--- title: English words that came from French — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «English words that came from French», a lesson of the french course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: You already know thousands of French words without knowing it: menu, restaurant, café, ballet, garage and souvenir all came into Englis --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/36-english-words-that-came-from-french/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [French](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/) / English words that came from French # English words that came from French Lesson 36 of the french course of Mova's primary school: 15 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/french/36-english-words-that-came-from-french/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/36-english-words-that-came-from-french/0/) — You already know thousands of French words without knowing it: menu, restaurant, café, ballet, garage and souvenir all came into English from French. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/36-english-words-that-came-from-french/1/) — The big wave came after 1066, when the Normans from France ruled England, and for about three hundred years French was the language of the king's court, the law and the rich. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/36-english-words-that-came-from-french/2/) — Picture a farm in 1100: the English-speaking farmer looks after a cow, a pig and a sheep, but when the meat reaches the French-speaking lord's table it is called beef, pork and mutton - from French bœuf, porc and mouton. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/36-english-words-that-came-from-french/3/) — Some borrowed words are hiding: a pilot shouting "Mayday!" is copying French m'aider, "help me", and RSVP on a party invitation stands for "Répondez, s'il vous plaît". - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/36-english-words-that-came-from-french/4/) — Borrowed words can change on the way: souvenir means any memory in French, chauffeur means any driver, and French audiences shout "Bis !" where English audiences shout "Encore!" - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/36-english-words-that-came-from-french/5/) — Thousands of English words come from French; after 1066 the Normans from France ruled England and French became the language of the court. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/36-english-words-that-came-from-french/6/) — Menu, restaurant and café are French words used in English. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/36-english-words-that-came-from-french/7/) — Beef comes from bœuf, pork from porc, mutton from mouton and veal (calf meat) from veau: the farmers kept English names for the animals, and the rich French speakers named the meat. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/36-english-words-that-came-from-french/8/) — Voilà means "there you go" or "there it is"; it comes from vois là, "see there", and is spelled with an accent, not "walla". - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/36-english-words-that-came-from-french/11/) — RSVP stands for Répondez, s'il vous plaît, "Please reply". - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/36-english-words-that-came-from-french/13/) — Un souvenir is a keepsake, but in French it also means any memory; se souvenir means to remember. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/36-english-words-that-came-from-french/14/) — Bon voyage ! means "Have a good trip!" and can be said to anyone setting off anywhere. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/36-english-words-that-came-from-french/15/) — Ballet grew up at the French court, so its steps have French names such as plié and pirouette, and the t of ballet is silent. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/36-english-words-that-came-from-french/16/) — Chauffeur means any driver in French; it comes from chauffer, to heat, because the first drivers of steam engines kept the fire hot. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/36-english-words-that-came-from-french/17/) — Garage is a French word: French says "ga-RAZH"; British English often says "GARR-idge" and American English "guh-RAHZH", and both are fine in English. - ← previous: [False friends](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/35-false-friends/) - next →: [Olympiad: number-word puzzles ★★★](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/37-olympiad-number-word-puzzles/) - ↑ back to [French](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/)