In French, the old word for School had an S between the first and third letters Source: Pixabay Credit: Romaniamissions Using Improper Accents, or No Accents Here are some online French classes that you may want to check out. Your French teacher would surely count writing the second in place of the first as an error. But for space, they are spelt identically, down to the accent over the letter O, yet their meaning is not even close! In speaking the word, there is no difference from one to the other. So in English, as in French, a language that is overwhelmingly populated with such words.Ĭiting just one example: aussit ôt, meaning immediately versus aussi tôt as early, or so early. We understand the intended meaning of a homonym by its context. Invariably, using the wrong homophone would be counted as a spelling error on any French language quiz you may sit, even if, in itself, it is spelt correctly.Īctually, the first category of words is included under the broader umbrella of the more expanded second category.Ī homonym may or may not be spelled the same way as its sister-words, but definitely does not have the same meaning.Īn example of a homonym from the English language would be the word right, which can mean not left, or indicates that something is correct, or represents a civil liberty. While you may pronounce French words from that set correctly, and even spell any given word flawlessly, the confusion lies in spelling the word that represents the idea you wish to convey. Imagine the text in which you mean to say you are sane instead you declare you are breast!
Respectively, they represent: breast, saint, sane, signature gird your loins or make yourself ready, and surrounded by. How is the intermediate French learner supposed to keep them all straight?Īs for their meaning. The French language is lousy with same-sounding words, which makes it truly difficult to determine which one is called for at any given time.Ĭonsider this word set: sein, saint, sain, seing, ceins, and ceint are all pronounced the same, despite their obviously different letter composition. Searching for French lessons London produces the most results for face to face courses on Superprof but there are always plenty of tutors available for French lessons online.ĭiscover the various French lessons on Superprof here. And, don't forget, tutors are readily available to help you learn the language. Superprof endeavours to shine the light on commonly misspelt words in French, not on a per word basis, but by pointing out the spelling rules and why it is so vital to avoid those spelling mistakes.
One of the biggest aspects of not learning correct spelling in French is the risk of misunderstanding misspelt words. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that any French lesson generally focuses first on French pronunciation and learning to recognise the words, rather than spelling words correctly. French spelling, to be exact, where the potential for a whole host of trouble lies.Īs in French, so in other languages: dictionaries are not much help if you don't know the proper spelling of the word in question. Granted, he was only talking, and we're discussing spelling. We only need to think of Lord Spooner, who is famous for that act some of his utterances went down in history as classically absurd, and are still studied today.įrom his mouth, Our Lord is a loving shepherd became Our Lord is a shoving leopard. Leaving off a single letter, or transposing letters within a word or phrase can sometimes yield comical results. Let's face it: spelling, in any language, is not the most amenable of arts.