French words of the day: blasé; Champs Élysées;

Reading an article about an exhibition in Paris, I immediately focus on French words which are familiar to speakers and readers of English.

French - English
alliance - alliance, joining an ally, partners in peace or business or a club
Alliance Francaises - club of French speakers in countries such as London, England and Singapore, usually a building housing a French restaurant or café, library or bookshop, meeting rooms
amour - love

blasé - nonchalant (there's another French word!), could not care less
nonchalant - non is no, c h a l e u r (oops - must separate the letters because spellcheck turned this word into cholera) is warmth, lack of warmth - could not care less, indifferent
capable (pronounced cap ah bull) - capable (pronounced cape -a-bull)
Champs Elysses - you recognise the name of the French street.
Champs - fields
avenue - wide street usually bordered by trees
boulevard - grand street
entente cordiale - cordial or friendly understanding (a political alliance)
exhibition (the t is pronounced like an s) - exhibition (t is pronounced like sh)
faux - false, as in faux pas, flash step or mistake
finesse - finesse, as in fine - ness or skill
metre - meter in English is measure
kilometre - thousand metres
restaurant - restaurant
restaurateur - restaurateur or restaurant owner or restaurant manager
suede - from the French gants de Suède, gloves from Sweden, soft matt kid leather
tableaux - pictures
voyeur - watcher, onlooker

I have read two sentences and already recognise six French words. You know more French, and use more French than most people realise. (realiser?)

It will soon be lunch time and I have to resist the temptation to drink a kir royale.  Royale is royal with an e on the end.

Angela Lansbury, author, tutor, speaker.

French words of the day: entente cordiale - and some French and English grammar

Every day I note the French words which are used in English. Today's first phrase is entente cordiale. In English you might translate that as cordial understanding. Notice that the adjective comes before the noun in English but after the noun in French.

For the benefit of English language purists and those learning English as a foreign language, a reminder about English grammar (although I have a separate blog dealing with grammar to which I add posts sporadically).

Glossary (list of technical or foreign words used in a text or book with explanations of meanings, like a mini dictionary)

Noun - naming word, general term for objects, people, animals - for example table, chair, house, man, woman, dog, cat, boy, girl, town, city
Proper noun - individual name of things you can see and point to and visit such as John, Jean, Joan, Julius Caesar, Elizabeth, a real person such as John Smith, Angela Lansbury, London, New York
Adjective - additional word describing a noun such as small animal, tall man

If you find the terms adverb and adjective confusing, the easy way to remember which is which is to remember that an adverb is added to a verb and adjective is the other word, describing a noun
Verb - doing word such as to walk, walking, we walked
Adverb - addition to a verb describing it such as (walked) slowly, fast, quickly, rapidly - often ending in -ly

Angela Lansbury teaches English O level, A level, English as a second or foreign language and creative writing and conversation, and French conversation, O level and A level, website translation.