French vs. the French

[Lucia]

Test No. incompl/elem-8 "Articles", question 10

Are you studying foreign languages at school, like .........?

(a) French
(b) a French
(c) the French

Test No. incompl/elem-8 "Articles", answer 10

Are you studying foreign languages at school, like French?

Correct answer: (a) French

Your answer was: incorrect
Are you studying foreign languages at school, like the French?
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Can you explain the difference between using "the" in front of nationality word, such as French, please? Thank you.

[Torsten]

You can speak French, Polish, Chinese, Italian, Mongolian etc. which means you use the French/Polish etc. language.

You can speak about the French, the Polish, the Chinese etc. which means you make remarks about a nation or a people in general.

Please, take a look at this post too:
http://www.english-test.net/forum/ftopic1368.html

TOEIC short conversations: A business man phones to say he will be late for a presentation.

[Sheela Rajapaksha]

Dear sri
lessons number 6 i have anser 17 test sometime i got 7 correct sometime 5 like that i have done it ,s very intresting thak you
sheela

[ImtheKiller]

Sorry Torsten, I doesn't understood your reply.

Why this sentence is wrong "Are you studying foreign languages at school, like 'a French'?"

Are we not referring to one person in this sentence

[Beeesneees]

The number of people is irrelevant. When you refer to a language you are not talking about a person,

I study French.
I study German.
I study Urdu.
I study English.

There is no article. No use of 'a' or 'the' before the word French.
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Cheers m' dears!

[Alan]

Of course if you are talking about the people in France, you would say the French.

Alan
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Present Simple

[ImtheKiller]

Thankyou Beeesnees and Alan

[Kaimun]

[Narges2]

Hi Torsten
your explenation about cases of usage of the before french is excellent
tanks a lot

best regards
narges2