"fact" in seven languages
Meaningfact
Spanish
/ˈetʃo/
masc.inherited
French
/fɛ/
masc.inherited
The t is often pronounced in the singular: un fait [fɛt], en fait.
Italian
/ˈfatto/
masc.inherited
Portuguese
/ˈfatu/
masc.learned
The inherited FACTUM is feito 'done'; European Portuguese spells the learned word facto (fato there is 'suit').
Romanian
/fapt/
neut.inherited
Romanian turns -CT- into -pt-: FACTUM → fapt, as NOCTEM → noapte.
Catalan
/fet/
masc.inherited
English
/fækt/
from Latin/French · Latin factum
The Latin ancestor
FACTUM‘a thing done (participle of FACERE)’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
A fact is 'a thing done', and in all three sisters the noun is also the participle of 'to do': hecho, fait, fatto. CT shows its three fates: ch, it, tt.
English relatives: feat, factual, manufacture
Sound laws at work
Learn it
In a sentence
- esEl hecho es que no lo sé.
- frLe fait est que je ne sais pas.
- itIl fatto è che non lo so.
- ptO fato é que eu não sei.
- roFaptul e că nu știu.
- caEl fet és que no ho sé.
- enThe fact is that I don't know.
The Latin family
FAC-, FACT-· do, make
FACERE is the busiest verb in Latin, and its participle FACTUM split cleanly in two: worn down in speech to hecho, fait, fatto, and borrowed back intact by scholars as fact, factual, faction. Spanish adds a twist of its own, turning Latin F- into a silent h- (Old Spanish fazer, fecho). Portuguese feito and Catalan fet vocalize the cluster as French does, while Romanian, true to the Eastern branch, turns -CT- into -pt-: fapt.
FACEREto do, make
eshacerfrfaireitfareptfazerrofacecafer
FACTUMdone; a deed
eshechofrfaititfattoptfeitorofaptcafetenfact
PERFECTUMcompleted, perfect
esperfectofrparfaititperfettoptperfeitoroperfectcaperfecteenperfect
FACTIŌNEMa making; a party, faction
frfaçonptfeiçãoenfashion
FACTIŌNEMa party, faction (learned)
esfacciónfrfactionitfazioneptfacçãorofacțiunecafaccióenfaction
FACTŪRAMa making, workmanship
esfacturafrfactureitfatturaptfaturarofacturăcafactura