't talking formally. When we want someone to address us formally we say "talk to me in plural" and 'talk to me in singular " when we don't want formalities and we have a closer relationship 😊
'Gourmandise' is already a word in English, according to the American Heritage and Collins English dictionaries anyway. It's also a life-stealing necromancer skill in Guild Wars 2 - who ever said games can't teach you stuff? :D
you said gourmandise and I couldn't help myself, I yelled at my monitor 'gourmandise nuts!!' and the way I cackled at my own joke tells me this word will not survive in English in 2024.
Au contraire regarding “chez.” At least in British English you say “To yours.” Chez = “to” in this construction. “To Rob’s” also works. Just need to make the second word a possessive.
For the do/make thing, in french there's "fabriquer". Sure, for a cake it would be weird, but for most "manual" things it works. You can fabriquer a clock or a toy, for example. It's roughly like "to manufacture"
Old English used to have the connaitre/savoir distinction with cunnan/wittan. 'Know' evolved from a third word that kind of did double duty for both senses.
"Bouquiner" is to reading what "flâner" is to walking. Also, we use the verb "dépayser" in the legal vocabulary when a case is removed from a court and transferred to another jurisdiction in order to ensure the impartiality of the court.
"Stole so many words from Ftench"? Hilarious. The Franco Normans invaded, conquered and colonized England in 1066. In doing so, the Franco Normans subjugated the Germanic tribes, the Angles and the Saxons along with Viking dynasties that had ruled England for almost 800 years. The English language is a hybrid of French, German, High North/Baltic Scandinavian languages. The Magna Carta was written in French. England's royal courts and legal system were conducted in French up to 14th century. The French language adorns the cover of the British passport. English didn't "steal words" from French, modern English evolved from the fusion of the three aforementioned languages. BTW, great video as usual.
"English doesn't borrow from other languages. It follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them down, and goes through their pockets for loose grammar" - text on one of my favorite t-shirts.
Dutch already did borrow 'flaneren', in the sense of 'walking around slowly for pleasure', although there are some alternative words for it, like 'slenteren' and 'lanterfanten'.
As a native French speaker, I really want English to steal "justement". It's so impossible to translate in English, so difficult to explain, yet so useful, it drives me insane. I think the best way I could explain it is, "justement" is to "exactement" (exactly) what "but" is to "and", in the sense that both "and" and "but" add two pieces of information together, but "but" adds this idea that the second piece goes against the first in some way. "Justement" is a way to confirm what someone just said, but while disagreeing with an assumption or a premise behind what they just said, or a conclusion that person is deriving from what they just said. It's kind of like saying "Yes, that is true, but that's why you're wrong". In a non-rude way, that is. It can also be, without necessarily disagreeing with what's being said, a way to agree with someone while adding information they are not aware of that might change their implied conclusion. Examples: "Well, it wouldn't have happened if you sent that e-mail before it was too late." "Justement, I did it a day before the limit." (Here, I agree with the logical implication that it would have happened if I didn't send it on time, and I agree that it shouldn't have happened if I sent it in time, but I disagree with the assumption that I didn't do it in time) "These plants are going to die without shade." "Justement, that's why I bought that roof-thing on Amazon. It should arrive in a few days." (Here, I'm agreeing with the general fact, but I'm adding extra information to explain why the possible implied conclusion that they will die won't happen; in this case, my interlocutor might even be aware of the purchase, but didn't connect the dots) You CAN express those things in English, individually, but English lacks a multi-purpose word that works exactly like "justement", and the formulations you could use in English to translate "justement" are also sometimes (or often) used in ways where they don't match with the uses of "justement", and that's what drives me crazy with this. In the second example, you could formulate "That's exactly why [...]", but in other contexts, "exactly" can be used in ways that would be translated as "exactement" rather than "justement" (including in similar grammatical contexts), cases where you just fully agree without really adding information unknown to your conversation partner. In the first example, you could say something like "But that's the thing", but it's more like an expression you use in a very specific context, an expression where the individual words have their own meaning and, even in this arrangement, the whole thing could mean something else in another context, and it's all very different from just having a single unambiguous word like "justement". Maybe I'm missing something very obvious that would work in English, feel free to tell me.
As an Aussie living in Mindanao Philippines and married to a Filipina grandmother you could say that I understand "depaysment", Rob, but in the positive sense. Pronouns in Cebuano, which we speak here, come in "inclusive" and "exclusive" forms. For example, when speaking to my wife about our house, I will say "atong balay". If however I'm talking to someone else, I'll say "among balay". It's not like formal and informal, but it has the same effect.
