Tutorial Transcript

hi everybody Candace here welcome to ask a teacher but I answer your most common French question the question for this lesson is why are French words spelled so differently from how they are pronounced French spelling and pronunciation may be one of the biggest stumbling blocks for French learners and there are lots of reasons why French words look so different from how they are pronounced the main reason is history the French language is often called a mix between Latin from the Romans and Girish the ancient language of goal on modern-day France and Belgium Latin was used as the writing system but all the time as more people became literate French also became a written language the only problem was that there was no standardized way of spelling here to heal was sometimes spelled with an A for Maj was sometimes spelled like this Francois was famously spelt with a Y and remembered that many of the people who could read and write also knew Latin so when l'académie française was task with standardizing french there was a big debate should French be spelled the way it sounds or should it show its Latin roots for this reason it might feel like you are only pronouncing half a word this is to show its Latin origins which were once pronounced or just as important the pronunciation might have changed while the spelling stayed the same for example the ending of third-person plural verbs used to be pronounced now it's silent and just sounds like the third person singular it also like to some interesting spelling innovations for example the circumflex this accent means that an S used to follow the letter feds used to be fast of fists but used to be best or best so the short answer is that our language changes why spelling often stays the same however in 2016 d Academy made spelling reforms if you pay attention you can see language changing all the time did you have any more questions please leave them in the comments below and I try to answer them Adamo see you soon you

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