1

German and English are brother and sister languages. (The Everything German Phrase Book A Quick Refresher for Any Situation. Edward Swick · 2008.)

Does

L'allemand et l'anglais sont des langues frères et sœurs.

sound natural (in contexts like this)?

2
  • 1
    Sorry, but it doesn't sound like English.
    – Lambie
    Oct 15, 2021 at 15:51
  • Ha, I wonder which language that book considers the brother and which the sister :) I've only ever heard of "sister languages" for this relationship.
    – Luke Sawczak
    Oct 17, 2021 at 12:34

1 Answer 1

3

Frères et sœurs or frère et sœur wouldn't work in French. We'd rather say des langues sœurs, e.g.:

Le français, l’italien et l’espagnol sont des langues sœurs.

2
  • Merci ! Peut-on aussi dire, p.ex. >Matlab et Octave sont des logiciels/langages (de programmations) soeurs ?
    – Dimitris
    Oct 15, 2021 at 10:00
  • 1
    Non, le genre ne colle pas (une langue mais un langage/ un logiciel). On pourrait éventuellement dire des langages frères mais probablement plutôt langages apparentés ou langages similaires.
    – jlliagre
    Oct 15, 2021 at 10:18

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