Learning French

Vocabulary

Avant-garde, brunette, c’est la vie, bon appétit, cul de sac,  a certain je ne sais quoi , coup d’état, chef, fiancé, bon appétit, bon voyage, bon vivant, blasé, cliché, coquette, crème brûlée, déjà vu, femme fatale, flambé, foie gras, genre, grand prix, haute cuisine, haute couture, joie de vivre, prêt à porter, protégé, boutique, petite, rendez-vous

As French is closely related to English, it will be easy to learn the vocabulary and less time consuming than with other languages. After the Norman invasion of 1066, about 10,000 French words were adopted into English. More than a third of all English words are derived from French. Only spelling and pronunciation might slightly differ. To hold the simplest conversation, you need 500 up to 1,000 words. Ordinary conversation takes 1,000 to 2,000 words and you can probably read any text with only 3,000 or 5,000 words, guessing many words by their context. The average person needs 15 repetitions of a word to store it into long-term memory. Although repetition is the mother of all learning, using imagination and mental hooks will increase memory. A 'mental hook' is a vivid mental image created to tie a new word to something you will remember. Your best companion will be a good dictionary!