"Voilà" is one of the most untranslatable French word because it has many different meanings according to the context and the intonation. J'ai perdu mon chapeau. Le voilà → I've lost my hat. Here it is. Voilà Pierre qui arrive → Here comes Peter. Je signe le document... et voilà ! → I sign the document and we are done! Voilà comment on dessine un chat → This is how you draw a cat. Voilà qui est exagéré → Now that's exaggerated. Et voilà ! → Here you are or I rest my case or what needed to be demonstrated (depending on the context) And so on....
As an American living in France and working with students, I constantly get invited to McDonald's. I find it weird that they don't call say "chez Macdo" but "au Macdo". It's like McDonald's is a noun 😅
As a french speaking person, or a francophone (which mean french speaking person in french), we do have a word for making something : fabriquer. I don't know why we don't use it though, you could say "Je fabrique un gateau" (I make a cake)but it's weird so we just say "Je fait un gateau" (I do a cake).
Hi Rob, Actually the difference between "connaitre" and "savoir" is not really about the type of knowledge, but it is grammatical. For instance, if I go to the doctor and they ask me if I know my blood type, I can answer: - "je sais quel est mon groupe sanguin" - "je connais mon groupe sanguin" As you can see, it is exactly the same information, but the first one is a complete proposition (it also works with an infinitive verb) whereas the second one is a noun. PS : it is sometimes possible to use "savoir" with a noun but it usually sounds weird or old-fashioned.
Spanish also has two words for know, saber and conocer. The way my Spanish teacher explained it was one meant I know your sister (who she is, etc.) and the other is I know (wiggles eyebrows up and down) sister, in the biblical sense.
Wow! Now l understand the running gag in the Inspector Cluseau cartoon when the Spanish sidekick would correct himself after saying, "Si, l mean wi." When the Spanish Si means yes and the French Si means in no way. 😂 Seems strange to get a joke from a kids cartoon 50 years later.
Instead of French “connais”, how about the Danish “kende”? You have lots of borrowed Danish or Norse words as well - and you already have the Scottish “ken” 😊
2:04 "re" is very often used in vocal calls, at least on the internet. It's used when you have to leave your desk, even for only a minute, to indicate that you are back. For example : You're in a discord call and you have to go to the bathroom, so you say "Je reviens" (or even "Je re" for maximum efficiency) and when you're back, you say "Re !"
It cannot be overstated how impactful this word is. In English you can translate it just fine, but it require a full sentence, changing with the context. Yes, it is! Yes, you did! Yes, it really happened! Yes, I will! It's a lot of power in one single syllable :)
"re" as a returning greeting has been in common use in chat networks since the 90s.. i find it rather funny that it took three decades to enter colloquial language.
In Dutch the French verb "tutoyer" is used by making it sound Dutch. It becomes "tutoyeren". In English something similar could be done with a verb like "tutoyate". Also, Flaneren too is a good Dutch word.
Delpaysment has a close equivalent in English - displacement. Displacement means a movement of objects or feelings, but we can expand it to mean a feeling of being displaced geographically.
Japanese has the politeness with "you" as well. There are a few ways and they all have different implications (君、貴方、お前, etc) and what makes it more complex is that most people use names over "you" in Japanese and even moreso we basically skip pronouns in most cases.
Regarding "depaysement": I'd say its meaning is either neutral or positive, but not negative. For negative use, we have "le mal du pays" which is the equivalent of "homesickness".
I also like Tutoyer to reference being in “first name basis” with people. Particularly with children. Here in America, at least there’s been an increase in the last decade or so to address young adults put in a position of supervision as “Mr./Ms. First name.” These are you summer camp counselors. But, depending on how familiar you are with them, you might eventually just call them by their first name without the Mr./Ms. Essentially Tutoying them.
#1 reminds me of Catalan "lletraferit" (literally letter-struck or letter-smitten). It describes the passion for literature, reading, writing... Anything book related. It doesn't have the negative connotations of bookworm, quite the opposite.
I honestly can’t think of a situation where dépaysement is used as a negative expression, it s not even really positive in itself, it just means noticing a remarkable change of surroundings/environment compared to the one you are used to or have already seen. The negative expression is “avoir le mal du pays” which literally means “being home sick”. Dépaysement in and of itself is pretty neutral, unless you really really really love your place, and you say the word with a hint of sarcasm, maybe.
About rebonjour. My dad was an immigrant to Sweden, where I live. And he had a bit of a problem with Swedish people always greeting him again, during the day. To him, it was like "what, doesn't he remember having met me already today?" A rebonjour, or "hello again", would have been nice.
