Will learning French affect my English?    

The French language is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other languages d’oïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French (Francien) largely supplanted. French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to France’s past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, most notably Haitian Creole. A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French.

The answer to your question is: No, Not at all! Go for it! You are enriching your life and language skills and I think you will find that each language will ‘support’ the other. Also, your Spanish will be a great help in learning and understanding French grammar and structure and your English will support it as well because Norman French had a huge influence on English after 1066. Something like 30% of English words has a French root I believe. Pronunciation in French is the biggest challenge along with the intonation of it but these are refinements you can always work on. In fact, languages can be mutually supportive, which is how it should be.

1. You’re Not Starting From Scratch

English and French share a common alphabet and a large portion of vocabulary. In fact, English has more in common lexically with French than any other Romance language (which include the likes of Spanish, Portuguese and Italian).

If you’re fluent in English, you’ll already have a head start in French vocabulary. You’ll be familiar with the spelling, pronunciation and meanings of words such as café, debut, encore and petite, amongst many others. This makes French one of the easiest languages for native English speakers to begin speaking from day one.

2. French Is Simpler to Pronounce than English

When you start learning French, you’ll already know what you’re going to have difficulties with. You’ll be aware that you’ll have issues pronouncing that guttural ‘r’ at first. You’ll know that many words end in silent letters, such as in the case of comment ça va? You’ll be mindful of the fact that contractions are mandatory in the French language, such as in the case of “j’adore”.

3. Gendered Words aren’t as Confusing as They Seem

While gendered nouns are prevalent in many European languages, they can be a source of continual frustration for English native speakers. English nouns do have gender – but the gender is tied directly to the biological sex of the noun, with inanimate objects remaining neutral. As a result, gender rules can seem confusing and pointless to English speakers, who are left scratching their heads as to how on earth it was decided that the sun (le Soleil) is masculine while a car (une voiture) is feminine.

4. French People are Happy to Help You Learn French

I hate stereotypes! Although I found it extraordinarily difficult to get along with Parisians when I first lived in Paris, during the second time around, I was determined to remain open-minded. I managed to leave with a more positive impression of the French overall after only a few hours there. I realised that I couldn’t just expect things in Paris to be exactly as they were in Ireland or any other country I had previously lived in. I forced myself to be more understanding and as a consequence, I got what I had always hoped would happen – someone told me I spoke French très bien.

So if you’re a French learner then it affects your English Because of many reasons. And if you are a french  learner then you can easily learn English as well because of many similarities between French and English. 

Also if you want to learn French and English join Multibhashi now. 

For French click here

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