Why there are so many letters in French words?

239 points · 12 comments · view on lemmy.world

12 Comments

WhoIzDisIz@lemmy.today · 30 pts · 5d

They were afraid the Germans next door would seem smarter due to the longer word lengths, but didn't want to have such difficulties pronouncing everything, so they chose a compromise by just making words look longer than they actually are.

Airfried@piefed.social · 22 pts · 5d (6 replies)

English isn't any better when it comes to spelling. It's terribly inconsistent and in desperate need of several reforms.

douz0a0bouz@midwest.social · 11 pts · 5d (1 reply)

Probably because English borrowed so many words from French and other languages.

RickyRigatoni@piefed.zip · 3 pts · 4d

More like had them forced on us when the normans invaded

xav@programming.dev · 6 pts · 5d (1 reply)

"I know right"

DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social · 4 pts · 5d

You can still pronounce all the letters if you aren't a coward.

Horsey@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 4d

English is like 5 languages hiding in a trenchcoat.

::: spoiler Tap for spoiler

  1. French
  2. old English
  3. German
  4. Spanish
  5. Norse

:::

UnrepententProcrastinator@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 4d

You can cough, though, through, and laugh your way through it.

LemmyPlaceDN@europe.pub · 13 pts · 5d (1 reply)

Eaux

neidu3@sh.itjust.works · 17 pts · 5d

A teacher I had used to joke that he didn't have a last name whenever he visited France. His last name was Høst

DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social · 11 pts · 5d

There has never been a more malicious act of linguistic inbreeding sabotage than the French bastardizing Latin with German and then body-horroring their spelling abominations on to English.

Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 5d

its the wine talking.