Sunday, July 09, 2006

Words that begin with "ch"

I took a short hike today, and inexplicably became obsessed with the number of French words that I know which start with "ch". These are the ones I could come up with off the top of my head:
  • chacun - each
  • chaise - seat/chair
  • chalet - chalet
  • champagne - champagne
  • champignon - mushroom
  • chance - luck
  • chanteuse - singer (f)
  • chapitre - chapter
  • chaque - each
  • charme - charm
  • chauffeur - driver
  • chaussure - shoe
  • chemin - road (e.g. chemin de fer - railroad)
  • cheval - horse
  • chèvre - goat
  • chien - dog
  • chiffre - cipher (as in code) or number
  • choc - shock
  • chocolat - chocolate/hot chocolate
  • chômeur - unemployed
  • chose - thing (or something)
In running through my French dictionary, I noticed a few that I didn't think of - chambre (room); change (exchange); chanson (song); chapeau (hat); chapelle (chapel); chat (cat); etc etc. There are about 400 words beginning with "ch" in my dictionary, and I know perhaps 5% of them. Room for improvement. I wonder if this carries over to the entire dictionary. It seems unlikely that I know 5% of all those words.

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