Breaking News English

French authorities have [declare / declared] war on the English word “hashtag” in its continuing [drive / driving] to keep its language as [free / freely] as possible from English loanwords. France’s government has a special department that [oversees / oversights] the purity of its language and [reissues / issues] recommendations regarding [inside / outside] influences. The General Commission for Terminology and Neologisms has decided that “hashtag” will no [larger / longer] be used in government documents and [public / publicity] statements. Instead, it will use the new, French term “mot- dièse,” which is [translating / translated] as “sharp word”. The Commission also encouraged [users / usages] of social media, especially people on Twitter, to use the new word.

“Hashtag” is the latest English word to fall [foul / fail] of the French authorities. Officials [recently / recent] released a list of words and terms they want [removed / removal] . These include “e-mail”, “blog”, “supermodel”, “take-away”, “[chewed / chewing] gum”, “parking”, “weekend” and “low-cost airline”. Schoolteachers in France have been [purged / urged] to discourage students from using them. Many Twitter users pointed [out / in] that “mot-dièse” refers to the wrong symbol [as / has] the word “dièse” denotes the [sharp / blunt] symbol from music, which looks [similarly / similar] to the hashtag symbol. One comment on the Huffington Post website suggested France needed to accept new words. It said: “Many languages use loan words and society hasn't fallen [part / apart] because of it.”