Italian vs French: Differences and Similarities between these Languages
Italian is the official and most widely spoken language in Italy. The language started off in Florence as a direct descendant of medieval Tuscan dialect. Italian is also spoken in Switzerland, Croatia, Vatican City, San Marino, and Slovenia.
In Switzerland, it is spoken in Graubünden and Ticino cantons in the southeast. In Croatia, it is spoken mainly in Istria County in the northwest, and it is spoken in the neighboring Istria region of southwest Slovenia.
There are also Italian speakers in other countries, including Malta, Monaco, Romania, France, Eritrea, Somalia, Brazil Australia, and the USA.
French is the official language spoken in France. It is also the main language spoken in some parts of Belgium, Canada, and Switzerland. It is widely spoken in the west and north Africa. In fact, French is one of the major languages spoken around the world.
Almost 300 million population speak French as their native language or as a second language. Until the early twentieth century, French was the language of diplomacy, and one of the two main languages of international negotiation;
Today it is one of the six official languages of the United Nations, and one of the two official languages, with English, of the International Postal Union, of the International Olympic Committee, the International Red Cross, and other organizations. It is also an official language in the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey.
You may already know how to speak or planning to learn either Italian or French, you might be wondering “How similar or different is French to Italian?” We decided to put together this “Italian vs French” comparison to help you figure out the similarities and differences between the two languages.
Also Read: Italian vs French: How Different and Similar are these Languages?
Italian vs French: Similarities
Italian and French are two European languages that originated from similar origins. They both have a lot in common and the two languages are referred to as the language of beauty, passion, and warm-bloodedness. Italian vs French grammar are similar in terms of the concept of use.
The two languages are subject-verb-object languages, and conjugate verbs in similar ways. Italian and French grammar share concepts like “adverbial pronouns” that other languages like Spanish don’t have.
They also both tend to use the past perfect more than the simple past tense. But in practice, the rules are quite different for conjugation, so you have to just learn the rules again.
Check Out: GLOBAL LANGUAGE FACTS
Italian vs French: Differences
The Italian alphabet has 21 letters consisting of 5 vowels and 16 consonants while the French alphabet consists of 26 letters like the modern English alphabet.
Italian use subject pronouns in written form, but usually, it isn’t used in conversation while French use subject pronouns in written and speaking form. For example, (I love to travel) is Amo viaggiare in Italian; while it is J’aime voyager in French.
French direct object pronoun (le, la, les) is used before the verb when in Italian they are attached to the end of verbs in the infinitive form. For example, je veux la voir (I want to see her) in Italian is Voglio vederla;
Conclusion
The Italian and French languages share similar words but they are not mutually understandable to native speakers due to big differences in pronunciation and syntax.
It is important to learn the two languages if you are going to live or do business in any of the countries.
It is also important to use a translation service if you don’t understand both languages.
Comments
Post a Comment