English, significantly influenced by the French language

The English institutions that have French-derived words for the church include saint, clergy, miracle, mercy, and bail; for government, crown, state, country, tax, nation, and parliament; and for the military, war, peace, battle, arms, soldier, navy, enemy, spy, and assault.

It is popularly thought that the one-syllable words of modern English derive mostly from Anglo-Saxon, the language of a relatively simple-living people. That is only partially true. While many basic concepts like man, wife, child, house, bench, meat, grass, leaf, good, high strong, eat, drink, sleep, live, fight, and love are, indeed, Anglo-Saxon in origin, many others are not. Some of the words the Normans from France contributed to everyday life are air, sound, large, poor, real, cry, please, pay, quit, wait, age, face, use, joy, and pen.

It took centuries for the Anglo-Saxon and Norman-French languages to blend into a common tongue. Part of the reason was the normal length of time it takes for languages to combine into one. Another reason was the resistance of the general Anglo-Saxon population to learning the language of their conquerors. As new generations were born, old memories faded away. By the middle of the fifteenth century, they were no longer Anglo-Saxons and Normans. They were the English, a distinctive people with a distinctive language.