Do native speakers of French have an advantage in understanding Nostradamus French compared with someone who has learned French out of a book?
Answer. Yes, particularly in recognizing subtle nuances of meaning and in unscrambling the nonstandard word order. A good background in classical Latin, or one of the modern romance languages, is helpful in understanding the many words that differ from modern French. • Question. I think that Nostradamus is balderdash. Most of his verses are so vague that it’s no surprize that a few of them “hit” at random. There are over 1000 verses (Centuries + Sixains) plus the letters. By chance alone there are likely to be similarities with real events. Answer. Undoubtedly this sort of random similarity accounts for many of the “hits” that have been found by various interpreters. Verses that are extremely vague and ambiguous can be interpreted in many different ways. Unfortunately, most of Nostradamus’ verses are of the vague and ambiguous persuasion. Thus, it is possible to find at least one verse that can be interpreted as almost any given event, provided that the interpretation is done after the
