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Learn French 15: Ordinateur, Oui

Learning a new language is like an orange, it can be a fruit and a colour. It opens up an array of opportunities and at the same time allows you to blend with a new culture. Let's go for it.


Ordinateur

Computer


Oui

Yes



J'ai un ordinateur dans ma chambre.

I have a computer in my room.


Je joue aux jeux videos sur mon ordianteur.

I play video games on my computer.


L'ordinateur est utile? Oui, l'ordinateur est très utile.

Is the computer useful? Yes, the computer is very useful.


The computer has become a very important place in our lives. It has become a neccessity.

One can use the word portable with it.

Portable - able to carry.

l'ordinateur portable - The laptop


The second word is OUI - it means Yes.

Obviously one knows when you use it. However I have used Oui in one of the sentences.





Culture tip: In 1955, IBM brought a new computer to France. They needed a word for the device and IBM decided to create something new instead.

François Girard, (the head of the advertising department) at IBM France, thought that computer was too similar to calculatrice (calculator) and wanted to find a better name for the new electronic machine intended for information processing.

In an effort to find a good french name, François Girard asked his old humanities professor, Jacques Perret, for advice.

Monsieur Perret had a suggestion based on a rare word, ordonnateur: someone who puts things in order. The word comes from le verbe ordonner, meaning to put in order, to order, to arrange, which comes from le mot latin: ordinare.

Monsieur Perret’s idea was more cumbersome than the final word: ordinatrice

électronique.

Eventually, IBM settled on ordinateur as le mot for the new product. At firstz, IBM wanted to keep the word ordinateur as a trademark, but l’ordinateur became too popular and entered the french language as a normal word.


Ordinare → Ordonner → Ordonnateur → Ordinateur


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