{"id":250,"date":"2010-04-07T19:56:20","date_gmt":"2010-04-07T19:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=250"},"modified":"2017-10-19T11:43:20","modified_gmt":"2017-10-19T09:43:20","slug":"la-language-vs-le-langage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/la-language-vs-le-langage\/","title":{"rendered":"Confusing French Pair: La Langue vs. Le Langage"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s hard to grasp as a d\u00e9butant<\/em> (beginner), but great French writing is elegantly structured without losing its clart\u00e9.<\/em>\u00a0 More than croissants or fashion, I think la culture fran\u00e7aise se d\u00e9fine <\/em>(French culture defines itself) by its language\u2014both la langue<\/em> and le langage<\/em>.<\/p>\n

These two words fascinated me when I first learned them. They have analogies in English, but they are such important concepts in learning a new language, especially French.<\/p>\n

La langue<\/em><\/strong> is \u201cthe language,\u201d as in la langue fran\u00e7aise<\/em>, or the French language. (La langue<\/em> is also \u201cthe tongue,\u201d so when you hear about \u201cla langue de Moli\u00e8re<\/em>,\u201d make sure we\u2019re talking about the French language, not an old writer making out.)<\/p>\n

But\u2026<\/p>\n

Le langage <\/em><\/strong>is what we would also call \u201cthe language\u201d in English, but it refers to something different. Le langage <\/em>is the language used to express something, the choice of words; the wording, the expression, the verbiage.<\/p>\n

Par exemple:<\/p>\n

\u201cJ\u2019apprends une langue \u00e9trang\u00e8re\u201d<\/em>: I am learning a foreign language.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoli\u00e8re \u00e9crit dans un langage assez complexe\u201d<\/em>: Moli\u00e8re writes in fairly complex language.<\/p>\n

These are not brilliant examples, but I just want to illuminer la diff\u00e9rence<\/em> between la<\/em> langue <\/em>and le langage<\/em>. Moli\u00e8re wrote in French (la langue<\/em>) using complex vocabulary and style (le langage<\/em>).<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Moi, je suis assez forte en fran\u00e7ais<\/em> (I\u2019m pretty good at French) mais je me trompe souvent au niveau de langage<\/em> (but I mess up a lot in terms of language\/word choice\/style). For le langage familier<\/em> (colloquial, familiar language), there are lots of ways to practice, and we\u2019ll talk about them soon. But le langage sublime<\/em>, the one protected by les Lumi\u00e8res<\/em> from Hichem\u2019s last post, is much harder to maitr\u00eeser<\/em> (master).<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dans ce th\u00e8me, j\u2019ai une proposition pour vous<\/em>. (In this theme, I have a proposal for you.) I\u2019d like to start writing, de temps en temps<\/em> (from time to time), about a few choice examples of la litt\u00e9rature<\/em> fran\u00e7ais<\/em>e. I\u2019ll pull a few lines from my favorite works, and we can talk about the language (langue et langage<\/em>), the vocabulary, the style, and the culture emanating from the lines. Being familiar with great works will win you many friends among the French, who are justifiably fiers<\/em> of their tradition litt\u00e9raire<\/em>. It will also improve your French, langue (vocabulaire, et cetera) et langage.<\/em> At the very least, it will make you sound great at cocktail parties.<\/p>\n

\u00c7a vous dit?<\/em> Does that sound good? If so, then coming up soon will be one of my absolute favorites. Give you a clue: it\u2019s by the same author as La Com\u00e9die humaine<\/em> and it starts with a man alone at a party, looking out over Paris. Allez-y, devinez! <\/em>(Guess!) L\u2019\u00e9crivain s\u2019appelle\u2026?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s hard to grasp as a d\u00e9butant (beginner), but great French writing is elegantly structured without losing its clart\u00e9.\u00a0 More than croissants or fashion, I think la culture fran\u00e7aise se d\u00e9fine (French culture defines itself) by its language\u2014both la langue and le langage. These two words fascinated me when I first learned them. They have…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,6,13],"tags":[8144,8143,8145,8131],"class_list":["post-250","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-culture","category-grammar","category-vocabulary","tag-langage","tag-langue","tag-litterature","tag-lumieres"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t