Franglish Untranslatables: formation

Showing posts with label formation. Show all posts

Friday, January 29, 2016

#17 - Formation & Education

In English, the concept of "education" seems pretty coherent and straight-forward: going to school, studying, and acquiring knowledge. In French, however, they divide this concept in two: formation and éducation.

In some cases, formation and "formation" are not faux amis: la formation des montagnes means "the formation of mountains", for example. However, in relation to people, formation takes on a completely different sort of meaning.

About Franglish Untranslatables

French and English are like step-sisters. We're not from the same branch of the language family tree, it's true, but we've grown up together and a LOT of vocabulary as been begged, borrowed, or stolen both ways across the Channel in the hundreds of years that we've known each other. Much as we might hate to admit it, we have a lot in common.

However, since I've been living in France for the past year, I've come across a lot of words and concepts between French and English that, often surprisingly, don't have a real equivalent in the other language. I thought it'd be fun to explore these and share them with you by making a kind of dictionary of these untranslatable words!

I hope you find it helpful, informative, and entertaining. ^_^