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French orthography encompasses the spelling and punctuation of the French language.It is based on a combination of phonemic and historical principles. The spelling of words is largely based on the pronunciation of Old French c. 1100 –1200 AD, and has stayed more or less the same since then, despite enormous changes to the pronunciation of the language in the intervening years.
It excludes combinations of words of French origin with words whose origin is a language other than French — e.g., ice cream, sunray, jellyfish, killjoy, lifeguard, and passageway— and English-made combinations of words of French origin — e.g., grapefruit (grape + fruit), layperson (lay + person), mailorder, magpie, marketplace, surrender ...
Spelling and punctuation before the 16th century was highly erratic, but the introduction of printing in 1470 provoked the need for uniformity.. Several Renaissance humanists (working with publishers) proposed reforms in French orthography, the most famous being Jacques Peletier du Mans who developed a phonemic-based spelling system and introduced new typographic signs (1550).
French also shows enormous phonetic changes between the Old French period and the modern language. Spelling, however, has barely changed, which accounts for the wide differences between current spelling and pronunciation. Some of the most profound changes have been: The loss of almost all final consonants.
The following words are commonly used and included in French dictionaries. le pull: E. pullover, sweater, jersey. le shampooing, [1] the shampoo; le scoop, in the context of a news story or as a simile based on that context. While the word is in common use, the Académie française recommends a French synonym, "exclusivité". [2] le selfie.
"[be] on [your] guard". "On guard" is of course perfectly good English: the French spelling is used for the fencing term. en passant in passing; term used in chess and in neurobiology ("synapse en passant.") En plein air en plein air lit. "in the open air"; particularly used to describe the act of painting outdoors. en pointe en pointe (in ...
French phrases used by English speakers; Law French; Glossary of fencing, (predominantly from French). Glossary of ballet (predominantly from French) Lists of English loanwords by country or language of origin; List of English words of Gaulish origin; List of English words of Latin origin; List of English Latinates of Germanic origin
Pages in category "Lists of French words of foreign origin" The following 6 pages are in this category, out of 6 total. This list may not reflect recent changes .