"general" in seven languages
Meaninggeneral
Spanish
general
/xeneˈɾal/
learned
French
général
/ʒeneʁal/
learned
plural: généraux
Italian
generale
/dʒeneˈrale/
learned
Portuguese
geral
/ʒeˈɾaw/
learned
Romanian
general
/dʒeneˈral/
borrowed · French général (Latin GENERĀLIS)
Catalan
general
/ʒənəˈɾal/
learned
English
general
/ˈdʒɛnɚəl/
from Latin/French · Old French general, from Latin
English → ItaliangeneralgeneraleCognateSame source — inherited, learned or borrowed. You can recognize it.What English and Italian share
The Latin ancestor
GENERĀLEM‘of the whole kind (from GENUS 'birth, kind')’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
A learned word, spelled alike everywhere, but the g before e is said three ways: Spanish x, French ʒ, Italian dʒ. All four languages also use it as a noun for the army officer.
English relatives: generate, generous, gender, genre
Sound laws at work
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In a sentence
- esEn general, estoy de acuerdo.
- frEn général, je suis d'accord.
- itIn generale, sono d'accordo.
- ptEm geral, concordo.
- roÎn general, sunt de acord.
- caEn general, hi estic d'acord.
- enIn general, I agree.
More words from the same Latin
More in Describing words
- whole, entireenteroentierinterointeiroîntregsencer
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- able, capablecapazcapablecapacecapazcapabilcapaç
- locallocallocallocalelocallocallocal
- socialsocialsocialsocialesocialsocialsocial
- wrong, incorrectincorrectofauxsbagliatoerradogreșitincorrecte