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Pronunciation 1
Quelques règles
Difficult sounds
bit thrift Al Hofmann a heavy sample
beat strength happy a heterogeneous sample
bite fifth hanging Graham
sheet shit anhydrous Apple
Accentuation
mountain standing ovation accent
determine shocked accentuation
granite spelling checker clothed
period imaginary determining
signature February amphibian
examine
1. Agreement between adjectives and plural nouns e.g. “reds flowers”
2. Use of the present perfect tense instead of the perfect e.g. “we have done the experiment”
instead of “we did the experiment”
3. Excessive use of abbreviations, such as “we’ve”, “don’t”, “can’t”, “it’s”. Use instead “we
have”, “do not”, “cannot”, “it is”.
4. Excessive use of the “Germanic possessive”, such as “dinosaurs’ extinction”, “methane’s
effect”; use instead “extinction of dinosaurs”, “effect of methane”
5. Use of “it’s” and “its”. “it’s” is the abbreviation of “it is”. Like other abbreviations, it
should be avoided in scientific writing. “its” is the possessive form; e.g. “its weight is 5 g”.
It is often better to say “the weight of the sample is 5 g”.
6. Tendency to start each sentence with a word like Indeed ... , Moreover ... , Nonetheless ... ,
However ..., In fact ... , And yet ..., So ... In English, sentences follow one another without
conjunctional words or phrases.
7. Use of allow, permit, enable, etc e.g. “the data allow to show … ” Instead you should
write ”the data allow us to show” or “the data allow the demonstration …” or “the data
allow the result to be verified … ”. This construction is useful in French but awkward in
English. It is okay just to say “the data show …”; “
Main Errors of Scientific English written by French Speakers 2
8. Incorrect use of the personal pronoun. “The satellite was launched yesterday. He is
performing well”. “The satellite, who was launched yesterday, is performing well”.
Instead say “The satellite was launched yesterday. It is performing well”. “The satellite,
which was launched yesterday, is performing well”. Or “The satellite that was launched
yesterday is performing well. The satellite that was launched last week has crashed”.
9. Lack of capital letters in adjectives derived from proper nouns e.g. “the french language”
instead of “the French language”. Note also the capitals on the names of days and months;
e.g. Wednesday, January,
10. Use of “information”, “knowledge”, “evidence”, “progress”, “data” etc in the plural e.g.
it is wrong to say “these informations” or “these evidences”. In scientific English,
“evidence” is never used as a verb.
11. Use of “superior”, “important”, “inferior”. In French these words indicate quality or
quantity e.g. “cet instrument est supérieur à l’autre (qualité) ou “la teneur en Pb est
supérieure à cellle en As” ou “la teneur en Pb est plus importante que celle en As”
(quantité). In English, it is wrong to say “the Pb content is superior to the As one”; or
“the Pb content is more important than that of As”. In English, these words only
indicate quality. You should say “the Pb content is higher (or greater) than that of As.”
12. Use of the false conditional: “If the results are not entirely convincing, they do provide
some clues …” You should say “Although the results are not entirely convincing, they
do provide some clues …” or “Even if the results are not entirely convincing, they do
provide some clues …”
Main Errors of Scientific English written by French Speakers 3
13. Use of informal expressions or slang e.g. “These guys showed …”, “cause”, “snuffed
out”. “Because” is a perfectly good word; there is no need to substitute “since” or “as”.
14. Use of “since” and “during”. It is incorrect to say “the satellite has been in space since 2
years”. Instead say “the satellite has been in space for 2 years”. Also correct: “Since it
was launched, the satellite has performed well”, “During its time in space, the satellite
made many measurements”.
15. In English, the colon “:” and semi-colon “;” are not preceded by a space. The decimal is
indicated by a period “.” not a comma “,” e.g. 1,200.56 euros = one thousand two hundred
euros and fifty-six centimes.
16. Misused or miss-spelt words and phrases:
• actually (in English this means that something is true; not that it is happening now);
• constrain (the verb), constrainT (the noun);
• “to resume” means to start again. It should not be confused with “to summarize”
• “There was 1000 years”, instead of “1000 years ago” (“franglais” de “il y a 1000 ans”)
• “for the 3000 last years”, instead of “for the last 3000 years”
• “to precise”, instead of “to determine, to establish (precisely)”
• “thanks to (this method/results)… , instead of “Using this method …” or “These
results show …”. Thanks to est uniquement dit d’une personne !
• Incorrect use of the ellipsis “…”. In French, it is often used to indicate an incomplete
list; in English it means that some words or phrases are missing; to end a list in English,
use “etc” or “and so on”
http://perso.ens-lyon.fr/francis.albarede/franglais.php
Si vous voulez les faire rire, prononcez vocaBIOUlary à la place de veKAbleré (vocabulary).
Quelques faux amis (plagié d’une page du CERN)
tournure incorrecte sens visé signifie remplacer par
actually actuellement en fait, en réalité (just) now, at present, at the present
time, currently, nowadays
already in 1990 depuis 1990 incompréhensible as far back as 1990/as early as 1990
arrive to do something arriver à faire arriver pour faire manage to do something, to succeed
in doing something
to control contrôler ambigu sci: check, count, examine, inspect,
measure, monitor, observe;
tech: govern, maintain, limit
Il s'emploie :
En français, l'auxiliaire "être en train de", devant un infinitif, indique qu'une action ou un état
sont en cours. En anglais, on utilise la forme progressive:
Le Futur/the Future
Le Passé
Une forme littéraire en français. Elle situe l'évènement dans le passé si l'énoncé est un récit et n'exprime
pas la prise en compte de la durée.
Louis XIV régna en monarque absolu / Louis the 16th reigned as an absolute monarch
We went shopping yesterday / hier, nous avons fait les courses (= passé composé)
We obtained the following results / nous avons obtenu les resultats suivants (= passé composé)
We performed an experiment / nous avons fait un expérience (= passé composé)
LES FORMES VERBALES TEMPORELLES / THE TENSES OF VERBS
L'imparfait / Imperfect
Cette forme situe l'événement dans le passé. En français, il exprime une notion de durée ou de
répétition; en anglais, on l'utilise pour signifier une action continue dans le passé.
Hier, il neigeait (= durée)/ It was snowing yesterday (toléré, mais pas usuel)
(a) pour une action ou un état situé dans le passé et qui continue jusqu'au présent
I have lived in Rennes for five years
(I lived in Mainz for five years but now I live in Rennes - action terminée dans le passé)
Incorrect :
In our experiment, we have measured the density of the rock
Correct :
In our experiment, we measured the density of the rock
Les Adjectifs
(1) En anglais les adjectifs sont placés avant le nom
but…. a house with garage, a dress of great beauty, a room rectangular in shape
red(s) flowers
trace(s) element(s) ratios [trace-element ratios]
(3) les adjectifs dérivés d'un substantif ne prennent jamais un "s", même si le nom est
pluriel
Nd, Sr and Pb isotope(s) ratios
trace(s) elements
Les Adjectifs
(4) Ne pas confondre les adjectifs et les formes au génitif
(5) Les adjectifs dérivés d'un nom propre gardent leur MAJUSCULE
(6) Les adjectifs employés comme des substantifs sont inhabituels en anglais
Les noires sont les plus intéressantes de toutes les pistes aux Deux Alpes
The black runs are the most interesting of all the runs at the Deux Alpes
Mais
Dans la communité scientifique, les francais sont une minorité
In the scientific community, the French are a minority
Les Adjectifs
(7) Les adjectifs composés - emploi du tiret
(8) Les chaînes de noms et adjectifs - une mauvaise habitude en anglais scientifique