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Lesson Transcript

Hey, guys! This is Pierre from France and welcome back to a new lesson about French. Today's lesson is about Faux-Amis which is “false friends” in English. There are many common words in English and French, but sometimes there are some tricky ones that you have to remember. The purpose of this lesson is not to be exhaustive, but to show you the main words that you have to remember. Of course, there are many others, but here are the main ones. Let's start with the adjectives.
Here, sensible vs sensible. Sensible means raisonnable or judicieux in French. You have to use those words. But for sensible, it means sensitive or receptive so be careful.
When you say - Je suis sensible àĺart, you have to say, “I am receptive to art.”
When you say - Mes dents sont sensibles, you have to say in English, “My teeth are sensitive.”.
So to translate sensitive, you have to say sensible.
Here, if you want to translate a sensible solution, you have to say - Une solution raisonnable.
Judicieuse, which is the feminine form for judicieux. Une solution raisonnable.
So try to remember this one.
Next, this one is a bit more tricky - ancient vs ancien. It's almost the same meaning, but sometimes if you try to translate ancient with ancien, it's really awkward in French.
So here, you have to say antique for ancient which means really really old like in English, but ancien, it means just old, like an old car, “an old house” une ancienne maison.
So here is a kind of order between old word that you can use in French to say old.
Vieux, ancien and antique. Vieux is old, ancien is really old and antique is super, super old like an ancient history.
So here - CꞋest une ancienne maison, you can say “This is an old hous.” I forgot the “e” here. “This is an old house.” You can also say vieux instead of ancien.
But here - Cet antique pot aété créé par les Egyptians. I wrote it like in English here, but here it’s like that. Cet antique pot aété créé par les Egyptians. There is no accent. Cet antique pot aété créé par les Egyptians. “This ancient pot was created by the Egyptians.” So here, be careful with antique and ancient.
Let's move on to the next one and this one is a bit complicated, terrible vs. terrible.
Ce gâteau nest pas terrible. It means the exact opposite in English, “This cake is not really good.” Ce gâteau nest pas terrible. “This cake is not really good.”
But here, if you use - CꞋest un terrible accident, it is quite the same meaning than in English, “This is a terrible accident.”, a dreadful accident, same meaning here.
There is one case that is not common anymore in French. When you say just terrible, just this word, terrible, it means “terrific”, but this is quite an old way to say it. You don't say it a lot in French and maybe you will find that in French comics or in old books so not really common with your friends.
Let's move on to another one, excited vs. excité. Excited means enthousiaste in French, but although excité can mean sometimes excited nowadays, it means also “horny”. The original meaning is horny, but due to the influence of English now, we also use the same meaning, the same word for the translation of excited.
So when you say - Je suis excité, it means “I am horny” but also “I am excited”. So this can lead to a kind of confusion. So if you want no confusion at all, you have to use the word enthousiaste instead of excited.
Il estenthousiasete àppropos de sonvoyage. “He is excited about his trip.” Il estenthousiasete àppropos de sonvoyage.
So here, you can also say - Je suis excité àppropos de sonvoyage. But if you say that, because of the end of the sentence, everybody will understand, but if there is no context, it is better to use enthousiaste instead of excité because there is this confusion that can happen.
Speaking of confusion, here is another one, preservative which is an adjective in English and preservatif which is not an adjective in French, it's a noun and it means “condom”. So please be careful when you want to say, for example, a preservative measure. If you say - Une mesure preservatif, it doesn’t make any sense and you will look a bit ridiculous for French people, like they would maybe have a smile because they understand this meaning. So if you want to say preservative, please use the adjective conservateur. So here, a preservative measure, you have to say - Un mesure conservatrice. Conservatrice is the feminine form of conservateur, conservateur - conservatrice, un mesure conservatrice.
Let's now move on to some other kind of words.
Here are some verbs. Adjectives is the main category, but here are some little categories, so verbs.
When you say attend in French, it doesn’t mean attend, it means wait, I’m waiting for you, je t'attends.
