French for Reading Knowledge

Chapter 01

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Commentary §§1-5

§2. Cognates

The Author makes too broad a use of the term “cognate,” which properly means words in two sister languages going back independently of each other to a common origin in a parent language. Most of what he here calls “cognates” are not in fact cognates, but borrowings, that is, French words adopted by English speakers at some point.

It is true, however, that you should take advantage of the enormous number of similar, sometimes identical forms, in French and English, both cognates and borrowings. Where there is a slight difference in the endings of such words, you should learn the French-English correspondence.

§3. Faux amis

Of course, while making use of French-English similarities, you must watch out for faux amis (“false friends”), words that look alike but have a different meaning. The Author begins giving you some of these on pp3-4; the full list of those he will give you is on pp207-09 (Appendix F). I make the following observations around and about a few items in the Author’s list on these pages:

• commode, adj. = convenient
• court(e). Cf. le cours (“academic course”; From Latin cursus), la cour (= “royal court,” from Latin curia; also means “courtyard”), le court (“court,” as in tennis; from English), la course (= “race” or “errand”)
• rédiger = “to write the last version of something.”
• esprit = 1) mind, 2) spirit, 3) wit. Choose your translation in this order, that is, first try “mind,” then “spirit,” then “wit.” Same three possibilities for spirituel(le).
• éventuellement = “possibly” (= if things turn out that way, if it should ever come up)
• important can mean “large” in the sense of “considerable,” e.g., “a considerable number” = “un nombre important”
• la partie = “part.” cf. la part = “portion, share”; le parti = “political party”; “choice” (“il a pris le parti de…“; un parti-pris = “prejudice”). For “party,” try: une fête, une soirée, une boum, une surprise-party. La partie can also mean a round of a game (une partie de bridge) or an outing (une partie de campagne).
• prétendre – never means “to pretend,” but rather “to claim” (something as a fact) or (followed by an infinitive) “to think you can do something and be planning to do it.” “To pretend,” meanwhile, in French = feindre, faire semblant (de), affecter (de). (For more on the verb prétendre, go here.)

§4. Gender

In theory, if you are not going to be producing French of your own, you don’t need to know the genders of nouns; but there are times when a knowledge of genders can be useful even for the mere reader of French. Hence I recommend that you learn the noun endings that are always (or almost always) associated with one or the other gender.

§5. Definite Articles

The Author mentions briefly the very important fact that French uses the definite article in many cases when English does not. This difference will be very important when you have to translate French into English: you need to be aware of the situations in which you should not translate the article.

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Exercises Series A

At this point, without going any further, do the exercises on pages 5-6. After you have done the exercises to your satisfaction, check yourself using the key given below.

For the French words in these exercises whose meaning is not immediately apparent, I recommend that you begin committing them to memory. Any word to which the Author has appended what I call a “death mark” (†), as well as any word glossed at the bottom of the page, you would also do well to commit to memory.

A. p5

Of particular importance in exercises A and C: do you translate the definite article or not? In exercise A, the nouns are all in the singular. Generally speaking, for a singular count noun (a noun that can have a plural), you will translate the definite article:

le directeur = “the director”

…but for a non-count noun, you will usually not translate the definite article:

la sociologie = “sociology”

1. the director
2. the colonel
3. the secretary
4. the technique
5. capital (= money you invest); OR the capital (= a particular capital city)
6. the minister†¹
7. sociology
8. the corporal
9. the captain
10. the tree
11. the nation
12. the architect
13. the musician
14. the cathedral
15. the building (see note at foot of page 5)
16. cotton
17. the animal
18. the theory
19. the amount/quantity
20. the extremity
21. the condition
22. the end = the goal†²
23. the experiment†³
24. science (the?)⁴
25. the element
26. the ocean
27. the possibility
28. the hemisphere
29. geology
30. the inconvenience†

B. p5

31. characteristic
32. catastrophic
33. electronic
34. enigmatic
35. cylindrical
36. geometric/geometrical
37. physical

