Word for something which isn't what it seems to be


I recently started learning French and am confused by its pronunciations. The main problem being that the words never seem to sound the way they're written - isn't what it seems to be! (I know English isn't any better, but criticisms of my observations are safely off-topic here!) I need a word which indicates this deceptiveness/inconsistency while not sounding too negative. Because I still am fascinated by French.


For example, here's something I'd like to say: Oh french, you ____________ beauty!


So it really cant be too negative, unless you think the following word "beauty" makes for an amusing/endearing oxymoron. Then if the overall sentence doesn't sound too negative, I'm willing to accept any word.



Answer



The Oxford Dictionaries site offers as a definition of "inconstant" the following: "Frequently changing; variable or irregular". Synonyms suggested include fickle, wayward, capricious, volatile, flighty, erratic, mutable, mercurial, and irregular. Any one of these could fill the blank in your sentence.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

verbs - "Baby is creeping" vs. "baby is crawling" in AmE

commas - Does this sentence have too many subjunctives?

time - English notation for hour, minutes and seconds

grammatical number - Use of lone apostrophe for plural?

etymology - Origin of "s--t eating grin"

etymology - Where does the phrase "doctored" originate?

word choice - Which is the correct spelling: “fairy” or “faerie”?