> This said, I am all for a simplification of French
Interestingly, they tried 15 or 20 years ago, and that went nowhere. The only thing I remember about it is they wanted to simplify oignon, but I don't even remember if they suggested removing the i or spelling it like in English.
> It was "vas-y carré"
I guess I'm too old to know this, even non abbreviated.
> sometimes one r, sometimes two, sometimes one l, sometimes two.
Same with m, etc. And many more. The "fun" part of living abroad and barely speaking or writing French is that now there are plenty of times where I can't find words or how to spell them. It's compounded by the fact that English spelling of similar words is sometimes different (e.g. address vs adresse), or worse, some words spelt the same way have different meanings (which trips French natives often, but now I sometimes have the opposite problem, ironically)
> Interestingly, they tried 15 or 20 years ago, and that went nowhere
I guess you are talking about the 1990 reform. I would not say that it went nowhere, most of the changes are now in the school curriculum.
This is far from the radical simplification I have in mind, though :)
> I guess I'm too old to know this, even non abbreviated.
It helps to have a teenager at home and a need to communicate with them through WhatsApp
> The "fun" part of living abroad and barely speaking or writing French is that now there are plenty of times where I can't find words or how to spell them
I left France for about 25 years and when I got back, I realized I lost my French accent. Today people are trying to pinpoint the place I am from, sometimes it is Belgium, sometimes Switzerland. I am from the western suburbs of Paris...
Do not worry: I sometimes have problems spelling words even though I was always very good in grammar and vocabulary, and the words I struggle with are sometimes obvious. Google helps to fix that (I type what I think is the word and it asks me "do you mean ...").
Interestingly, they tried 15 or 20 years ago, and that went nowhere. The only thing I remember about it is they wanted to simplify oignon, but I don't even remember if they suggested removing the i or spelling it like in English.
> It was "vas-y carré"
I guess I'm too old to know this, even non abbreviated.
> sometimes one r, sometimes two, sometimes one l, sometimes two.
Same with m, etc. And many more. The "fun" part of living abroad and barely speaking or writing French is that now there are plenty of times where I can't find words or how to spell them. It's compounded by the fact that English spelling of similar words is sometimes different (e.g. address vs adresse), or worse, some words spelt the same way have different meanings (which trips French natives often, but now I sometimes have the opposite problem, ironically)