38. identical
39. fantastic
40. metallic
41. historical
42. economical
43. biological
44. astronomical
45. sociological
46. atomic
47. magnificent
48. mathematical⁵

C. p5

Exercise C gives you plural nouns preceded by the definite article les. When should the article be translated and when not? Strictly speaking, only the context can tell you, and there is no context here. In my answers, I imagine a context that seems likely to me, and translate accordingly. If the context I imagine is one that involves the whole category (the whole “set”) of what the noun refers to, I leave “the” out; if, on the contrary, it involves a specific group, I put “the” in. But sometimes I can imagine either kind of context, and so I put “the” in parentheses. And: in all cases, the context you imagine may be quite different from mine. So: take my answers with a grain of salt.

49. physicists†⁶
50. doctors†⁶
51. trees
52. (the) nations
53. (the) probabilities
54. economists⁶
55. musicians⁶
56. (the) theories
57. (the) publishers
58. the goals
59. the machines
60. the experiments†
61. (the) sciences
62. the oceans
63. the possibilities
64. the inconveniences†
65. (the) drugs, (the) medecineEnglish “medecine” can mean drugs you take for your health, as well as the practice of healthcare. French la médecine can mean only the latter.))
66. the axes†⁷

D. p6

67. the emperor
68. the day†⁸
69. specific
70. agitation⁹
71. elegant
72. patience⁹
73. the series¹⁰
74. current†
75. math¹¹, mathematics
76. the feast, the holy day, the holiday, the get-together (with eating)
79. the part¹²
80. the goal†
81. theoretical
82. the pharmacy
83. (the) lectures†
84. the density
85. the circuits
86. haste
87. the corrections
88. a) the correction; b) correctness¹³
89. plastic
90. beauty
91. exterior
92. misery
93. nature
95. convenience†
96. currently†
97. cosmic
98. radiation
99. wide, broad†
100. the cape† (geographical)
101. meteorology
102. (the) disorder
103. (the) attraction
104. the comet
105. (the) comets
106. the solution
107. the proportion
108. the variation

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Commentary §§6-9

§6. Indefinite Articles (and Partitive)

The Author here introduces indefinite articles, un, une, the equivalent of our “a(n),”¹⁴ and along with it what he calls a plural indefinite article, des, which is sometimes translated as “some” (or as “any” in questions and negative statements), sometimes not translated at all.

I prefer to think of des as the plural form of the partitive article, since it is formed in the same way as the “singular” partitive article, that is, as a combination of the preposition de and the definite article (le la l’ les).

Partitive Articles

The Author never does present the singular partitive article formally, whereas I prefer for you to have more of a handle on it.

Very often the partitive article will not be translated, but you still need to understand its meaning or function.

§7. Regular Plurals of Nouns

To the Author’s presentation, I add this imaginary overheard conversation:

Teacher: “To form the plural in French, add a silent s.”
Student: “What does a silent s sound like?”
Teacher: “Exactly like the other silent consonants!”

§8. Irregular Plurals of Nouns

The –x that is the plural ending of some nouns originally represented a -us, the u here being a relic of an original final l, and then they forgot that a u was included in the x, and so ending up writing –ux, when only -x was required.

cheval (horse) + s ⇒ chevaus ⇒ (us = x) chevax ⇒ (+ u) chevaux

§9. Prepositions

As the Author says, learn dans, sur, sous, devant, derrière, and à côté de. If you already know Latin, the following connections may help you.

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Exercises Series B

Do exercises pp8-9, and check yourself, as you did with the previous set. To test yourself further, do the tests on pp211-12. As ever, redo these exercises from time to time to review vocabulary and grammatical points.

A. p8

In Exercise A many of the nouns are preceded by des. The form des can be either 1) a contraction of the preposition de and the definite article les, or 2) the plural partitive (or “indefinite”) article, meaning “some” or “any” but normally not translated. For this exercise I assume that 2) is meant, and I do not translate.