As an anglo-Canadian, I enjoyed this as someone with an objective but intimate view of French. I especially love "connaitre" and always thought that was a beautiful distinction. "Rebonjour" is a dud; francophones here prefer "salut" as a much cooler greeting and people who use "bonjour" are seen as nerd-like and quickly identified as non-native French speakers.
In Dutch, for to know someone you can only use the verb 'kennen'. The other word for knowing facts is 'weten'. There is also 'kunnen', indicating to know how to do something, or to indicate that something is possible, which is often switched out with kennen. "Ken het dat ik u kan?" "Chez" is probably originally a word that meant home, so 'chez Jean' would have been 'at the home of John'. The 'at the' wore off. In Catalan there is 'ca' and 'can', the latter absorbing the 'en' often used when referring to someone by name "en Pau", and is a shortened form of 'mossen' if I am not mistaken.
Gourmandize, as a verb--to eat, usually overeat, and enjoy it--is common enough. Chez...Well, I's say something like "I'm going to John's," or, "I'm coming to you." Tutoyer--I remember seeing in something from an earlier century (17th? 16th? Not sure). A remonstrance, something like, "Do not thou me. We are not such good friends."
I think a good one would be "grace". It means "thanks to" but in french it's used as a positive "because". Because is usually translated as "à cause de" (kind of long, I guess the french could take that one...) as it implies it is the result of something but usually is neutral or negative (shifting the blame). "Grace" is only positive. For example: I am here because of him. Je suis ici grâce à lui (I am here thanks to him). Je suis ici à cause de lui (I'm here because he forced me to). It's a common little word that would be a nice addition as a positive "because"
About number 6. Dutch also does this with "wel". But "wel" is used as the opposite of "not" (niet) as well. Italian "sì" is also used as the opposite of "not", however I am not entirely sure in how many different situations you can use it like that. It seems to be used slightly less often that Dutch "wel".
Tutoyer is a word that we have in Spanish: tutear. I think there's no word when deciding to use "usted", but maybe because the norm in Spain is, although this is being followed less and less, to use "usted" with someone that you meet for the first time or that you don't have a close relationship. "tú" is the informal form, so we can say in Spanish "¿Te puedo tutear?" to a person in order to have a more informal conversation. Quite interesting indeed. And dépaysement in Spanish is described with the Galician word "morriña"
With reference to rebonjour we do have a single word that works it’s a mash up of are you all right. Roughly “Aryallri” “yallri”. It’s easily understood as a greeting or second greeting virtually everywhere in England, Scotland has a preference for the first of the two detailed
I don't think English actually needs ''connaître'', because there already exists a word that could serve the same purpose. ''(to) ken'', which is mainly used in Scotland, is cognate to German ''kennen'' and would therefore work as a way of saying ''to be familiar with something''.
Welsh also has formal and informal words for you (ti/chdi = informal, chi = formal). Except chi is also the second person plural. So that can be a bit confusing! There's a good untranslatable word in Welsh, hiraeth. It's a deep yearning for something, usually home/Wales, sort of a bit like homesickness, but but with added pull. It's also the "pull" that brings people home (usually Wales), often in people who've never actually been to Wales but have Welsh parents or grandparents or the like who sort of nurture a love of Wales in their relative. It can also be a yearning for the familiar, but I've not really heard it in that context.
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Give me your untranslatable words from 🇫🇷French or any other language! And grab your discounted language lessons with Lingoda using my link ➡ try.lingoda.com/RobWords25 or code ROBWORDS25 for $25, €20 or £15 off Flex, Sprint and Teams courses.
But what if, I’m poor
@@ThymeHeresame
Up-vote for boquiner!
I am retired in a Spanish speaking country. Conocer vs. Saber, yes we do need two words for the verb "to know." And I agree forv word for the singular YOU. We could make "y'all" for plural you, but that really would be "all y'all" and that is cumbersome. Do work on that for us, Rob.
I love "amuse bouche." So much more interesting than "appetizer."
RobWords taking his name very seriously
Haha
Sharp.
Was just about to remark the same thing, indeed
Nominative determinism at its finest
Just like how a British would do. How predictable imo.
I recall hearing that in older forms of English "Yay" and "nay" filled that infirmative role
I was thinking that as well
I think you mean "yea"
In the Midwest we have either
No, yeah
or
Yeah, no
I spent a few years in France. It greatly enhanced my English vocabulary.
you certainly have a penchant for finding these words!
👏
Hi
@@RobWords You also have a penchant for our French language.
Just don't be shy, and take a 3-weeks vacation in our beautiful country. Like the South-West of France, you would like it, half of England's retirees are already there, anyway. 😉
When did you start watching RobWords?
