Great article: French or English?

[English-test.net]

[English-test.net]

Hi Tanya,

I was delighted to receive your note and am very pleased you liked the article. It is very satisfying for me to receive messages from people who've read my material. It makes it worthwhile. I agree with you that French is a great language - after all English has helped itself to many words from French although the French are not so enthusiastic about absorbing English words because they want their language to remain pure. France of course is a beautiful country and I'm very much looking forward to driving there in September when we go on holiday.

Best wishes

Alan Townend

[English-test.net]

[English-test.net]

Hi Aneta,

Thank you for your interesting email and glad that you like our material. There will in due course be further articles on the influence of other languages on English.

To answer your two points about 'end up' and 'notwithstanding' :

'end up' describes coming to a conclusion that was either unexpected or unplanned or possibly even surprising as in these sentences:

She started her working life as a waitress and ended up as the chief executive of a large company.

or

We set off on our travels intending to visit Paris but ended up staying in Berlin.

'notwithstanding' comes from old French and literally means 'not obstructing' but it's really a bit of a mouthful and 'although' covers the idea just as well,I think.

Best wishes

Alan

[Maryeb]

Dear Alan and "your team",

Hi, I'm one of your e-student who is received your useful emails,
I'm a member of your forum too, I like English and try different way to learn it,
I heard chatting can help to reach this purpose but I couldn't find a native speaker in chatrooms, Is there any way for members of your forum to chat each other?
I would be thankful if you helped me.

Mary

[Alan]

Hi Mary,

We have tried to avoid turning our forums into chat rooms as such but that doesn't mean that people don't talk to each other! Each of the forums has a specific purpose which is outlined in the introduction to it. Probably the most general one is: What do you want to talk about?, which might be of interest to you.

Looking forward to hearing your comments/questions/opinions in future,

Alan
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story 'the' vs. 'a/an'

[Mobin]

French is a descendant of the Latin language of the Roman Empire, as are languages such as Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Catalan and Romanian. Its development was also influenced by the native Celtic languages of Roman Gaul and by the Germanic language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders.

English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Britain by Germanic settlers and Roman auxiliary troops from various parts of what is now northwest Germany and the Northern Netherlands.

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Mobin

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