How to translate French words WITHOUT KNOWING FRENCH (3 clever tricks)

The only language you need is English. Let me teach you how to read French words without already knowing any French. Watch and I'll explain.

MASSIVE FRANCOPHOBE? You should watch anyway, because the reasons why these tricks work raise some fascinating facts about the history of the English language.

By inserting an extra S here or there, some French words magically become much more like their English equivalents (or "cognates"). Also, the clever deployment of a W can render even the most Gallic of words easily recognisable.

*DISCLAIMER* The tricks don't work every time... but when they do, it is enormously satisfying.

==CONTENTS==
0:00 Intro
0:59 TRICK 1: Swapping É for S
3:50 Why TRICK 1 works
4:58 TRICK 2: Letters with hats
7:43 Why TRICK 2 works
8:17 TRICK 3: Swapping GU for W
8:57 Why TRICK 3 works
10:53 Translating a sentence
11:52 Goodbye

[sebastiendine]

There is one more trick also explained by the norman language: if a word starts with "ch" then try to drop the h letter after the c letter . For example with "chat" you get cat, with "char" you get car, with "chaudron" you get caudron (cauldron) and with "château" you get "casteau" (castle).

[cdemr]

As a French speaker this video was just as fascinating.
I have to admit, I never considered the similarities between such words as Guêpe and Wasp, Guerre and War, Gardien and Warden...
That third trick was mind-blowing!

[allandnothing]

I'm French. First year of junior high, I was in a class in which we started learning English and German. Both languages were new to us, so every word was a discovery. Yet we quickly noticed that some words looked alike (for example certain weekdays: "Monday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday" vs "Montag, Freitag, Samstag, Sonntag"). When mentioned to our (really bad) teacher, she forbid us to compare both languages and ever talk about it (she was a bit jealous, because let's face it we had much a preference for English which seemed easier to grasp).

Now, as an adult speaking a few languages and armed with more knowledge of Europe's history, I am amazed how backward it is to teach a language as if it had evolved in a silo with no connection with neighboring languages...

[Karamel]

I am a native French speaker and to be honest, this helps me improve my English too, as I can relate some words back to their French form and understand instantly what they mean. Tempest and Haste for example, but also Fest (fête = party) and to Spare (épargner = to spare their life). Thanks, it is amazing and you look like my little brother 😊

[RobManser]

Can I add some tricks?

TRICK 4: All but four English words ending in "ion" are the same in French: impression, condition, indication etc.

TRICK 5: Replace "ical" in English with "ique" in French and you're almost there. For example: practical, economical, strategical become pratique, economique, strategique.

[iain]

Damn. I've been studying French for 25 years and never knew this. Well done man. Guell done.

[arckene]

Trick 4: replace "eu" with "o" in most words
FR -> EN
majeur -> major
interieur -> interior
terreur -> terror
erreur -> error

[alfredrothmuller]

I 've studied both languages and know the similarities of many words because of their French origin. But, no one has put this in such an entertaining way. Thank you.

[mitchblank]

Another thing that demonstrates how the Norman "es-" words in trick #1 is how some of those words still have English forms that DIDN'T lose the "e". For example from your list modern French "état" not only is related to "state" but also "estate"; French "étranger" is related to not just "stranger" but also "estranged"

[DroneBeeStrike]

My great grandmother from Germany used to translate letters we got from our family in Spain. She didn't know Spanish but she knew German, English, and some Latin from going to church when she was little. She would tell us, "Maybe it's not all right but you'll get it. " I'm sure she was using many similar tricks just between four languages instead of two.

[alnath]

As a french, I've learned something ! And I'd say that your pronunciation of 'écureuil' is far better than my 'squirrel' pronunciation 😁

[Jaden_Tse]

These are obvious but I’m saying it still “because why not” : In French, there is a group of adjectives that are end with -eux.
As in English, we change the -eux to -ous and we mostly got the same word in English(doesn’t work for always)
Example: Anxieux is anxious
Sérieux is serious ( without the accent, but very close )
Curieux is curious
Dangereux is dangerous



2nd trick is not always works, but really good to know. So many words in French that ends with -ie, -té, -é etc. we can change it into -y, and we will got an English word(or similar).
Example: Envie is envy
Joie is joy
Électricité is electricity
Catégorie is category
Épicé is Spicy
Etc.

3: I realise that sometimes when a French word ends with “aire”, in English would probably be “ary” or “ar”

Dictionnaire is dictionary
Nécessaire is necessary
Similaire is similar
Salaire is salary
Etc.



In fact, there are much much more tricks because French influenced English language a lot for 300 years. Apparently, English had changed a lot compare to centuries before, and French words in English would have change their spelling and meaning(sometimes) so we need tricks to change back the real original word for translating. But we can see French really influenced a lot so the connection between English and French is still there over centuries.

[KevinMcMurphyDoes]

Absolutely brilliant. Most progress I’ve ever made in French in under 15 minutes.

[mitchblank]

My personal favorite for rule #2 (since it confused me so much at first) is "goût" Just mentally turning it into "goust" doesn't help much at first. In english we have the word "gusto" which comes from the right latin root, but unless you know what it means in Italian it won't be of much help.

However if you eat something really bad you'll say it's... "disGUSTing" Hey, it's our old pal Latin helping us out here -- as long as you can remember that "dis-gust" approximately means "bad-taste" then it's easy to see what "goût" must mean.

Indeed, '"disgust'" in French is "dégoût" with the circumflex exactly where you'd expect it.

[skchabauzinha]

As a french person that had a tough time learning english, this is so cool!! Should definitely be taught in school.

[masterpointstrategies]

I've been fighting with French for years. I think I've learned as much in the last ten minutes. Thanks for that!

[jfryer]

One of my favourites is ÉCHAFAUDAGE
É goes to S
CH goes to C
The U needs the L change
And finally AGE words are ING words
Vowels are the glue that can change to other vowels
So we can see the English word magically appear as
SCAFFOLDING

[crazor]

I probably learned more in the 12 minutes watching this video than I did in 5 years of learning french at school.

[kennethbraun]

Studied French through 2 years in college and no one bothered to tell me any on this. FANTASTIC. Most effective lesson I’ve had.

[mdsoulsounds]

American in France for 20 years, never saw shortcuts like these. Brilliant! Now, if only you could come up with shortcuts to recognize the pairing of run-on vowel sounds !