Chapeau (to which you could say “touché”)
By the way, "la gourmandise" is the enjoyment of good food, but "une gourmandise" is the thing you eat for the sake of gourmandise: a delicate and delicious piece of food, an off-meal little treat like chocolate, a piece of cake or a sweet, something you eat not to feed you, but to please you :)
We call it Schlemmerei in German
@@FlorianBaumann Yep, also meaning the same two things, too :)
@@FlorianBaumannoh, ich wusste dies nicht! Danke für dieses schöne Wort - es wird sicher mir helfen, wenn ich mich in Deutschland nach Currywürsten ein wenig hungrig fühle.
@@prenomnom2812 Es gibt auch das Verb "schlemmen", das bedeutet "to indulge"
«Off-meal» what a brilliant expession!👏
There is one word that actually MUST become a thing in English from French : papouilles. "Faire des papouilles" (to do papouilles) means to slowly and extremely gently graze someone's skin. It is a very sweet and affectionate gesture, that feels amazing for everyone involved. And anytime I grew close enough with a non French speaking person to do papouilles, they were surprised it was an actual thing that people can do, and that has a name. So everyone who doesn't know this word yet, take a page from the universal language of love, and do papouilles! (consensually of course)
11:43
In Bengali, we also have a similar distinction with three levels of formality for 'you' just like French has 'tu' and 'vous'. We use:
তুই (tui): Very informal, like 'tu', used with close friends or younger people.
তুমি (tumi): Polite, neutral, comparable to 'tu' in less formal situations but respectful.
আপনি (apni): Formal, similar to 'vous', used with elders or in professional settings to show respect.
It’s interesting how different languages express formality in similar ways!
In Québec, flâner is used to refered as hanging out, do nothing, sometimes in some prohibited place.
For example, in my childhood school, there was an "interdit de flâner" near the passing of school buses
I've been using "rehi" for "hello again" decades
In spoken English? Or primarily online?
As a French, here are 5 words from English we need to steal:
- Cheap (we can only say "non-expensive") 🔖
- Accountability (we can only say "the fact of taking one's own responsibilities") 🤷♀
- Challenging [a claim] (we can only say "to put back in question") φ
- Supportive (we can only say "that plays a role of support") 🫂
- Badass (closest we have is "manly", so we just use English with French accent) 🕶
For 'challenging' 'Spanish uses 'cuestionar' (to question) or calling something 'into question' it conveys exactly that.
Empowering and privacy as well. French does not really have concise equivalents for these two.
I'm french, recently living in the south of France. I would have bet Julie is from this part for the first word she said you probably even didn't notice. "Et" (and). "Et bonjour", "et salut", "et coucou"... (same meaning). It's very typical of the South.
That's all, folks!
La gourmandise Nuts ❤
THERE IT IS!
Got em!
We about to to litreally Rob Words
One of the problems I find in most language tutorials is that immediately teach "tutoyer" right off the bat. So, I have to spend extra time trying to find the formal you forms. As for "to know", we do have "to be acquainted" with someone/something, and "to know" meaning to have deep knowledge about something. Now we tend you use "acquainted" with people. However, I can remember my grandparents differentiating between the two - "Do you really know that or are you just acquainted with it?"
also to know of someone or something which implies knowing no more than it's existence
Flaner, flaneur. We Dutch have our own take on that too. Yes, we also got it from the french. But our take on it is "flaneren". Meaning to walk about the town (usually in places like boulevards, parks and promenades) to watch others but also to be seen! So, in your nicest get up, hiking togs, gaudy dress up.
"we've already stolen so many words from French"
You mean we've been forced to use French words in English because of William's conquest and hundreds of years under the rule of French nobility. That's more like it.
Regarding the "si", you used to have it in English. If you're familiar with the four forms yes/yea/no/nay, the current "yes" is the old "yea" and the old "yes" would be the translation of "si".
Okay, I'm only 3 words in and I'm now convinced that if the english and french ever merged their cultures we would finally have hobbits on earth. :D
Avec pleasure
There is an older (maybe old-fashioned) Dutch word "flaneren" that is derived from flâner. However, it means almost the opposite: to take a stroll with the only purpose of *being seen*. What you diid when you wanted to show off your fashionable outfit, basically.
this would'nt surprise me that it was perhaps the meaning of the original verb in French too, but the romantic and impressionnists periods changed things. I always thought it as something to do with "flanelle" wich is a kind of upper fabric (that's the idea). So basically : walking with no goal in your valuable clothes.
I had to fill in a form on-line recently where I had to tick yes or no to the question "Do you not have a mobile phone". I've still no idea which box I should have ticked.
One word that English should definitely steal from French is "Débrouillard" and its derivations (the verb débrouiller, and the noun débrouillardise). It can be translated "good problem solver" with added independence and self-reliance.
