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Compounds in French | ||
Tags: Vocabulary learning | French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Surtalnar Tetraglot Groupie Germany Joined 4399 days ago 52 posts - 67 votes  Speaks: German*, Latin, English, Spanish Studies: Arabic (Written), Arabic (classical) | Message 1 of 8 30 March 2013 at 5:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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Is there a way to build compound words in French? In Spanish you can build a compound noun with 3.P.Sg. verb + noun (mostly pl.). ( http://spanish.about.com/od/spanishvocabulary/a/compounds.ht m)
Is there a similar way to build such words in French? Edited by Surtalnar on 05 April 2013 at 3:04pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5535 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 8 30 March 2013 at 6:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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French has a number of words like un casse-tête (a puzzle, literally "a break-head") which obey similar rules. Two other really common examples are lave-vaisselle and lave-linge. But I mostly hear the same few compounds over and over again, so I doubt this rule is especially productive.
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| FELlX Diglot Groupie France Joined 4773 days ago 94 posts - 149 votes Speaks: French*, English | Message 3 of 8 30 March 2013 at 8:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4710 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 4 of 8 05 April 2013 at 12:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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Unfortunately noun-compounding doesn't seem to be a feature very extensively used in
Romance languages. Slavic and Germanic languages are better at it in the Indo-European family, with the notable exception of English. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4642 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 5 of 8 05 April 2013 at 2:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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French actually has many compounds, but they have become "fixed" and most people will not think of them as consisting of different elements (e.g. "bonhomme" - bon+homme, or "gendarme" (which originally is a compound of "gens d'arme"). This could indicated that there was more flexibility in ancient French. Today you seldom see new words created this way.
This article in French Wikipedia explains quite well the different types of "mots composés" that you encounter in French. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| LaughingChimp Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4702 days ago 346 posts - 594 votes Speaks: Czech* | Message 6 of 8 05 April 2013 at 5:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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Isn't it just a spelling convention? These words still behave like the original compounds. (bonhomme --> bonshommes)
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| FELlX Diglot Groupie France Joined 4773 days ago 94 posts - 149 votes Speaks: French*, English | Message 7 of 8 06 April 2013 at 4:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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You can say "bonhommes", I guess. At least I've already heard it, though it feels a bit weird to hear "bonshommes".
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| lecavaleur Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4780 days ago 146 posts - 295 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish | Message 8 of 8 07 April 2013 at 1:00am | IP Logged | ||
English isn't an exception at all. We form compound words all the time, we just dont always stick them right together. Sometimes we make true compound words (ex. notebook), sometimes we make use of the hyphen (ex. push-up) and most often we write the words separately even while pronouncing them as though they formed a single word. My favorite example of the latter is the word "old folks home" for a retirement center or nursing home. We write it in three words, but if you pay attention to the natural pronunciation of the three together, the stress is placed on the first syllable of the 3 only, and they are pronounced together as if they were a single word (ex. oldfolkshome). 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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