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Here are some examples of French words and phrases used by English speakers.
There are many words of French origin in English, such as art, collage, competition, force, machine, police, publicity, role, routine, table. Approximately 40% of English vocabulary is of French origin.. Here's an edited list of words in english withan unmistakably foreign and "French" feel.
- à la carte
- on the card; (in restaurants refers to ordering individual dishes rather than a fixed-price meal)
- à la mode
- fashionable; also, with ice cream (in the U.S.)
- adieu
- goodbye; as it literally means "to God," it carries more weight than "au revoir" (it is definitive, implying you will never see the other person again). Depending of the context, misuse of this term can be considered as an insult, as you'll wish for the other person's death or will say that you don't wish to see the other person ever again while alive.
- agent provocateur
- a police spy who infiltrates a group to disrupt or discredit it.
- aide-de-camp
- a military assistant
- apéritif
- a before-meal drink
- artiste
- a skilled performer, a person with artistic pretensions
- art nouveau
- a style of decoration and architecture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries (usually bears capitals in French : Art Nouveau)
- attaché
- a person attached to an embassy; in French is also the past participle of the verb attacher (=to fasten)
- au contraire
- to the contrary
- au courant
- up-to-date; abreast of current affairs
- au jus
- literally, with juice, referring to a food course served with sauce. Often redundantly formulated, as in 'Open-faced steak sandwich, served with au jus.' In modern French, although 'jus' can refer to juice produced by meat during cooking, se mettre au jus (to put oneself au jus) is also a colloquial expression used to call someone to try something (jump into water at a pool, try a new recipe. ..)
- au naturel
- nude; literally, it is the contraction of à le (same as à la) naturel (in a natural manner)
- au pair
- a young foreigner who does domestic chores in exchange for room and board
- au revoir!
- "See you soon!"; lit. Until the next sight. In French contraction of Au plaisir de vous revoir (=to the pleasure of seeing you again).
- auteur
- a filmmaker whose individual style and complete control over all elements of production give a film its personal and unique stamp
- avant-garde
- applied to cutting-edge or radically innovative movements in art, music and literature; figuratively "on the edge", literally, a military term, meaning "vanguard" (which is the deformation of avant-garde) or "advance guard", in other words, "first to attack" (plural avant-gardes; antonym of arrière-garde).
- ballet
- a type of dance
- beaucoup
- a lot of (slang, such as, "beaucoup bucks")
- belle
- a beautiful woman or girl. Common uses of this word are in the phrases the belle of the ball (the most beautiful woman or girl present at a function) and southern belle (a beautiful woman from the southern states of the US)
- bête noire
- a scary or unpopular person, idea, or thing, or the archetypical scary monster in a story; literally "black beast".
- blond/e
- this is not the only foreign word in everyday use in the English language that also differs in gender — 'blond' is masculine, 'blonde' is feminine.
- bon appétit!
- enjoy your meal; literally "good appetite". There is no native equivalent English phrase.
- bonjour
- hello, used to express a greeting; literally "good day".
- bon voyage!
- have a good trip!
- brunette
- a brown-haired girl. For brown-haired boy or man, French uses brun and for a woman brune
- bureau
- office (British English plural bureaux; American English plural bureaus)
- cachet
- a distinctive quality
- café
- a coffee shop;
- café au lait
- coffee with milk; or a light-brown color
- carte blanche
- unlimited authority; literally "white card" (i.e. blank check)
- cause célèbre
- a controversial issue, such as a legal case, which divides public opinion
- c'est la guerre!
- "That's War!"; or "Such is war!" It is sometimes used as an expression to say that war is harsh but that one must accept it.
- c'est la mode.
- "Such is fashion"
- c'est la vie!
- "That's life!"; or "Such is life!" It is sometimes used as an expression to say that life is harsh but that one must accept it.
- c'est magnifique!
- "That's great!"; literally it's magnificent
- chaise longue
- a long chair for reclining; (also rendered chaise lounge or chase lounge via folk etymology)
- chanson
- a song
- chanteuse
- a female singer
- cherchez la femme.
