What languages does English borrow from?
Ranking from most influential to least, English is composed of words from: Latin, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Scandinavian, Japanese, Arabic, Portuguese, Sanskrit, Russian, Maori, Hindi, Hebrew, Persian, Malay, Urdu, Irish, Afrikaans, Yiddish, Chinese, Turkish, Norwegian, Zulu, and Swahili.
Are there more French or English words?
There are about six times more words in the English language than in French. As of 2021 the Complete Oxford Dictionary has 600,000 unique words against 100,000 words (totalling 350,000 meanings) for the Grand Robert (the most complete French dictionary).
Why English has so many French words?
It was the Normans in particular and the dialect they spoke was a different dialect of French. … So during this period, there was a time when documents written in English could rarely be found because French had become the language of England, and this resulted in a great many French words being borrowed in English.
What came first French or English?
English has its roots in the Germanic languages, from which German and Dutch also developed, as well as having many influences from romance languages such as French. (Romance languages are so called because they are derived from Latin which was the language spoken in ancient Rome.)
Is French or German closer to English?
By linguist criteria English is more similar to German, both belong in the West Germanic languages and its vocabulary has been influenced by other Germanic languages as well.
What English words came from French?
25 French words used in English
- déjà-vu = déjà-vu. déjà = already. …
- à la mode = à la mode (not used as such in French) à (preposition) = in(to), at. …
- cul-de-sac = cul-de-sac. …
- RSVP = répondez s’il vous plaît. …
- chaise longue = chaise longue. …
- crème brûlée = crème brûlée. …
- du jour = du jour. …
- café au lait = café au lait.
What is the richest language?
The Top 10 Business Languages of the World in 2018 by GDP (IMF)
| Rank | Language | GDP($US Billions) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | 28.088 |
| 2 | Chinese | 26.56 |
| 3 | Spanish | 8.17 |
| 4 | Arabic | 7.1 |
Which language has most bad words?
The Polish language, like most others, has swear words and profanity. Some words are not always seen as very insulting, however, there are others that are considered by some greatly offensive and rude.
Which language is richer English or French?
Steven Frank, the author of The Pen Commandments claims that English has 500,000 words with German having about 135,000 and French having fewer than 100,000. … A blog post for The Economist agrees that English is rich in vocabulary, but comparisons with other languages can’t be made for several reasons.