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Lesson 50.03B2

Science & Technology

Science & Technology

Science writing chains together nominalized verbs with de — good practice for parsing dense French science journalism, and a topic area where English cognates are especially generous.

Grammar Comparison

Grammar Comparison

Nominalized process words dominate science register

French

le développement de l'intelligence artificielle (the development of artificial intelligence)

English

the development of artificial intelligence

Science writing packs several nominalized verbs into noun phrases (le développement, la découverte, l'invention) chained together with de — the same -tion/-ment pattern from Lesson 42 applied to a technical topic. Much of this vocabulary is a near-direct cognate of English scientific terminology (l'intelligence artificielle, la technologie, l'innovation), so practice reading these dense noun chains by mentally unpacking the verb inside each one rather than treating them as unfamiliar words.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary

FrenchPronunciationEnglish
la recherchelah ruh-SHAIRSHresearch
la découvertelah day-koo-VAIRTthe discovery
l'intelligence artificiellelan-tel-ee-ZHAHNS ar-tee-fee-SYELartificial intelligence
l'ordinateurlor-dee-nah-TUHRthe computer
le logicielluh loh-zhee-SYELthe software
inventeran-vahn-TAYto invent
l'expériencelex-pay-RYAHNSthe experiment
les donnéeslay doh-NAYthe data
le réseauluh ray-ZOHthe network
numériquenoo-may-REEKdigital
la technologielah tek-noh-loh-ZHEEtechnology
l'innovationlee-noh-vah-SYOHNinnovation