Bilingualism

If ever I had any lingering illusions about being bilingual, they would quickly be dispelled by a stab at a French crossword. My daughter and my father-in-law are both dab hands at this game, huddled together in conclave and from time to time throwing a crumb contemptuously in my direction. I am rarely able to indulge with the solution. On the other hand, I don't think they would get very far with an English quick crossword which is what the French variety resembles. My father-in-law would first have to understand the meaning of "Across" and "Down". As for Britain's contribution to world culture, the cryptic crossword, the French have nothing like it. Would this be because the structure of the French language does not lend itself to this kind of word puzzle, just as dictations are not a national sport in English-speaking countries. In English, each word is complete in itself, whereas in French it may depend on some very sophisticated grammatical features.

In English, for example, even an "irregular" verb like "speak" will have very few variations: speak, speaks, speaking, spoke and spoken; whereas parler would have over thirty.