Trick Number 1: Decode the Circumflex Accent (^)
In French, the circumflex accent (^) has not always existed. It appeared in the XVIth century to replace the letter “s” in some words. Thus, we nowadays write ”hôpital”, because we used to write ”hospital” with an “s”.
Because this “s” has not disappeared in other languages like in English, Spanish or Italian, knowing this simple trick will help you understand words like:
| Contemporary French word | In old French | in English | in Spanish (if relevant) |
|---|---|---|---|
| une tâche* | tasche | a task | |
| un mât | mast | a mast | mástil |
| un hôtel | ostel | a hostel | |
| une forêt | forest | a forest | |
| une côte | coste | a coast | costa |
| une fête | feste | a festival, a feast | fiesta |
| arrêter | arester | to arrest | |
| un bâtard | bastard | a bastard | bastardo/a |
| un intérêt | interesse (latin) | an interest | interés |
| un maître/ un maitre (both spellings are correct)** | maistre | a master | maestro/a |
| une bête | beste | a beast | bestia |
| une requête | requeste | a request | |
| coûter/couter | couster | to cost | costar |
| un ancêtre | ancestre | an ancestor | ancestro |
| un château | chastel, castel | a castle | castillo |
| une hâte | haste | a haste | |
| un plâtre | plastre | a plaster | |
| honnête | honestus (latin) | honest | honesto/a |
| une pâte | paste | a pasta | pasta |
| une huître/huitre | huistre | an oyster | ostra |
| un cloître/un cloitre | clostre | a cloister | claustro |
| une croûte/une croute | croste | a crust | costra |
| une tempête | tempeste | a tempest | tempestad |
| un prêtre | prestre | a priest | |
| une châtaigne | chastaigne | a chestnut | castaña |
* The circumflex accent plays a crucial role here since it differentiates it from the word “une tache” without the accent, which means “a spot”, or “a stain”. Apropos, keep in mind that the circumflex accent is not always the sign of an old s. For example, in some words like “sûr” (sure), “mûr”(ripe), jeûne”(fasting), the accent has been added to differentiate them from their “twins”: “sur”(on), “un mur”(a wall), and “jeune” (young). In this case, the word with the simplest meaning is usually written without the accent; whereas the more complex meaning gets the circumflex.
** Some words have 2 possible spellings (with or without the circumflex accent) since the 1990 spelling reform stating that the accent is no longer mandatory on the vowels i and u, except when it is used to distinguish between two different words (for instance “sur” (“on” in English) and “sûr” (“sure, certain”)) or in certain verb endings (for ex. “nous fûmes”, (subjonctif form of “être”)).
Trick Number 2: Spot the Onomatopoeias!
What is an onomatopoeia again? It’s a type of word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Typical examples are the words “miam” (delicious!), “boum” (boom), “atchoum” (sneeze), “crac” (crack), “bzzz” (zapping) etc. Those are interjections, often used are used in comic books for a funny effect. But onomatopoeias are also in many cases nouns (un clic for example) or verbs (craquer for example), and can be used for a literary effect.
