Faux Amis

[Dwayne Roberts]

The following is a list I've made of French words that resemble English ones but in reality are different. I'm not interested in words (such as "poison" and "six" and "fiancé") that are the same in both languages. Would you care to add to this list?

 

as

assist

attend

bless

bras

but

cave

chair

chat

choir

chose

comment

figure

fin

four

irons

laid

lit

main

met

on

or

ours

pain

pays

pour

sale

sang

seize

smoking

son

sort

store

tape

tire

ton

tour

[lauris]

Be careful, in French, "Bien fait" is used after someone says something bad happened to him, and you think he deserved it :

'j'ai descendu les escaliers en courant, et je me suis cassé la jambe en tombat'

'- bien fait!'

 

But I guess (I hope...) you wanted to say "well done" =)

[Dwayne Roberts]

Precisely. Thank you. So, how would one say "well done" in French as I had intended, above ?

[lauris]

You can say "Bien joué" but I think this is quite casual. (but in our context, it would be perfect)

 

[Charlie's French Factory]

Exactly. You would say "bien joué!" instead. That means "well done!".

[Sandra Rose]

So, I guess that "bien fait" would be more like sarcasm then...

[Dwayne Roberts]

crayon

divers

Roman (maybe. In English it must be capitalized; in French, not.)

[Dwayne Roberts]

champ

[Dwayne Roberts]

former

[Peter En]

utilise (if you use as part of a british syntax - without the z)

[Dwayne Roberts]

It would seem to me that utilise would be un vrai ami. Aren't the meanings in the two languages similar if not identical?

[Dwayne Roberts]

pin

[Peter En]

woops, sorry I misread the original transcript-
I then propose the word
'supporter'

-although they both have quite similar meanings (fr:to put up with/to bear, eng:to bear or hold up), I  believe that they have completely polar canotes...
the meaning for 'supporter' in french gives the impression that its a 'burden' or something that has to be 'put up with', whereas 'supporter' in english generally has the lighter canotes of being something thats akin to a 'savour' or someone who has to 'bear' someone else's burden.
You would not use the word 'supporter' in english to describe someone as being annoying, a burden, or a dead-weight.