1. a director
2. a general
3. a secretary
4. a capital
5. an army
6. a theory
7. theories (partitive)
8. a fact, a deed
9. facts, deeds (partitive)
10. goals (partitive)
11. doctors (partitive)
12. generals (partitive)
13. musicians (partitive)
14. a cathedral
15. cathedrals (partitive)
16. trees (partitive)
17. newspapers (partitive)
18. weights (partitive)
19. a weight
20. a level
21. conditions (partitive)
22. a quantity (/an amount)
23. experiments (partitive)
24. a science
25. sciences (partitive)
26. levels (partitive)
27. a possbility
28. possibilities (partitive)
29. an inconvenience†
30. inconveniences† (partitive)

B. p8

31, behind the garage
33. on the table
34. under a table
35. on the ocean
36. in the ocean
37. on the condition
38. in the solution
39. next to the publisher†
40. next to the machines (des = de + les)
41. behind the cathedral
42. before the fact¹⁵
43. in the case
44. in the cases
45. in the newspapers
46. in the newspaper
47. under a weight
48. under weights (partitive)
49. under the weight
50. on a branch

C. p9

51. next to the musicians
52. on the extremities
53. under conditions (partitive)
54. behind the building
55. faced with a choice¹⁶
56. sons (partitive) [le fis], OR threads (partitive) [le fil]

57. a son (only possible meaning)
58. the sons OR the threads
59. in nature
60. in the experiments
61. a perception
62. perceptions (partitive)
63. an event
64. equations (partitive)
65. a means
66. means, plural (partitive)
67. the means, singular
68. means, plural (partitive)
69. the correction, OR: correctness
70. attractions (partitive)
71. the attraction, OR: attraction (general sense)
72. the attractions
73. in the gas
74. in a gas
75. in the gases
76. in gases (partitive)
77. a resume
78. resumes (partitive)
79. in the resume
80. villages (partitive)
81. in the villages
82. the weekend
83. weekends
84. a weekend
85. golf
86. soccer
87. a complication
88. a coefficient
89. concepts (partitive)
90. the concept
91. the doctor†
92. (the) doctors
93. teachers (partitive)
94. an engineer
95. an operation
96. operations (partitive)
97. an eye
98. eyes (partitive)
99. a telephone
100. television
101. influences (partitive)
102. under influences (partitive)
103. the flow (the flux)
104. an orchestra
105. orchestras (partitive)
106. behind the orchestra
107. on the podium
108. in (the) cars
109. theaters (partitive)
110. next to the theater
111. on the boulevard
112. in front of the building
113. in the train
114. in the tower

1. Learn to distinguish le ministre = “the minister” and le ministère = “the ministry.”[↩]
2. Literally le but = “the target” (a target that you shoot at).[↩]
3. The French expérience is a word with two meanings: a. “(scientific) experiment,” and b. “experience.”[↩]
4. Translate with “the” if the meaning is “a/this particular science,” or without if the meaning is “science in general.”[↩]
5. The adjective is meant here. The noun would have a plural s and be preceded by the definite article: les mathématiques.[↩]
6. No article if meant in general.[↩][↩][↩][↩]
7. NOT “axes that you chop wood with,” for which the French is la hâche, but the plural of English “axis.”[↩]
8. The French words la journée and le jour both mean “day.” Since the feminine form emphasizes “how you spend the day” (what activity you fill it up with), one of its older meanings was “how far you got traveling in one day,” and from that the meaning was expanded, in English, to the traveling itself.[↩]
9. An abstract noun, in English, will usually not be accompanied by a definite article.[↩][↩]
10. French distinguishes between singular and plural of this word: la série, les séries, but English singular and plural (like the Latin) are the same: “one series,” “two series.”[↩]
11. British: maths[↩]
12. See the list of Faux amis above, where one learns that la partie = “part, hand of cards, outing”; la part = “portion, share”; le parti = “political party; choice, decision”[↩]
13. See note at foot of page 6.[↩]
14. But un(e) is also the numerical adjective, = English “one.”[↩]
15. The literal meaning of devant is “physically before, in front of.” Here, its meaning must be metaphorical, in other words, not “in front of the fact” but something like “faced with this fact.” See also no. 55 below.[↩]
16. literally, “before a choice”[↩]