Here in Quebec we have the verb « magasiner » that derives from the English « to shop » and has no equivalent in European French. We can either « magasiner » or « faire du magasinage » to refer to shopping, window-shopping or to look for good deals. It is interesting to see that some regional expressions have no exact translation in the main or standard dialect.
J'adore ce mec! Non seulement je comprends tout ce qu'il dit, ce qui n'est pas peu dire! Son niveau de langue est séduisant, son accent british m'enrobe, je veux parler anglais, si, mais comme lui. Je comprends, grâce à lui, maintenant, le sens de THOU et de THEE qui m'échappait depuis toujours. Merci Rob, merci beaucoup!
And I am pleased he referenced the quakers as using thee and thought. We have many Amish colonies across America that use these pronouns as well as Pennsylvania dutch.
Connaitre - To be familiar with. Makes it a little easier to explain to an English speaker in that way. So we do differentiate the types of knowledge in English, but "to know" is still used for both. We don't have a singular word for specifically having knowledge of a fact. So, arguably, that's the word we need. Not connaitre. But savoir. So bringing back "savvy" to popular use sounds like the best idea.
I'd argue that savvy is already in common use.
I live in New Brunswick, a province in Canada. We are officially bilingual….English & French. Lots of our words migrate to each other’s languages so you will find French sprinkled into English and vice versa. I love these French words and I am going to use them…..especially goûter and goumandise!
this is PERFECT for my fantasy novel. one of the things i want to do to distinguish between different people groups is to have some people use more ‘norman’ and latinate features of english, and others use more of ‘anglish’ side of english
I also like Tutoyer to reference being in “first name basis” with people.
Particularly with children. Here in America, at least there’s been an increase in the last decade or so to address young adults put in a position of supervision as “Mr./Ms. First name.” A good example is your child’s summer camp counselor. But, depending on how familiar you are with them, you might eventually just call them by their first name without the Mr./Ms. Essentially Tutoying them.
+1 for the colored croissant timer in the corner.
10:37 I've always had trouble with this one, took me a while to realize as a child that yes or no essentially have no real meaning when answering negative questions, like "You didn't do your homework did you?", "No". To me, obviously, that means I did my homework, because "didn't" do my homework is false. So I did. Eventually I came to the realization that I just need to be extremely explicit and verbose, but I can never feel confident that people will understand me, because the words used to verify understanding can mean whatever the listener or speaker expect them or want them to mean...
Hey Rob! I like how you treat other languages without envy or disrespect but with pure interest and dedication. When I saw "chez" and your 4 letter-to-4-words comparison (being Swiss) I though "wait a minute, in German we use 'zu' in the same sense, so we may beat the French by 2 letters? ;)
Thanks for another language "lesson". Always interesting and nicely presented. When you start letter counting for chez.... thousands of french words have numerous letters and you pronounce only half of them! So don't be exited for this one exception 😆😆😆. Just look into an international manual. Half of the pages is in french, less pages in english and a couple of pages in german. With the same contend but usually more confusing in french than helpful 😆. Mean comment from a German living in France.
You probably know that but we also use plural you(εσείς) in greek to be polite and singular you (εσύ) when we aren't talking formally. When we want someone to address us formally we say "talk to me in plural" and 'talk to me in singular " when we don't want formalities and we have a closer relationship 😊
'Gourmandise' is already a word in English, according to the American Heritage and Collins English dictionaries anyway. It's also a life-stealing necromancer skill in Guild Wars 2 - who ever said games can't teach you stuff? :D
I never realised the difference between savoir and connaître. Thank you so much
Wow! I'm so early the Duke of Normandy hasn't invaded England yet. I love your channel Rob, it's a great teaching tool for ESL students like me.
We thout thee
I frequently use the term "cognizant" to express the type of knowledge I am speaking of.
you said gourmandise and I couldn't help myself, I yelled at my monitor 'gourmandise nuts!!' and the way I cackled at my own joke tells me this word will not survive in English in 2024.
A Danish friend explained to me that Danish has the 2 forms of yes too. I believe "Ja" is the affirmative and "Jo" is the one for negating sentences.
We have them both in Swedish as well.
Au contraire regarding “chez.” At least in British English you say “To yours.” Chez = “to” in this construction. “To Rob’s” also works. Just need to make the second word a possessive.
I know the French "si", but I've never heard a French person say "si". I've only heard them say "si si si si si" 😅
For the do/make thing, in french there's "fabriquer". Sure, for a cake it would be weird, but for most "manual" things it works. You can fabriquer a clock or a toy, for example. It's roughly like "to manufacture"
Old English used to have the connaitre/savoir distinction with cunnan/wittan. 'Know' evolved from a third word that kind of did double duty for both senses.
