Technology and the internet

In one line

Most French tech vocabulary is English, but a handful of key words have official French equivalents that are the ones used in writing.

Nouns

Devices

le portable is ambiguous — it means both laptop and mobile. Context decides. To be explicit: un ordinateur portable or un téléphone portable.

Internet and software

French official writing uses courriel rather than e-mail, and it is commoner in Canada. In speech, mail /mɛl/ is used everywhere.

Being an English speaker is a mixed advantage here. Most of the field is English already — le wifi, le smartphone, le bug, le cloud, un mail. The trap is that the exceptions are invisible: a word that ought to be borrowed simply is not, and the English one is wrong.

English word	French does not use it	It uses
computer	—	l'ordinateur
software	—	le logiciel
file	—	le fichier
screen	—	l'écran
password	—	le mot de passe

And le texto, not "text". Je t'envoie un texto. Three of these — ordinateur, logiciel, courriel — were deliberately coined to avoid the English, so they are the ones an official form will use.

Verbs

Adjectives

Set phrases

Traps

marcher — the verb machines take