Linguistics

Q: In French lexicology, what do you call words that are spelled in exactly the same way but have different meanings and often different pronunciations, as in *les poules du couvent couvent* (*the convent* / *brood*)?

Homographs (les homographes). Homographs ('les homographes') are words with the same spelling but different meanings and sometimes different pronunciations or grammatical categories.

Q: Fill in the missing letters. Which French accent mark, recognisable by the little hat or roof placed over vowels as in 'château', 'fête', and 'hôpital', often recalls a historical letter 's' that disappeared from the word over the centuries?

ACCENT CIRCONFLEXE. The circumflex accent (^) appears over vowels (â, ê, î, ô, û) and indicates in many French words that an 's' used to follow (compare 'hôpital' with the English 'hospital' or 'fête' with 'feast').

Q: Which French diacritical mark consists of two dots above a vowel (as in 'maïs' or 'Noël') to indicate that this vowel must be pronounced separately from the preceding one?

Le tréma. The diaeresis (le tréma) is placed over vowels like 'e', 'i', or 'u' to prevent diphthongization and indicate that the vowel is pronounced separately.

Q: Fill in the missing letters. Which linguistic term denotes a word that has (virtually) the same meaning as another word?

SYNONIEM. A synonym is a word with the same or nearly the same meaning as another word, such as *maison* and *demeure* in French.

Question 1

1

In French lexicology, what do you call words that are spelled in exactly the same way but have different meanings and often different pronunciations, as in les poules du couvent couvent (the convent / brood)?

Answer

Answer: Homographs (les homographes)Homographs ('les homographes') are words with the same spelling but different meanings and sometimes different pronunciations or grammatical categories.

Question 2

2

Fill in the missing letters. Which French accent mark, recognisable by the little hat or roof placed over vowels as in 'château', 'fête', and 'hôpital', often recalls a historical letter 's' that disappeared from the word over the centuries?

Answer

Answer: ACCENT CIRCONFLEXEThe circumflex accent (^) appears over vowels (â, ê, î, ô, û) and indicates in many French words that an 's' used to follow (compare 'hôpital' with the English 'hospital' or 'fête' with 'feast').

Question 3

3

Which French diacritical mark consists of two dots above a vowel (as in 'maïs' or 'Noël') to indicate that this vowel must be pronounced separately from the preceding one?

Answer

Answer: Le trémaThe diaeresis (le tréma) is placed over vowels like 'e', 'i', or 'u' to prevent diphthongization and indicate that the vowel is pronounced separately.

Question 4

4

Fill in the missing letters. Which linguistic term denotes a word that has (virtually) the same meaning as another word?

Answer

Answer: SYNONIEMA synonym is a word with the same or nearly the same meaning as another word, such as *maison* and *demeure* in French.

Linguistics

In French lexicology, what do you call words that are spelled in exactly the same way but have different meanings and often different pronunciations, as in les poules du couvent couvent (the convent / brood)?

Fill in the missing letters. Which French accent mark, recognisable by the little hat or roof placed over vowels as in 'château', 'fête', and 'hôpital', often recalls a historical letter 's' that disappeared from the word over the centuries?

Which French diacritical mark consists of two dots above a vowel (as in 'maïs' or 'Noël') to indicate that this vowel must be pronounced separately from the preceding one?

Fill in the missing letters. Which linguistic term denotes a word that has (virtually) the same meaning as another word?

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