[fchollet]

One interesting observation is that French-derived words in English tend to be fancier -- formal, sophisticated, higher-class -- while Germanic ones tend to be more casual, everyday vocabulary.

[shagie]

Many of these words transferred during the Norman Conquest. During that time, England was ruled by French speakers. The upper class and nobility in England were French (and French speakers).

When someone in the upper class wanted boeuf, they wanted the meat of a cow - not the cow itself. And so beef entered the English language as the meat. This extended to other animals. In general, the word for the meat in English is the French word for the animal and the word for the animal is derived from the German word.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/beef and https://www.etymonline.com/word/cow

This also extended to the language law and things that the upper classes (rather than the commoners) dealt with. When the common English (germanic) did have to deal with those topics, they used the French words and those words were brought into English.

[bobbylarrybobby]

I believe this is because the Normans were wealthier than the native Brits

[euroderf]

My rough estimate is that words of two syllables or less are mostly Germanic and words of three syllables or more are mostly Romantic.

[DemocracyFTW2]

ça je ne crois pas

[insane_dreamer]

only the peasants spoke Old English. The nobility spoke French. eventually the two languages merged into modern English.