verb "to be" substituting for "to have" and the adjectival form substituting for the nominative one. French speakers may well translate this phrase literally when they are initially learning English to "I have hunger", but because this is only a single phrase and not a pervasive element of their new language – as well as because it is such a common one – they should quickly be able to learn this one new phrase.
Although English and French are obviously different languages, they are nevertheless relatively closely related ones, sharing not only a common ancestral language in Indo-European but also a substantial amount of shared vocabulary as a result of the Norman Conquest of England in the 11th century and the ensuing imposition of French as the official language of England, Although English relatively quickly reasserted itself, it remained forever influenced by this historical fact and as a result bears far more words of French origin than do other languages in its family. The speaker of French learning English will recognize many more old friends then if he or she began to learn Dutch or Frisian, for example. T
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