# What Languages Differentiate Between Right (Legal) and Right (Location) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 28, 2014, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-differentiate-between-right-legal-and-right-location/682523 "2014-02-28T17:02:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-differentiate-between-right-legal-and-right-location/682523/21 "2014-03-01T01:19:43Z")
Catalan is (surprise) similar to Spanish: _Dret_: right. _Els drets humans_. _Dret/a_: straight. _Continuï dret, posa’t dreta_. _Dreta_: the right side, both geometrically and politically. cost-free: _gratis_ or _de franc_ (linked to the root that gives us _Villafranca/Vilafranca_, “free town”). devoid of something: _sense_ whatever. _Sense sucre_, sugar-free. unconstrained: _llibre_. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-differentiate-between-right-legal-and-right-location/682523/22 "2014-03-01T01:39:17Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > Welsh _de_ “right” (direction; also means “south”) I guess Wales is small enough that it wouldn’t cause too much of a problem … Actually, that’s like port and starboard, isn’t it? One assumes facing the front of the boat, the other facing the rising sun. The orange rising sun. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-differentiate-between-right-legal-and-right-location/682523/23 "2014-03-01T02:33:40Z")
Nava, you probably know this, but in Mexico (at least), ambiguity is often avoided by adding “todo” before “derecho” when it means “straight.” ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-differentiate-between-right-legal-and-right-location/682523/24 "2014-03-01T12:15:14Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Catalan is (surprise) similar to Spanish: > > _Dret_: right. _Els drets humans_. > _Dret/a_: straight. _Continuï dret, posa’t dreta_. > _Dreta_: the right side, both geometrically and politically. > > cost-free: _gratis_ or _de franc_ (linked to the root that gives us _Villafranca/Vilafranca_, “free town”). > devoid of something: _sense_ whatever. _Sense sucre_, sugar-free. > unconstrained: _llibre_. And also, French. The OP brought it up as a language that was like English, but it’s not really. In French, the word related to “law” is masculine: _le droit._ The direction is feminine: _la droite_. Of course, there is confusion with the adjectival forms of these words. “A straight road” -\> _une route droite_ and “the right side” -\> _le côté droit_. Note that this last sentence is not ambiguous in French, unlike English. If you wanted to say “the correct side,” you would use _le droit côté_, or _le bon côté_. As nouns, gender helps keep the two words distinct. For instance, take the following sentence: _le droit de droite_. This is not particularly meaningful, but it’s not ambiguous or confusing. You can’t say the same of the equivalent English phrase: “the right of the right.” The French sentence means “the legal right of the right side of the political spectrum.” ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-differentiate-between-right-legal-and-right-location/682523/25 "2014-03-01T13:03:06Z")
And if someone asks “which way should I go?,” in French you can answer “tout droit” to mean “straight” and avoid any chance of ambiguity? (And “a droite” would mean “right”, and is feminine because the implied noun, “main” (hand), is feminine?) ETA: “tout” meaning “all,” or in this case more of just an emphasis, rather like English “straight ahead.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-languages-differentiate-between-right-legal-and-right-location/682523.md?page=1)