When you're learning a new language, meeting native speakers for the first time can be a shock to the system. They seem to speak so fast. We nod wisely while desperately wondering what they're …
Tout le bleu du ciel
La rentrée littéraire is the season in which new novellists make their name and more established authors vie for the major prizes that will confirm their status. But there are other routes to the …
Reading, fast and slow
Have you already scrolled down to the bottom of the page to check how long it's going to take to read this article? Read the conclusion to see what can be skipped? Perhaps the whole thing. With any …
Encore un problème de réglé
You're in the boardroom. The CEO wants figures you haven't got. You buy time: - Là, vous m'avez pris(e) de court. La semaine prochaine irait? The expression prendre de court means to catch …
Qui vole un œuf vole un bœuf
In the same way that scientists study ice samples from glaciers to understand the climate of the past, we can learn a lot about the history of a language by reflecting on the words that make them …
Le paon, le pont, le pain
French wouldn't be French without its characteristic nasal sounds. They were the first thing that John Palsgrave noticed when he travelled to Paris in 1514. Henry VII’s daughter Mary Tudor was …