After the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, French was the language of England's rulers for about three hundred years, and English absorbed thousands of French words. That is why la nation, la musique, important and possible look so familiar: these cognates (les mots apparentés) are words that share a root and a meaning in both languages. Every time you read French, you already know a big share of the words before you start. But a few words look familiar and mean something else — the faux amis (false friends) — and they cause some of the most embarrassing mistakes anglophones make. This lesson gives you four tools for any unknown word: spot the cognate, watch for false friends, take the word apart (prefix, root, suffix), and use the context and the dictionary wisely. These strategies matter most when you read real texts like the ones in this unit, where you cannot stop to look up every word.
Cognates: les mots apparentés
| Kind of cognate | French examples | English |
|---|---|---|
| Identical spelling | le restaurant, la nation, le sport, important, possible | restaurant, nation, sport, important, possible |
| Almost identical | la musique, la famille, le problème, l'université, différent | music, family, problem, university, different |
| Same root, French ending | la liberté, dangereux, électrique, rapidement | liberty, dangerous, electric, rapidly |
Faux amis: false friends
| French | Really means | Does NOT mean | For that, say |
|---|---|---|---|
| la librairie | bookstore | library | la bibliothèque |
| assister à | to attend (an event) | to assist | aider |
| attendre | to wait for | to attend | assister à |
| actuellement | currently, now | actually | en fait |
| sensible | sensitive | sensible | raisonnable |
| rester | to stay | to rest | se reposer |
| la lecture | reading | a lecture | une conférence |
| joli | pretty | jolly | joyeux |
| large | wide | large | grand |
| la monnaie | change (coins), currency | money | l'argent |
| éventuellement | possibly | eventually | finalement |
Taking words apart: prefixes and suffixes
| Prefix | Meaning | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| re- / ré- | again, back | faire → refaire (redo), lire → relire (reread), venir → revenir (come back), écrire → réécrire (rewrite) |
| dé- / dés- | undo, the opposite | faire → défaire (undo, unpack), brancher → débrancher (unplug), obéir → désobéir (disobey) |
| in- / im- / il- / ir- | not | connu → inconnu (unknown), possible → impossible, légal → illégal, régulier → irrégulier |
| pré- | before | voir → prévoir (to foresee, to plan), l'histoire → la préhistoire |
| Suffix | What it does | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| -tion | = English -tion; these nouns are feminine | la nation, l'information, la pollution |
| -ment (adverb) | = English -ly; usually add it to the feminine adjective | lent → lente → lentement (slowly), heureux → heureuse → heureusement (fortunately), rapide → rapidement |
| -ment (noun) | makes a masculine noun from a verb | changer → le changement, gouverner → le gouvernement |
| -eur / -euse | a person who does the action | vendre → le vendeur, la vendeuse (salesperson), danser → le danseur, la danseuse |
| -té | = English -ty; usually feminine | la liberté, la société, l'université (but l'été and le côté are masculine) |
Words also travel the other way. English uses French words such as café, menu, ballet and rendez-vous, and French has borrowed from English: le week-end, le parking, le sandwich, le hockey. In Canada, French speakers often prefer a French-made word where one exists, so you will see la fin de semaine instead of le week-end, le stationnement instead of le parking, le courriel instead of l'e-mail and magasiner (to go shopping). All of these are correct; they simply tell you whether a text was written in Canada or in France.
Context clues and the dictionary
Translation: On Saturday my family and I went canoeing on Lake Nipissing. It was very windy, so we paddled for three hours to cross the lake. When we got there, my arms hurt! In the evening we made a campfire and ate toasted marshmallows. My little brother didn't like the mosquitoes: they bit him ten times! How could you guess the bold words without a dictionary? Pagayé follows nous avons, so it is the past participle of an -er verb, pagayer; the clues canot, vent, traverser le lac and mal aux bras point to paddling. Guimauves are eaten grillées (toasted) at a feu de camp: marshmallows. Maringouins are something a child dislikes that bit him ten times by a lake: mosquitoes (a Canadian word; in France, les moustiques). Grammar (what kind of word is it?) plus meaning (what makes sense here?) is usually enough.
- Know what kind of word you need. Watch can be a noun (une montre) or a verb (regarder). I watch TV is Je regarde la télé — Je montre la télé would mean I show the TV.
- Read the abbreviations. n.m. = masculine noun, n.f. = feminine noun, v. = verb, adj. = adjective, adv. = adverb. The gender tells you whether to write le or la.
- Read every meaning and the example sentences, not just the first entry. Fair is juste in Ce n'est pas juste (that's not fair), blond in les cheveux blonds (fair hair) and une foire for a fair with rides.
- Check backwards. Look up your French choice in the French–English half to be sure it means what you want.
- Use online translators for single words, then check them. A whole pasted paragraph often comes back with errors you will not spot, and it is no longer your own writing.