I remember when I was a child at school and the schoolteacher taught us the spelling rule of the “m” that replaces “n” when followed by “m”, “b” or “p”.
We did not
understand the reason why we had to do that, but we learnt the rule, and very
quickly it became a game for us to spot the words that were concerned by this
rule, and it also became so obvious to write this “m” instead of the “n” that
we would have been shocked if we had seen those words written differently. With
a little bit of practice, you will feel exactly the same way, and writing the
correct spelling will become automatic.
This rule
comes from the fact that the majority of French words come from Latin, like the
word “bombus” which became “bombe” (bomb) in French. However, in the old days
(really old days) you could also find some “nb” or “np” associations.
Basically,
like for all grammatical rules, all words which are not exceptions to the rule do follow the rule.
“Oh thank you
very much, Erica!” you are going to reply to me with a sarcastic tone of voice.
And you will add: “When you see the number of exceptions there is in French
for each grammatical rules, you are not being very helpful by saying that.”
Except that
you are very lucky this time because there are only seven exceptions to this
rule.
Just learn
them by heart, and apply the rule to the rest of the words.
Actually, I
think that learning the exceptions first is a better idea, when studying
grammar, than learning the rule first plus a long list of words it applies to,
and then, at the end of the lesson, when everybody is completely exhausted,
give the students a short list of vocabulary containing the exceptions.
Personally, I prefer to do the reverse.
These
exceptions are:
-
Un bonbon. A sweet
/ candy. The reason an « n » is used instead of
an « m » is that it means « good good ». Because
sweets are really really good good, don’t you think so?
-
Une bonbonne.
A demijohn.
- Une bonbonnière.
A candy box (although this word in French resembles very much the previous one,
it refers to a completely different object).
-
Néanmoins.
However.
- Un embonpoint. De l’embonpoint. It doesn’t really mean “overweight” as you
can find in automatic translators, in fact it refers to the fat itself that you
stock in your body.
Examples:
Cet homme
a beaucoup d’embonpoint = this man has a lot of weight/body fat.
Il
doit perdre de l’embonpoint = he must lose weight.
This
word is really funny because first you have an “m”
in front of the “b”, so you think the word is regular and will follow the rule
up to the end of its spelling, and then suddenly it changes its mind (words can
sometimes be very contradictory) and decides to become an exception with this “n” in front of the “p”.
- La mainmise.
It is used especially in the expression “avoir la mainmise sur…” which means
“to have control over…”. You recognize the word “main” in it, which is a
feminine word that means “hand”. The word literally means to seize something
with your hand, in other words to become the owner of it. As you can not change
the spelling of the word “main”, this is the reason why the “n” remains and is
not changed to an “m”.
-
La mainmorte.
This is an old Middle Age law term which meant that the Lord legally had the
right over the possessions of his dead vassals. It meant that the vassal’s
children had no right to inherit from their parent. Here you also recognize the
word “main”, but also the adjective “mort” (as “main” is feminine, the
adjective here is “morte”). Basically, it
means “dead hand”.
Now let’s see
the words that follow the rule.
Here are just
a few examples:
In front of an "m"
- Immortel. Immortal, this English word has French origins.
- Emmener.
- Chambre.
A bedroom.
- Septembre.
September. (also works with novembre and décembre)
- Une ambulance.
Same spelling in English, French origins.
- Embarquer.
To embark.
- Tomber. To fall.
I
- Accompagner.
To accompany. Both “accompagner” and “accompany” come from the old French “acompaignier”.
-
Impossible.
Same word in English, French origins.
-
Composer.
To compose. French origins.
-
Impérial.
Imperial. French origins.
-
Simple.
Same spelling in English, French origins.
- Un example. Same spelling in English, probably French origins, although Wikipedia does not really mention it in its lists, at the “e” section.
(I chose not
to underline the letter “p” as it modified too much its aspect).
You will
notice that, in English, words that have a French origin usually follow the
rule as well.
However, what
is really interesting is that a few words in English that have French origins
replaced the original “n” in French by an “m” in English, although they had,
apparently, no reason to do so.
One obvious
example is the French word “confort” which became “comfort” in English. Same
remark for “confortable” in French, which became “comfortable” in English.
Actually, to
be precise and exact, (and to make it simple, and believe me this is not a
joke) “confort” in French comes from the English “comfort” (so it is not the
other way round), but “comfort” comes… from the old French word “confort”!
“Pardon?”
So what
happened to our old French word “confort”? It was apparently changed to
“comfort” while crossing (comfortably) the English channel, then we French
people realized we had lost a word in our language, so we looked for it
everywhere, but as we couldn’t find it we decided to borrow the British word
“comfort”, and then we changed it to “confort”, as there was no reason,
according to us, to put an “m” in front of an “f”. That’s my personal theory
-and this is a big joke.
More
seriously, I am also thinking of the English word “circumstance” which,
according to the researches I have done, comes from the French “circonstance”.
The French word came from the Latin word “circumstantia”, and it was, for
whatever reason, modified, then the British word was apparently borrowed from
the French, although it remained more faithful to the original Latin word. A
bit strange, isn’t it?
Conclusion: words
are like people, they love to travel. This is what makes etymology so
fascinating as a subject.
2) There is only five words starting with "inm". These words are:
Inmanipulable
Inmélangeable
In-manus
Apart from in-manus which is Latin and means "in your hands", this "in" expresses the contrary of the word which is stuck to it. Inmanipulable means the contrary of "manipulable", that is to say: "which can not be manipulated".
Inmélangeable means "which can not be mixed together".
And apart from "in-manus", this "in" is pronounced
You would have thought that immangeable (= which can not be eaten -often because the taste is so horrible) would have been written inmangeable, with an "n"... I apologize in the name of those who invented the French language, because this one starts with "imm".
Containing
4) Some words do not start with "inm", but contain "inm". There is 34 of them. Apart from "mainmise" and "mainmorte" (and all words derived from them, for example "mainmortable") which we have already seen and are exceptions to the m, b, p spelling rule, these are all verbs conjugated at a special tense called in French passé simple (past perfect), at the 3rd person plural (that is to say "nous" = we).
The full list is here.
5) There are 534 words containing "imm". The full list is here.
Now, would
you like to do an exercise or two about “m” in front of “m”, “b” and “p”? I am
sure you would.
Exercise 1
Tomber, bonbon(s), ensemble, septembre, bonbonnière, novembre, décembre, impossible, ombre, lampe, embonpoint, imprimer, champignon, emmener, champion, compote, comprendre, important, chambre, simple.