But if you want to translate attend, you have to use the word assister à. There is a space between assister and à, assister à.
For example - Assiste à uneconference. You have to say “Attend a lecture”, Assiste à uneconference. So please be careful with that.
Here is another difference that personally when I first started to learn English, I really had a lot of trouble learning this, passr vs pass. When you pass an exam in English, it means that in French, you have to say - Réussier un examen. But if you say, passe un examen in French, it means that you have an exam. So this is quite difficult and please remember. So passe un examen, I forgot the “r” here, but it’s a verb, like, here is like je passe un examen, but you have to say passe un examen with the infinitive form. So passe un examen “to have an exam”; and réussier un examen “to pass an exam” so be careful with that.
Here are some adverbs.
There is this adverb which is sometimes a noun in French, personne, like when it's a noun, it means like in English, a person or people when it's plural. But sometimes, it's an adverb in French and it means the exact opposite, kind of opposites, meaning like it means “nobody”.
“Nobody's here.”, you have to say - Il nꞋy a personne. So be careful because sometimes, you will be confused, but it's quite easy to know when it's a noun or when it's an adjective. If there is un personne, you know that it’s a noun because there is un, but here there is nothing, so it means that it's an adjective.
Please note that there is always this negation here, Il n’y a personne like it’s a couple “n” and personne. So here, usually it's ne, but here because of the “y”, you have to say n’y, just “n”. But sometimes when you speak French, you get rid of the “n” here and you just say il y a personne. So this is a common way to speak with your friends but the proper way to say it is with the “n” here.
Here is another adverb, actuellement vs actually.
When you want to say, actuellement in English, you use “currently”, but when you want to translate “actually” in French, you have to say en fait or réellement.
So here is an example - En fait ćetait unte u lague. “Actually, it was a joke.”
Here, another example - Monetat dꞋesprit a réellement changē. “My mindset has actually changed.” So here, réellement “actually” and when you start with actually in a sentence, it’s better to use en fait. En fait is a lot used at the beginning of a sentence in French and in the middle of a sentence, maybe you would prefer to use réellement.
So - En fait ćetait unte u lague; Monetat dꞋesprit a réellement changē.
So now I'm going to show you some nouns.
Let's end this lesson with some nouns.
When you say librairie in French, it doesn't mean library, but it means bookshop and library, it means bibliothèque.
When you say journée in French, it's not the same as journey, it means day or daytime, but when you say journey, it means trip so voyage.
Location in English and location, same writing but different pronunciation. Location in French, position or emplacement, but if you say location in French, it means “rental” so be careful with that, especially when you read it.
Then you've got this one, you probably know it, money versus monnaie. Money is argent in French, easy word, but when you say monnaie, it has also a meaning in French but quite different. It can mean currency, for example Euro.
L'euro est une monnaie, it means “Euro is a currency.”
But it can also mean “change,” like give me the change for the money. So here, you can say - Donne-moi le monnaie, “give me the change.” But in French, we can also say sometimes change. You can translate change with change Donne-moi le change, “give me the change.”
Here is a last one, but a bit tricky, but be careful, interview in French with the French pronunciation, interview, vs interview. When you say interview in French, it means interview, quite easy right? But, that’s not always the case, the opposite is not true. Interview, when you say it, sometimes it means you have to say entretien. So what’s the difference? Interview in French, it’s only for journalistic interview so when you interview someone like an actor or someone or something like that, you have to use the word interview. But for other kind of interview, you have to use the word entretien like when you have an interview for a job, you say entretien. J'ai un entretien d'embauche “I’ve got an interview.”
J'ai une entretien pour un emploi. “I’ve got an interview for a job.”
J'ai un entretien pour travailler.
So be careful with that. This is I think a common confusion, but many French people would understand if you misused the words, but it’s better to know, right?
Well, this ends our lesson for today. It was not exhaustive, but here are some example of faux-amis. I hope you really liked this video. See you next time on the next lesson for more French.

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