City names in French / English

J

juninho8

Senior Member
leeds - united kingdom
united kingdom - english
can you tell me why some cities are written different in french (londres) and others are same? i heard that it was just big cities, but i'm not sure.

what other cities are written different to english?
londres, athènes, bruxelles,
 
    • Je sais que beaucoup de villes allemandes sont "francisées", mais comme je ne connais pas leur nom anglais je ne sais pas si ça change :
    Cologne (Köln), Francfort (Frankfurt), Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen), Fribourg (Freiburg), Munich (München)...Vienne (Wien en Autriche)
    Je crois que Copenhague est français aussi, et dans le désordre Rome, Venise (Venice), Milan, Séville, Saint-Petersbourg, Moscou, Pékin,...
    Je suis à cours d'inspiration ;)
    ++
    Cal
     
    The first French cities that I can think of :

    - Marseilles (En) / Marseille (Fr)
    - Lyons (En) / Lyon (Fr)
    - Rheims (En) / Reims (Fr)
    - Angiers (En) / Angers (Fr).

    There must be others...
     
    Des exemples en Espagne :
    - Cordoue (Córdoba)
    - Séville (Seville/Sevilla)
    - Tolède (Toledo)

    Autres :
    - Genève (Geneva)
    - Varsovie (Varsow)
    - Beyrouth (Beirut)
    - Alger (Algiers)
    - Le Caire (Cairo)

    And to be very scared!
    Cantorbéry (Canterbury. But as indicated here, often referred to with its English name)

    Il doit en avoir d'autres mais ils ne me viennent pas à l'esprit non plus.
     
    et en Amérique du Nord il y en a quelques-unes à part les villes aux noms français du Québec :

    New-York (avec un trait d'union)
    Philadelphie
    Détroit     (avec son accent d'origine !)
    la Nouvelle Orléans
    il y en a plusieurs autres le long du Mississippi et dans le centre-nord (régions fortement influencées par les Français aux 17e/18e siècles) qui gardent leur nom français mais sans accent ni trait d'union : Saint-Louis, Des Moines, Bâton Rouge, Dubuque, Saint-Cloud, Duluth, Sault Sainte-Marie, etc.

    pour ne pas oublier plus vers le sud : México (no "City"), capitale du Méxique
     
    juninho8 said:
    can you tell me why some cities are written different in french (londres) and others are same? i heard that it was just big cities, but i'm not sure.

    what other cities are written different to english?
    londres, athènes, bruxelles,
    Click to expand...

    The city names for which the French have a French form are the names of cities which the French had occasion to discuss many years ago, either because they were large or they were notable for some other reason (Douvres for Dover, for example).

    The same is true in English. We say Rome rather than Roma and Paris with the s pronounced rather than Paris with a silent s. Marseilles and Lyons are examples where English has kept a French spelling that has since been modified in French. In some cases English speakers have dropped or are in the process of dropping the English version of a name. Livorno, as an important port in Italy, was given an English name, Leghorn. Nowadays it is often referred to by English speakers as simply Livorno.
     
    And some more :D

    Venise - Venice (Italy)
    Bucarest - Bucharest (Romania)
    Moscou - Moscow (Russia)
    Nicosie - Nicosia (Cyprus)
    La Valette - Valletta (Malta)
     
    Fès (Maroc) = Fez (Morocco)
    Marrakech (Maroc) = Marrakesh (Morocco)
    Tanger (Maroc) = Tangier (Morocco)
    Alger (Algérie) = Algiers (Algeria)
    Johannesbourg (Afrique du sud) = Johannesburg or "Joburg" (South Africa)
    Le Cap (Afrique du sud) = Cape Town (South Africa)
     
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