French Can Help Your English

Many English words come from French. These words were borrowed almost 1000 years ago (1066-1266). In those days, England had a French-speaking king. Here are some examples of borrowed words:

Farmer's Old Words	Rich Man's Words	Farmer's New Words
English	French	English
Cow/Bull	Bœuf	Beef
Pig	Porc	Pork
Chicken	Poulet	(Poultry)
Sheep	Mouton	Mutton

Cow/Bull, pig, chicken and sheep are pure English words. When English farmers sold their animals to rich people (the king's family and friends), the buyers used French words. English people copied these words and changed them into English words (the sounds, spelling and meaning are a little different, of course). In French, bœuf, porc, poulet, and mouton are names of animals. In English, beef, pork, chicken and mutton are names of meat.

Beef, pork, poultry and mutton are English words borrowed from French.

When you learn French, it can help you improve your English. You can learn new words and new meanings for old words.

Please pay attention: the English word poultry does NOT mean chicken. 

Poultry = chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys and their meat.

Des canards /de kanaʁ/  (ducks) {Source: awwwwwww (CC--BY-NC-ND Steve Wall)}

Des grands poulets et des petits poulets (Big chickens and little chickens) /de grɑ͂ pulɛ e de pəti pulɛ/ {Source: Count your chickens, Daddy cock (CC--BY-NC-ND key lime pie yumyum)}

Deux oies et deux poulets /døzwa e dø pulɛ/ (Two geese and two chickens) {Source: geese and chickens (CC-BY Scillystuff)}

Des dindes /de dɛ͂d/ (Turkeys) {Source: Turkeys (CC--BY Hey Paul)}