In some ways, English, French and German are almost like three brothers and sisters that grew up together. Each language influenced the other two languages in some ways, but one of the biggest influences on English was French.

　　从某种意义上来说，英语、法语和德语像共同成长的兄弟姐妹一样。每种语言都在某种程度上影响了其他两种语言。但影响英语最大的是法语。

　　In fact, from the 9th century until the 14th century, a form of French was even the “official” language in the courts of England! During those years, the common (non-royal) people spoke an older form of English, while the kings, queens and members of the court spoke French. And to make it more confusing, most documents were written in Latin.

　　事实上，从9世纪到14世纪，法语甚至是英国宫廷的官方语言!这期间，平民(非王室成员)说古英语，而国王、王后和宫廷成员说法语。而且更令人不解的是，大多数的文件是由拉丁文书写的。

　　As you can imagine, there was a lot of mixing between those languages. So let’s look at some interesting English words that still “look French.”

　　你可以想象的到，这些语言之间产生了许多混合。所以我们来看看这些“看起来法式”的趣味英语单词。

　　One more note: Be sure to listen to the pronunciations for these originally-French words. Many are probably said differently than you might expect!

　　要注意：听清楚这些源自法语的词汇发音。许多或许和你想象中的不太一样。

　　1. Ballet

　　芭蕾

　　This is a form of dance that is popular throughout much of the world. Because this dancing style developed in France, many of the words that people use to talk about ballet also come from French. Non-ballet dancers would probably only know the words “ballerina” and “tutu” from that list, though.

　　这是一种在世界大部分地区很流行的舞蹈。因为这种舞蹈在法国发展起来，人们用来谈论芭蕾的许多词也来自法语。非芭蕾舞者或许只知道“芭蕾舞女演员”和“芭蕾舞裙”这些词。

　　It’s important to note how the word “ballet” is pronounced. Here you don’t pronounce the “t” at the end. Instead, the second syllable should sound like “lay,” with the same vowel sound as the letter “a.”

　　注意芭蕾是如何发音的很重要。末尾的t不发音，相反的，第二个音节的发音应该和lay相似，和字母a的发音相同。

　　That’s an interesting thing about some of these French loanwords: Some are pronounced like an English word, but others are pronounced more like in French.

　　一些法语外来词很有意思：有些的发音像英语，而另一些发音更像法语。

　　Here are a few other examples of French loanwords that end in “-et” but are pronounced like an “a” at the end: “buffet,” “gourmet,” “filet,” “chalet” and even the car company “Chevrolet.”

　　还有一些其他的法语外来词以-et结尾，但是发音像字母a，例如buffet(自助餐)，gourmet(美食家)，filet(肉片)和chalet(小木屋)，还有汽车公司Chevrolet(雪佛兰)。

　　例句：

　　My niece and nephew are in ballet class, so I watched their 5-hour ballet performance on Saturday. It was pretty long.

　　我的侄子和侄女在上芭蕾课，所以我周六看了他们五小时的芭蕾表演，真的很长。

　　2. Café

　　咖啡馆，小餐馆

　　In English, this is the name for a small, usually informal restaurant. It often has small tables, and sometimes there are also tables outside. It is written both with the accent mark (“café”) and without it (“cafe”) in English.

　　在英语中，这是小餐馆的称呼，通常是不太正式的餐厅。餐馆里有小桌子，有时候外面也会有些桌子。在英语中书写的时候可以加重音符，café，也可以不加重音符cafe。

　　“Cafe” comes from the French word for “coffee,” but it’s also very similar to other words related to coffee in many other languages. Usually, cafes do serve coffee. But if a place only serves coffee (and not any food), then it’s normally called a “coffee shop.”

　　cafe源于法语单词咖啡coffee，但和许多其他语言中与咖啡相关的词类似。通常，小餐馆确实提供咖啡。但如果一个地方只提供咖啡，没有任何食物，那通常会被称为咖啡馆。

　　Also note that there’s a similar word, “cafeteria,” that causes some confusion. Generally, a cafeteria is like a small restaurant that is for a specific group of people. You’ll often find cafeterias at schools or large companies. In those cases, the cafeterias are for the people who study or work in the building.

　　还要注意有一个相似的词语，cafeteria(自助餐厅)，这引起了一些混淆。通常来说，自助餐厅像是针对特定人群的小餐厅。你可以在学校或大公司找到自助餐厅。这些情况下，自助餐厅是针对那些在此处学习或工作的人。

　　例句：

　　I’ve only got about 20 minutes for lunch, so I’ll just stop at a cafe for a quick sandwich.

　　我只有20分钟吃午餐，所以我在小餐馆很快吃个三明治就好了。

　　3. Croissant

　　羊角面包

　　Some of the most common (and best!) loanwords are related to food. That’s because many foods are closely connected to a particular culture, and other languages often don’t always have words for foods from other cultures.

　　一些最常见(而且最好)的外来词都是和食物有关。那是因为许多种类的食物会和某种特定的文化紧密相连，而其他语言通常无法一直有特定的词汇可以描述源于外国文化的食物。

　　A croissant is a type of pastry or bread that is light and flaky. “Flaky” means the croissant leaves lots of little crumbs on your plate when you eat it.

　　羊角面包是一种轻软易碎的点心或面包。Flaky表示吃羊角面包时会残留许多碎屑在盘子里。

　　A similar type of bread in English is a “crescent roll.” “Roll” is the name of a small piece of bread.

　　在英语中相似的面包种类是新月形面包。Roll是小面包的称呼。

　　例句:

　　Tina really loves to make croissants because they taste better than other types of bread.

　　缇娜真的喜欢制作羊角面包，因为它们尝起来比其他种类的面包更好。

　　4. Entrepreneur

　　企业家

　　This is definitely a word that you should hear pronounced, since it can be a little tricky even for native English speakers.

　　这肯定是一个你应该听清楚发音的词，因为对母语是英语的人来说，这个词的发音有点难。

　　An entrepreneur is a person who starts their own company. Other common forms of the word include “entrepreneurship” (a noun) or “entrepreneurial” (an adjective).

　　企业家是一个自己开创的人。这个词其他常见的形式包括“企业家精神”(名词)或“企业家的”(形容词)。

　　例句:

　　Elon Musk, the man who started SpaceX and Tesla Motors, is one of the most famous entrepreneurs in the world.

　　埃隆•马斯克，SpaceX和特斯拉的创始人，是世界上最著名的企业家之一。