"Bouquiner" is to reading what "flâner" is to walking. Also, we use the verb "dépayser" in the legal vocabulary when a case is removed from a court and transferred to another jurisdiction in order to ensure the impartiality of the court.
"Stole so many words from Ftench"? Hilarious. The Franco Normans invaded, conquered and colonized England in 1066. In doing so, the Franco Normans subjugated the Germanic tribes, the Angles and the Saxons along with Viking dynasties that had ruled England for almost 800 years. The English language is a hybrid of French, German, High North/Baltic Scandinavian languages. The Magna Carta was written in French. England's royal courts and legal system were conducted in French up to 14th century. The French language adorns the cover of the British passport. English didn't "steal words" from French, modern English evolved from the fusion of the three aforementioned languages. BTW, great video as usual.
"English doesn't borrow from other languages. It follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them down, and goes through their pockets for loose grammar" - text on one of my favorite t-shirts.
Dutch already did borrow 'flaneren', in the sense of 'walking around slowly for pleasure', although there are some alternative words for it, like 'slenteren' and 'lanterfanten'.
Rob, instead of Si, in the Midwest U.S. we use "yeah, no" and "no, yeah". To reject what was said and affirm the opposite
I'm currently, albeit slowly, studying French. "Chez" really is a struggle for me at times.
We don't have re-hello because it is simply a silly concept...
My family has long since adopted the German word "Doch" as an "infirmative". I hadn't heard the linguistic term before but I feel the richer for it.
Gourmandises is the first album of Alizée, the most famous and loved French pop artist in the world.
Love these insights. But we have 'tiffin' for afternoon tea and cake.
As a native French speaker, I really want English to steal "justement". It's so impossible to translate in English, so difficult to explain, yet so useful, it drives me insane.
I think the best way I could explain it is, "justement" is to "exactement" (exactly) what "but" is to "and", in the sense that both "and" and "but" add two pieces of information together, but "but" adds this idea that the second piece goes against the first in some way. "Justement" is a way to confirm what someone just said, but while disagreeing with an assumption or a premise behind what they just said, or a conclusion that person is deriving from what they just said. It's kind of like saying "Yes, that is true, but that's why you're wrong". In a non-rude way, that is. It can also be, without necessarily disagreeing with what's being said, a way to agree with someone while adding information they are not aware of that might change their implied conclusion.
Examples:
"Well, it wouldn't have happened if you sent that e-mail before it was too late."
"Justement, I did it a day before the limit." (Here, I agree with the logical implication that it would have happened if I didn't send it on time, and I agree that it shouldn't have happened if I sent it in time, but I disagree with the assumption that I didn't do it in time)
"These plants are going to die without shade."
"Justement, that's why I bought that roof-thing on Amazon. It should arrive in a few days." (Here, I'm agreeing with the general fact, but I'm adding extra information to explain why the possible implied conclusion that they will die won't happen; in this case, my interlocutor might even be aware of the purchase, but didn't connect the dots)
You CAN express those things in English, individually, but English lacks a multi-purpose word that works exactly like "justement", and the formulations you could use in English to translate "justement" are also sometimes (or often) used in ways where they don't match with the uses of "justement", and that's what drives me crazy with this. In the second example, you could formulate "That's exactly why [...]", but in other contexts, "exactly" can be used in ways that would be translated as "exactement" rather than "justement" (including in similar grammatical contexts), cases where you just fully agree without really adding information unknown to your conversation partner. In the first example, you could say something like "But that's the thing", but it's more like an expression you use in a very specific context, an expression where the individual words have their own meaning and, even in this arrangement, the whole thing could mean something else in another context, and it's all very different from just having a single unambiguous word like "justement".
Maybe I'm missing something very obvious that would work in English, feel free to tell me.
As an Aussie living in Mindanao Philippines and married to a Filipina grandmother you could say that I understand "depaysment", Rob, but in the positive sense. Pronouns in Cebuano, which we speak here, come in "inclusive" and "exclusive" forms. For example, when speaking to my wife about our house, I will say "atong balay". If however I'm talking to someone else, I'll say "among balay". It's not like formal and informal, but it has the same effect.
"Voilà" is one of the most untranslatable French word because it has many different meanings according to the context and the intonation.
J'ai perdu mon chapeau. Le voilà → I've lost my hat. Here it is.
Voilà Pierre qui arrive → Here comes Peter.
Je signe le document... et voilà ! → I sign the document and we are done!
Voilà comment on dessine un chat → This is how you draw a cat.
Voilà qui est exagéré → Now that's exaggerated.
Et voilà ! → Here you are or I rest my case or what needed to be demonstrated (depending on the context)
And so on....
As an American living in France and working with students, I constantly get invited to McDonald's. I find it weird that they don't call say "chez Macdo" but "au Macdo". It's like McDonald's is a noun 😅
"... not 'to chez vous'"
Kinda expected Rob to turn bright red here.
As a french speaking person, or a francophone (which mean french speaking person in french), we do have a word for making something : fabriquer. I don't know why we don't use it though, you could say "Je fabrique un gateau" (I make a cake)but it's weird so we just say "Je fait un gateau" (I do a cake).
I hate that "savoir" and "connaître" exist, but I agree with most of your other recommendations
In downtown Toronto there is coffee shop called “Chez What”
Hi Rob,
Actually the difference between "connaitre" and "savoir" is not really about the type of knowledge, but it is grammatical.
For instance, if I go to the doctor and they ask me if I know my blood type, I can answer:
- "je sais quel est mon groupe sanguin"
- "je connais mon groupe sanguin"
As you can see, it is exactly the same information, but the first one is a complete proposition (it also works with an infinitive verb) whereas the second one is a noun.
PS : it is sometimes possible to use "savoir" with a noun but it usually sounds weird or old-fashioned.
Great stuff Rob. Enjoyed that, thank you.
Re: la gourmandise. There is a verb "gourmander" that you would think is linked to some sweet food. Nope, it just means to chastise, to chide someone.
Spanish also has two words for know, saber and conocer. The way my Spanish teacher explained it was one meant I know your sister (who she is, etc.) and the other is I know (wiggles eyebrows up and down) sister, in the biblical sense.
In french "connaitre" is also used in a biblical sense... So it has two meanings...
Wow! Now l understand the running gag in the Inspector Cluseau cartoon when the Spanish sidekick would correct himself after saying, "Si, l mean wi."
When the Spanish Si means yes and the French Si means in no way. 😂
Seems strange to get a joke from a kids cartoon 50 years later.
If 'rebonjour' can become 're', then 'hello again' should become 'hell'
We could make "Hi" the equivalent of "rebonjour" in English.
Instead of French “connais”, how about the Danish “kende”? You have lots of borrowed Danish or Norse words as well - and you already have the Scottish “ken” 😊
There are also the germans "kennen" and "wissen". But it might sound more prestigious in french :)
3:24 the smirk there got me😂
😏
2:04 "re" is very often used in vocal calls, at least on the internet. It's used when you have to leave your desk, even for only a minute, to indicate that you are back.
For example : You're in a discord call and you have to go to the bathroom, so you say "Je reviens" (or even "Je re" for maximum efficiency) and when you're back, you say "Re !"
As a German living in England “si” (or “doch” in German) was a word I really missed.
It cannot be overstated how impactful this word is. In English you can translate it just fine, but it require a full sentence, changing with the context.
Yes, it is!
Yes, you did!
Yes, it really happened!
Yes, I will!
It's a lot of power in one single syllable :)
6:56 "im going to rob's"... we need 1 Word + Suffix
"re" as a returning greeting has been in common use in chat networks since the 90s.. i find it rather funny that it took three decades to enter colloquial language.
14:23 tutoyance - annoyance at being tutoyed
Instead of adopting cognise (ew) or stealng connaitre, we just need to resurrect ken.
In Dutch the French verb "tutoyer" is used by making it sound Dutch. It becomes "tutoyeren".
In English something similar could be done with a verb like "tutoyate".
Also, Flaneren too is a good Dutch word.
Delpaysment has a close equivalent in English - displacement. Displacement means a movement of objects or feelings, but we can expand it to mean a feeling of being displaced geographically.
Japanese has the politeness with "you" as well. There are a few ways and they all have different implications (君、貴方、お前, etc) and what makes it more complex is that most people use names over "you" in Japanese and even moreso we basically skip pronouns in most cases.
Regarding "depaysement": I'd say its meaning is either neutral or positive, but not negative. For negative use, we have "le mal du pays" which is the equivalent of "homesickness".
I also like Tutoyer to reference being in “first name basis” with people.
Particularly with children. Here in America, at least there’s been an increase in the last decade or so to address young adults put in a position of supervision as “Mr./Ms. First name.” These are you summer camp counselors. But, depending on how familiar you are with them, you might eventually just call them by their first name without the Mr./Ms. Essentially Tutoying them.
#1 reminds me of Catalan "lletraferit" (literally letter-struck or letter-smitten). It describes the passion for literature, reading, writing... Anything book related. It doesn't have the negative connotations of bookworm, quite the opposite.
