Directly translated by "fake friends",les
faux amis are
words that look or sound similar - if not identical - in both French and English but have different meanings. As the two languages share a
complicated linguistic history, false cognates are a regular occurrence. Therefore,les faux amiscan cause a great level of confusion when trying
to communicate. Don’t worry, we are here to help!
Here’s a list of some of the most common "faux amis" terms:
Journée/Journey:inFrench
language,une journéemeans a day therefore if someone wishes youbonne journéethey
are not wishing you a good journey but instead a nice day.
Prune/Prune:une prunein French is a plum and when you dry it, it becomesun pruneau. Therefore it describes the fresh
equivalent of a dried plum to English speakers.
Envie/Envy:the French
nounenviemeans to wish or to desire rather than to be jealous of someone.
Coin/Coin:in French,coinis the word for a corner not the loose change in your wallet!
Monnaie/Money:in French the termmonnaiemeans
loose change rather than money in general. Therefore, it is possible to have nomonnaiebut plenty of money.
Location/Location:for
the French,locationtranslates to rental rather than a destination or somethings whereabouts.
Grappe/Grape: unegrapperefers to a bunch of something rather than an individual grape. So whileune grappede raisins
does mean a bunch of grapes, the word grappe is used to describe ‘bunch’.
Sensible/sensible:while 'sensible' in English means
something reasonable, the French use the word sensible to describe something sensitive
Making mistakes is part of the fun when learning a new language (and usually leads to great stories) Watch
the video below to discover more faux amis with the cast of the Netflix show of Emily in Paris.
Masterles faux amis
Avoid any confusion! Join one of our French courses to learn new vocabulary.
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