Pardon My French (I Can't Help It!) 🥖🤷‍♂️💬

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The Sunday Times in 1994

had launched a competition to see who could write the best story with the most French words.This is a delightful anecdote! This text is a classic example of British linguistic humor. It ironically highlights that while France sought to "purify" French of Anglicisms (via the Toubon Law in 1994), English, for its part, would find itself quite unprepared if it were to give back to Molière what belongs to him.

Here is a short text taken from this competition

"He had a "rendez-vous" with a "blonde" "divorcee" in a "cul-de-sac". He sat on a "banquette" in a "cafe" sipping an "aperitif". She arrived looking "chic" in a"beige" "ensemble". There was a "soupcon" of "romanc"e in the "air", but she had a "blasé" "attitude", a "certain" "je ne sais quoi" that "suggested" a f"aux pas "was "mminent." (Miles Kington )

It's quite fascinating to see that if you removed all French from English, only words for very basic things (eat, sleep, land) would remain, while the entire culture and administration would disappear!

Why is it "brillian"t?

The strength of this text lies in three points that the Sunday Times wanted to highlight:

1. "Omnipresence": It is "estimated" that nearly 30% to 45% of English words are of French or Latin "origin" via French.

2." Prestige": Without these words, English loses its entire vocabulary related to cuisine, fashion, diplomacy, and refined social interactions.

3. The absurdity of protectionism: The newspaper wanted to show that languages enrich each other and that trying to "clean them up" is a losing battle (and somewhat ridiculous).

"So, as you can see,

even when I speak English... I’m still technically speaking French. À bientôt !"🍷✨

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