Words with a French flavour

Following the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, French became the country’s ruling language for over 300 years! The result: thousands of French words entered the English language.

In each of the sentences below, see if you can identify which of the words in bold made its way into the English language from la langue de Molière.

1. As its signature dish, the restaurant served meat pastries filled with beef and spices.
2. The wordspurchase” and “buy” are synonyms, but they belong to different levels of language.
3. My husband and I are looking forward to our new electric car.
4. Vancouver is a densely populated city with mountains to the north and ocean to the west.
5. The item of furniture known as the “Barcelona chair” was designed for the 1929 exposition held in Barcelona, Spain.
6. Canada is the second largest country in the world, with vast expanses of wilderness.
7. Mark has travelled to locations across Canada to indulge his love of rock climbing.
8. It takes all kinds of people to make an office run properly.
9. On the menu tonight: rice-stuffed cabbage rolls with fresh red tomatoes.
10. ”The Boat People,” a novel by author Sharon Bala, was a contender for Canada Reads one year.