| Comparison of characteristics | ||
| French | English | |
| accents | in many words | only in foreign words |
| agreement | yes | no |
| articles | more common | less common |
| capitalization | less common | more common |
| conjugations | different for each grammatical person | different only for third person singular |
| contractions | required | optional and informal |
| gender | for all nouns and most pronouns | only for personal pronouns |
| liaisons | yes | no |
| negation | two words | one word |
| prepositions | certain verbs require prepositions | many phrasal verbs |
| rhythm | stress at end of each rhythmic group | stressed syllable in each word, plus stress on important word |
| Roman numerals | more common, often ordinal | less common, rarely ordinal |
| subjunctive | common | extremely rare |
| Other differences between French and English | ||
| false cognates | Words that look alike don't necessarily mean the same thing. | |
| pronunciation | Many differences, particularly vowels and the letter R. | |
| punctuation | Different uses and spacing. | |
| silent letters | Many in both, but not the same letters. | |
| singulars and plurals | The grammatical number of nouns may be different. | |
| spelling equivalents | Patterns in spelling differ in the two languages. | |
| word order | Adjectives, adverbs, negation, + pronouns may cause problems. | |
Differences Between French and English
Introduction to some of the key differences between French and English
By Laura K. Lawless, About.com
French and English are related languages in a sense, because French is a Latin language with German and English influence, while English is a Germanic language with Latin and French influence. Thus there are some similarities between them, most notably the same alphabet and a number of true cognates. Perhaps more importantly, however, there are a number of differences, both major and minor, between French and English. Here are some brief explanations with links to further information.
French and English
French influence in EnglishFrench terms in EnglishTrue cognates
French Grammar
Explore French Language
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