French Anglicisms

We are so used to hearing about all the French words that are found in English and about how purist the French are about their language, that we don't realize how many English words have migrated into French.

You'll be astonished by how many English words are used in French. French is inundated with them Swamped with them Most are native English words, but surprisingly, some were originally French words which moved into English long ago, evolved a different meaning, and then moved back to French with the new meaning as anglicismes.

English words aren't always taken into French with the same spelling and usage as they have in our language. For example, you'll encounter le week-end, which has gained a hyphen, and le warning which doesn't mean "the warning" in a general sense, but specifically means the emergency lights or flashers on a car.

Some words are specific to certain sports, like l'uppercut or le football, or to other activities, such as playing bridge, while other words which are general in English have only limited meanings in French. An example is le slice, which only refers to golf and tennis, and not to a slice of melon, for instance.

Some words are so well integrated into French that the average Frenchman wouldn't be aware that they are words of English origin. At the other extreme are words that that same Frenchman would recognize immediately as English words even though he uses them without reflection (much as we would say ravioli and pizza are Italian words, or taco and tamale are Mexican Spanish words).

All these words will be marked as anglicisme or mot anglais in a French dictionary like Le Petit Robert, and the use of some of them would be frowned on in formal speech or writing, but many are very widely used in normal casual speech. You'll find it a fascinating book.

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