Comments on: Reader Piqued By French Mutilations

By: Maeve

Maeve — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:02:09 +0000

Gay,
The French accent mark (not “comma”) that slants to the right on an e is called the accent aigu. The accent mark that goes in the opposite direction is the accent grave (pronounced with a long a [grahv].

By: TheMidnightMarauder

TheMidnightMarauder — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 10:27:01 +0000

I think it’s called an aigue… although I’m not sure about the spelling. The other one (which slants the other side and makes the e sounds like the one in “bed”) is called a grave. Hope that helped =)

By: Gay

Gay — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 03:04:23 +0000

What is the french term for the comma above an “e” where it is then pronounced as an “a”? As in touche’

By: DW Joyes

DW Joyes — Mon, 18 May 2009 23:21:09 +0000

1> ‘Deja vu all over again’ is almost always a joke, not a good one, but just a joke.

2> Words and phrases change their meanings when they move between languages, cultures, continents, classes and so forth, sometimes subtly, sometimes grossly.

3> The modern or common or distant usage may or may not retain some relationship to the ‘original’ meaning, but it is still good usage. It is not the original meaning of a loanword that will get it in the OED, but the common, accepted meaning.

4> Purism is limited and stultifying. Learn what words mean, and what they might once have meant, generations ago or oceans away, but languages are alive and evolving.

By: Ruth Bolger

Ruth Bolger — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 01:42:04 +0000

How about the word “entrée”? In France, it is the starter or entry into the meal. In America, everyone uses it as the main course (Stouffers frozen entrées) and I even see French restaurants use it as the header for their main course selections!
Does anyone know how and when this confusion began?