Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Thanks for this! As a French, I always wondered why this oddity.

That should also be introduced when teachers explain hexadecimal :-)




Me too!

Btw, in the spirit of the title of this thread, in English you would say "as a French person". In the past, "Frenchman" was used but it's understandably out of favour these days.

"French" can be used as an adjective but not a noun in this context. It's a very common error, I suppose since "français" can be used as an adjective or a noun en français :)


That is wrong. The demonym for a person from France is "French". It only sounds wrong to an English ear because we're so used to calling them Frenchmen, but it's chauvinism on our part, not a linguistic mistake on theirs.


And don't forget french as a verb! -said every high school guy ever


Ha! Indeed!

In fact in informal Quebecois French, it's also used as a verb, with the same meaning as in English.

As in "J'ai Frenché ma blonde" --> "I Frenched my girlfriend"




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: