French: poor - English: rich (17/100)

[Johan Viroux]

French has a poor vocabulary (André Martinet (Sorbonne University - Paris))
(it must often borrow words from Greek and Latin to make new words and the
derivation system is inefficient). In comparison, English has a much more
developed vocabulary, BESIDE the words from Latin and Greek.
Moreover, the close semantic link between the different lexemes listed here
can be directly observed by the English speaker. This is not the case for
the corresponding French words.
Let us compare:

1 shell: coquille
shellfish: crustacé; coquillage
shellproof : blindé

2 ship : bateau, navire
shipbuilding: construction navale

3 shoe: soulier
shoe repairer: cordonnier

4 short : court
short-dated : à courte échéance
short-haired : aux cheveux courts
short-sighted : myope
short-sightedness: myopie
shortage: manque, pénurie
shorthand: sténographie

5 side: côté
side door: entrée latérale
side face : de profil
side street : rue transversale

6 speech : parole, élocution, discours
speech clinic : centre d'orthophonie
speech community : communauté linguistique
speech sound : phonème
speech therapist : orthophoniste
speech therapy: orthophonie
speechless: muet, interloqué

7 speed: vitesse
speed-up: accélération

8 speleologist: spéléologue - biologist: biologiste
speleology: spéléologie - biology: biologie

9 to spell: écrire, orthographier
spelling: orthographe

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