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Faux Amis
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
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Erwan on
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billion
En anglais, c'est un milliard (1 000 000 000)
In French, it's a million of millions (a trillion ???) (1 000 000 000 000)
It's not very used in French because of the easy confusion with the english word.
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Permalink Reply by Dwayne Roberts on
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Excellent. Thanks!
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sensible
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us
En Anglais, nous
In French, habits. I think it's only nowadays used in the expression les us et coutumes
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Permalink Reply by Norm Dionne on -
So glad I found this list. I've been compiling a similar one for a bit now and had just enough words to google and lead me to your thread.
Happy to report I think I've found two words you haven't added yet:
don and con.
My French is Québecois, so there might be a few differences in our definitions.
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I like the format, Norm. It's concise and easy to read.
I'm trying to think of a case where "con" in English means "idiot". The verb "to con" means "to deceive", deriving, I believe, from the word "confidence", and we also see it this way in "con game" (confidence game). The noun "con" is short for "convict". Do you have an example of how it's used meaning "idiot"?
If you've ever seen the TV series Monk in French, you'll hear him say about his memory and acumen, "C'est un don ... et une malediction". Cette phrase me fait rire !
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Permalink Reply by Norm Dionne on
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Sorry, the method in my list is confusing: Under English, what I list is the English translation of the word, not a synonym or definition. Maybe I should rethink that!
Oh and I had removed my list, as my tabs were not showing correctly.
But here it is again, but not quite showing as I intended:
French - Both - English
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tromper - con - idiot
porter - don - donation
With synonyms or definitions instead, it would be more like this (I guess this is much better):
French- Both - English
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bête - con - dupe
cadeau - don - wear
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report
En anglais, c'est un rapport, un compte-rendu, un bulletin.
In French, this is a postponement.
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devise
En Anglais, c'est un verbe, concevoir.
In French, this is a noun, currency or motto.
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Permalink Reply by Nicolas Wolff on
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a - un - has
an - un - year
ban - interdire - round of applause
ballot - vote - bundle
came - venait - junk
car - voiture - bus
fat - graisse - conceited
four - quatre - oven
glace - glacé - ice
lard - saindoux - bacon
mire - boue - target
noise - bruit - quarrel
on - sur - someone
pull - tirer - sweater
quart - litre - quarter
sort - trier - fate
tire - pull - shoots
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fade
En anglais, c'est passer des colours.
In French, this is insipid, vapid, bland.
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