- literally "Look for the woman." (expressing the notion that behind a man’s unusual behavior may be his trying to impress a woman or to cover up an affair)
- chez
- the home of
- chic
- stylish
- cinéma vérité
- realism in documentary filmmaking
- cliché
- trite through overuse; a stereotype
- clique
- a small exclusive group of friends; often used in a pejorative way in French
- coquette
- a flirtatious girl; a tease
- commandant
- a commanding officer
- concierge
- a hotel desk manager (in French also refers to the caretaker of a building usually living at the front floor ; concierges have a reputation for gossiping)
- concordat
- an agreement; a treaty; when used with capital letters in French refers to a treaty between the French State and ; connoisseur : an expert in wines, fine arts, or other matters of culture; a person of refined taste; (spelt connaisseur in modern French)
- corduroy
- Suggested as *corde du roi "the king's cord," but this is not attested in French. more likely from 1780 American English cord + obs. 17c. duroy, a coarse fabric made in England.
- cortège
- a funeral procession; in French has a broader meaning and refers to all kinds of procession
- coup de grâce
- the final blow that results in victory (literally "blow of mercy"), historically used in the context of the battlefield, now more often used in other contexts (e.g. the defense's production of a particular piece of evidence in court that destroys the prosecution's case).
- coup d'État
- a sudden change in government by force; literally "hit (blow) of state" (note the capital E in French, not used in English)
- coup d'œil
- a glance, literally "a blow (or touch) of the eye"
- couture
- fashion
- couturier
- a fashion designer
- crèche
- a nativity display; more commonly (in UK), a place where children are left by their parents for short periods in the supervision of childminders; both meanings still exist in French
- crème brûlée
- a dessert consisting primarily of custard and toasted sugar, that is, caramel; literally "burnt cream"
- crêpe
- a thin sweet or savoury pancake eaten as a light meal or dessert
- cri du cœur
- a passionate plea, literally "cry from the heart"
- cul-de-sac
- a dead-end (residential) street; literally "bottom (buttocks) of the bag".
[edit] Only found in English
- bureau de change
- a currency exchange (plural bureaux de change). In French, it means the office where you can change your currency
- après-garde
- Avant-garde's antonym. French uses arrière-garde (either in a military or artistic context)
- auteur
- A film director, specifically one who controls most aspects of a film, or other controller of an artistic situation. The English connotation derives from French film theory. It was popularized in the journal Cahiers du cinéma: auteur theory maintains that directors like Hitchcock exert a level of creative control equivalent to the author of a literary work. In French, the word originally means author, but some expressions like "cinéma d'auteur" are also in use.
- cause célèbre
- An issue arousing widespread controversy or heated public debate, lit. famous cause
- décolletage
- a low-cut neckline, cleavage (This is actually a case of "false friends": Engl. décolletage = Fr. décolleté; Fr. décolletage means: 1. action of lowering a female garment's neckline; 2. Agric.: cutting leaves from some cultivated roots such as beets, carrots, etc.; 3. Tech. Operation consisting of making screws, bolts, etc. one after another out of a single bar of metal on a parallel lathe.
- déjà entendu/lu
- already heard/read. They do not exist as an expression in French : the Académie française<ref>http://atilf.atilf.fr/dendien/scripts/generic/cherche.exe?22;s=3375794295;; </ref> says that un déjà vu (a feeling of something already seen) can be used but not un déjà entendu or un déjà lu
- demimonde
- a class of women of ill repute; a fringe group or subculture. Fell out of use in the French language in the 19th century.
- double entendre
- double meaning, for which Francophones would use « double sens ». The verb entendre, to hear (modern), originally meant to understand. (Note: French usage: "un mot à double sens": a word with more than one meaning; "une phrase à double entente": a sentence with a hidden meaning. "À double entente" is listed in the Petit Larousse 1994 with no mention of its being obsolete or regional.) (It has, however, been found previously in French documents dating back to the 15th century.)
- encore
- A request to repeat a performance, as in “Encore !”, lit. again; also used to describe additional songs played at the end of a gig. Francophones would say « Bis ! » (a second time !); or « Une autre ! » (Another one !) to request « un rappel » (an encore). To say « Encore ! » implies a request to reprieve the entire repertoire.
- femme
- a stereotypically effeminate gay man or lesbian (slang, pronounced as written). In French, femme means "woman".
- maître d’
- translates as master o'. Francophones would say maître d’hôtel instead (French never uses "d'" alone).
- negligee
- A robe or a dressing gown, usually of sheer or soft fabric for women. French uses négligé (masculine form, with accents). Négligée qualifies a woman who neglects her appearance.
- pièce de résistance
- the best; the main meal, literally "a piece that resists". Francophones use plat de résistance (main dish)
- repartee
- clever banter. Is written répartie in French (répartée means nothing; repartie means a woman\feminine object that has gone again)
- risqué
- sexually suggestive; in French, the meaning of risqué is "risky", with no sexual connotation
[edit] See also
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the point here is we already code switch..
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