The adjective "faux"

[george willms]

This adjective can come before or after the noun, but is there a systematic distinction in meaning, and do we have the choice to place it before or after the noun?

Examples: un faux souci; une fausse note; un code faux; des allégations fausses, etc.

not to mention: les faux amis

Are there any rules here?

[Grégory]

If you say "un code faux" that means that the code doesn't work and is not the right one.

If you say "un faux code" that means that the code is something else than a code, that it's a fake, it looks like a code but is not a real one.

But that difference is not an absolute rule. Many things depend on the type of the noun. For instance we don't say "un souci faux" but only "un faux souci" because it would be weird to consider that some soucis are not the right ones (un souci faux). But we can consider that some soucis are not real soucis because there are not very serious (un faux souci).

At left of the noun, faux can also means what is failed or not achieved as "une fausse note", "un faux départ", "une fausse joie". As I said the meaning of the noun influences the meaning of faux and can restrain its mobility in the clause.

Actually when the adjective is at the right of the noun, it's supposed to be an objective statement where as at the left it's subjective like an impression, a feeling, a supposition, criticisms or compliments. For instance "une femme grande" means a tall woman but "une grande femme" means a great woman, an admirable woman.