The secret life of words

Yesterday we attended church. That sentence makes perfect sense in English, yet attend comes from a French verb meaning wait. We did not go to church to wait. In French we would use the verb assister to tell you that we were present at church during the worship service. Assister also went through a change … Continue reading The secret life of words

To better understand English, learn a little French

In its grammatical structure, English belongs to the Low German language family, a group of languages that developed from a common early Germanic root. The group includes Flemish, Dutch, Frisian, Afrikaans (the Dutch that is spoken in South Africa), Plautdietsch, English and Scots (not Gaelic but the variety of old English spoken by the lowland … Continue reading To better understand English, learn a little French