Did you hear or read a French word you don’t know? You have nothing to lose by trying to guess its meaning by the sound of it. Here is a list of French onomatopoeias with their meaning:
| Onomatopoeia | English translation | In a context |
|---|---|---|
| Un brouhaha | a hubbub, an uproar | J’entends le brouhaha de la foule. |
| Chuchoter; un chuchotement | to whisper; a whisper | Il chuchote dans mon oreille. |
| Claquer; un claquement | to flap/to slam; a slam | La porte a claqué à cause du courant d’air. |
| Cliqueter; Un cliquetis | to flap/to slam; a slam | La porte a claqué à cause du courant d’air. |
| Coasser; un coassement | to croak; a croaking | Les grenouilles coassent dans la mare. |
| Craquer; un craquement | to crack; a crack | Le chiropracteur a fait craquer mon dos. |
| Crépiter; un crépitement | to crackle; a crackling | Le feu crépite dans la cheminée. |
| Crisser; un crissement | to screech; a screeching | Les pneus de la voiture ont crissé sur la route. |
| Croquer | to crunch | L’enfant croque son gâteau. |
| Effleurer; un effleurement | to brush/to touch lightly; a light touch | Il effleura sa joue d’un geste tendre. |
| Froufrouter; un froufrou | to rustle; a rustling | On entend le froufrou de sa robe de soirée. |
| Gargouiller, un gargouillis | to rumble; a rumbling | J’entends son estomac qui gargouille! |
| Glouglouter; un glouglou | to gurgle; a gurgling | On entend le glouglou d’une bouteille que l’on vide. |
| Grogner; un grognement | to grunt; a grunt | Ce chien grogne en présence d’étrangers. |
| Hululer; un hululement | to hoot; a hooting | Les chouettes hululent la nuit. |
| Marmonner; un marmonnement | to mumble; a mumbling | Il marmonne des excuses inaudibles. |
| Meugler; un meuglement | to moo; a mooing | On entend le meuglement de la vache. |
| Murmurer; un murmure | to murmur/to whisper; a murmur | On entend des murmures dans la salle de cinéma. |
| Téter; une tétée | to suckle; a suckling | Le bébé tète le lait de sa mère. |
| Ronronner; le ronronnement | to purr; a purring | Le chat ronronne de plaisir. |
| Souffler; un soufflement | to blow/to breath out; a breath/a breeze | Elle souffle ses bougies d’anniversaire. |
| Sucer; une succion | to suck; a suction | La petite suce son bonbon. |
| Susurrer; un susurrement | to whisper; a whisper (in a secret/loving voice) | Il lui susurre des mots d’amour à l’oreille. |
| Vibrer; une vibration | to vibrate; a vibration | Sa voix a vibré sous l’effet de l’émotion. |
| Zozoter; un zozotement | to lisp; a lisp | Cet enfant voit un orthophoniste pour soigner son zozotement. |
Trick number 3: Identify the suffixes and prefixes
Prefixes are the little words added in front of a word to alter its meaning. A simple example is “impossible”. Here the prefix “im” added to the word “possible” changes the meaning of the world, in that case gives the opposite.
(The list of prefixes in French is so long that I chose to only list the prefixes that are different than the English ones.)
| Prefix | Meaning | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| dé- / dés- | reverse action, removal, undoing | défaire (undo), désaccord (disagreement), désactiver (deactivate) |
| sur- | excess | surcharger (overload), surestimer (overestimate) |
| sous- | insufficiency | sous-payé (underpaid), sous-estimer (underestimate) |
| avant- / pré- | before | avant-goût (preview), prévisible (predictable) |
| mal- | bad, wrong | malheureux (unhappy), malhonnête (dishonest) |
| bien- | good, well | bienveillant (benevolent), bienfait (benefit) |
| semi- / demi- | half, partial | semi-final (semifinal), demi-tour (U-turn) |
| re- / r- | repetition, return | revenir (to come back), refaire (redo), relire (reread) |
| para- | against OR beside | parapluie (umbrella, literally “against rain”) parallèle (parallel) |
Prefixes, on the other hand, are the little words added at the end of a word to alter its meaning.
| Suffix | Meaning | Grammar function | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| -ard / -arde | Pejorative / informal | Noun or adjective | le fêtard, la fêtarde (a party-animal) le flemmard, la flemmarde (a lazybones) le chauffard (a reckless driver) |
| -asse | Pejorative / informal | Noun | la paperasse (paperwork) la vinasse (cheap wine) |
| -ette | Diminutive | Noun | la fillette (small girl) la maisonnette (small house) la cigarette (cigarette) |
| -age | Action of doing something OR A set/ a group of something or people | Noun derived from a verb Noun | laver -> le lavage (to wash-> washing) coller -> le collage (to glue -> gluing) bricoler -> le bricolage (to do odd jobs -> odd jobs) la feuille ->le feuillage (leave-> a set of leaves) le voisin -> le voisinage (neighbour -> a group of neighbours) |
| -ible -able | A possibility | Adjective often derived from a verb | lire -> lisible (to read -> readable) comprendre ->compréhensible (to understand -> understandable) manger -> mangeable (to eat -> eatable) laver -> lavable (to wash -> washable) |
| -ment | An action/ the result of an action OR The way of doing something | Noun derived from a verb Adverb derived from an adjective | changer -> un changement (a change) payer -> un paiement (a payment) rapide -> rapidement (rapidly) joyeux -> joyeusement (happily) |
I hope those little tricks will help you to get one step further in your learning of French!
Bon courage!