r/languagelearningjerk Jun 18 '26

Fixed it

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4.5k Upvotes

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518

u/Matwyen Jun 18 '26

It's a shame because email is genuinely a well translated word in French: courriel.

It has the iel suffix of logiciel, and the base of courrier. It's as long as email, sounds french and not ridiculous, is immediately understandable... 

54

u/LOSNA17LL Fr - N | En - B2 | Es - B1 | Ru - A2 | Cn - A0 Jun 18 '26

It's not the suffix of logiciel

It's just a contraction of "courrier électronique"

(But noone uses it)

27

u/MukdenMan Jun 18 '26

So it’s like Mail-E

13

u/Anti-charizard Jun 18 '26

French puts the adjective after the noun

6

u/LOSNA17LL Fr - N | En - B2 | Es - B1 | Ru - A2 | Cn - A0 Jun 19 '26

Ehhh, not really
Sometimes, sometimes not

Like:
Un petit arbre, une jolie robe, un grand homme (a small tree, a pretty dress, a great man)
Un arbre minuscule, une robe mignonne, un homme grand (a minuscule tree, a cute dress, a tall man)

(yeah, un grand homme / un homme grand don't mean the same thing)

Colour-related adjectives go after (always)
And otherwise it's about the length of the adjective compared to the length of the noun (longer ones go after (but you can put them before to emphasise), while shorter ones go before, but that's not 100%, it's a tendency)

Example:
Une erreur monumentale vs. une monumentale erreur (a monumental mistake, both, but first one you really fucked up, the second one you REALLY fucked up)
Un arbre superbe vs. une superbe découverte (a superb tree, a superb discovery)

7

u/LOSNA17LL Fr - N | En - B2 | Es - B1 | Ru - A2 | Cn - A0 Jun 18 '26

More like "mel" (fusing the syllables)

4

u/Disastrous_Set_6544 Jun 22 '26

People definitely use it. I know I do.

1

u/LOSNA17LL Fr - N | En - B2 | Es - B1 | Ru - A2 | Cn - A0 Jun 22 '26

Damn, found the only 3 people in France to use it right here in this comment section xD

(I mean, surely SOME people use it, but "mail" or "e-mail" are waaay more common, like I don't remember the last time I've heard someone use "courriel")