I honestly can’t think of a situation where dépaysement is used as a negative expression, it s not even really positive in itself, it just means noticing a remarkable change of surroundings/environment compared to the one you are used to or have already seen.
The negative expression is “avoir le mal du pays” which literally means “being home sick”.
Dépaysement in and of itself is pretty neutral, unless you really really really love your place, and you say the word with a hint of sarcasm, maybe.
About rebonjour. My dad was an immigrant to Sweden, where I live. And he had a bit of a problem with Swedish people always greeting him again, during the day. To him, it was like "what, doesn't he remember having met me already today?" A rebonjour, or "hello again", would have been nice.
As an anglo-Canadian, I enjoyed this as someone with an objective but intimate view of French. I especially love "connaitre" and always thought that was a beautiful distinction. "Rebonjour" is a dud; francophones here prefer "salut" as a much cooler greeting and people who use "bonjour" are seen as nerd-like and quickly identified as non-native French speakers.
In Dutch, for to know someone you can only use the verb 'kennen'. The other word for knowing facts is 'weten'. There is also 'kunnen', indicating to know how to do something, or to indicate that something is possible, which is often switched out with kennen. "Ken het dat ik u kan?"
"Chez" is probably originally a word that meant home, so 'chez Jean' would have been 'at the home of John'. The 'at the' wore off. In Catalan there is 'ca' and 'can', the latter absorbing the 'en' often used when referring to someone by name "en Pau", and is a shortened form of 'mossen' if I am not mistaken.
Gourmandize, as a verb--to eat, usually overeat, and enjoy it--is common enough.
Chez...Well, I's say something like "I'm going to John's," or, "I'm coming to you."
Tutoyer--I remember seeing in something from an earlier century (17th? 16th? Not sure). A remonstrance, something like, "Do not thou me. We are not such good friends."
So the 'si' seems like a very strong oui!
flowering. I'm waking around the city enjoying it all.
Person: what are you doing?
Me: I'm flânering.
One of the best from a mightily marvellous TH-camr! I'm going to rebonjour this episode later as I'll have more time.
“I’ve got to stop undressing during videos” has got to be the best out of context RobWords quote so far 😂
In the old days of internet chat on IRC, “rehi” was a common greeting for someone reentering the channel.
I'm now really interested in the words we have in English that other languages don't have. And not just neologisms.
I think a good one would be "grace". It means "thanks to" but in french it's used as a positive "because". Because is usually translated as "à cause de" (kind of long, I guess the french could take that one...) as it implies it is the result of something but usually is neutral or negative (shifting the blame). "Grace" is only positive. For example: I am here because of him.
Je suis ici grâce à lui (I am here thanks to him).
Je suis ici à cause de lui (I'm here because he forced me to).
It's a common little word that would be a nice addition as a positive "because"
Yay! A new RobWords!
About number 6. Dutch also does this with "wel". But "wel" is used as the opposite of "not" (niet) as well. Italian "sì" is also used as the opposite of "not", however I am not entirely sure in how many different situations you can use it like that. It seems to be used slightly less often that Dutch "wel".
You should steal the verb "bifler" too, it will be a great add to the english vocabulary...
Tutoyer is a word that we have in Spanish: tutear. I think there's no word when deciding to use "usted", but maybe because the norm in Spain is, although this is being followed less and less, to use "usted" with someone that you meet for the first time or that you don't have a close relationship. "tú" is the informal form, so we can say in Spanish "¿Te puedo tutear?" to a person in order to have a more informal conversation. Quite interesting indeed. And dépaysement in Spanish is described with the Galician word "morriña"
9 - we have guilty pleasures though? which is said more tongue in cheek as they are guilt free.
With reference to rebonjour we do have a single word that works it’s a mash up of are you all right. Roughly “Aryallri” “yallri”. It’s easily understood as a greeting or second greeting virtually everywhere in England, Scotland has a preference for the first of the two detailed
I don't think English actually needs ''connaître'', because there already exists a word that could serve the same purpose. ''(to) ken'', which is mainly used in Scotland, is cognate to German ''kennen'' and would therefore work as a way of saying ''to be familiar with something''.
Yep, I agree with this.
Welsh also has formal and informal words for you (ti/chdi = informal, chi = formal). Except chi is also the second person plural. So that can be a bit confusing!
There's a good untranslatable word in Welsh, hiraeth. It's a deep yearning for something, usually home/Wales, sort of a bit like homesickness, but but with added pull. It's also the "pull" that brings people home (usually Wales), often in people who've never actually been to Wales but have Welsh parents or grandparents or the like who sort of nurture a love of Wales in their relative.
It can also be a yearning for the familiar, but I've not really heard it in that context.