Isn’t that a good reason to learn some French even if you aren’t going to France for your next holiday? As a teacher of English in France and French in our country I always relied on building confidence and making learning fun.
Everyone of you reading this already know hundreds of French words! Cognates are words that have the same meaning and are very close in spelling to the French. There are over 2500 cognates! No space here for a full list, but ask me if you want more. For instance, doctor is docteur in French. Interior is interieur. I expect that you have noticed that our 'or' changes to 'eur'. Other examples are creator becomes createur, cultivator is cultivateur, elector is electeur, emperor is empereur etc.
Another, I think interesting thing is that when one of our words starts in 's' , the French equivalent sometimes starts in 'e'. Our school is their école. Change 'e' to 's' and scole sounds more like school. Our word study is French étude. Swap the 'e' to 's' and stude sounds more like study!
I find language fascinating and hope that you do too. We are never the wrong age to learn. In France my youngest pupil was three. She was my doctor’s daughter. I worked for the Chamber of Commerce, Chambre de Commerce! My oldest group of students were over eighty!
Amusez vous en Mai!
Amuse yourself in May!
Esmé