Super cool French expat blogger in the USA Mathilde tweeted a post from another French expat blogger also in the US, Sarah of SarahContePhilly, that caught my eye. It was all about French false friends — a word that is misleading because the word doesn’t mean what you think it does. For example, le smoking in French is actually a tuxedo/dinner jacket and has nothing to do with smoking. It got me thinking about French words that we use in English that we may not even recognize as such….
I’ve regaled you with my stories of not understanding English places and names pronounced with a French accent (I’m better now, I swear) — like Los Angeles, Hollywood and Kanye West — but to a French speaker’s ear, many of the French words we use in English cause major confusion as well.
Tom and I were watching White Collar a few months back and he didn’t even realize a French word was being said due to the botched American pronunciation. A character from the show, Moz, loves to throw in some French and has used “carte blanche,” “nom de guerre” and other French phrases in conversation.
I always have to check to make sure Tom catches it and most of the time he doesn’t because the English pronunciation bears no resemblance to the French!
How do you say these French words when you’re speaking English? >>
Don’t believe me? Here’s the French (thanks Tom) and the American pronunciations of some commonly heard places and phrases. See how they don’t sound anything alike? (exaggerated for effect):
Hollywood
Disneyland
Kanye West
Carte blanche
Nom de guerre
See what I mean about the French pronunciation ?
And just for fun, here’s Tom (because he’s awesome) trying to repeat after me to say the words like an American:
And Tom recorded my attempt at repeating the same words with the French pronunciation:
So moving on, here’s a short list of French words used in English that are pronounced differently, almost unrecognizably so, in French (and in some cases have an entirely different meaning):
Cul de sac: Literally means the ass of the bag and in English means a street of houses that’s a dead end, usually a loop at the end so you can turn around. The French use it in the same way although there are other ways to say this such as une voie sans issue.
Carte blanche: Literally a white card. Means free reign to do what you want, same meaning in both languages.
Connoisseur: An expert!
à la mode: with a scoop of ice cream in English but actually means “in fashion” in French
au naturel: in a natural state
double entendre: word with a double meaning, literally “hearing double”
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What French words can you add to my list? Come on, there are a lot. Don’t be shy!
Explaining false cognates to Americans and French people is hilarious.
entrée = appetizer (FR), main course (EN)
college = university-level school (EN) or middle school (FR)
crayon = means crayola colored wax in EN, but a pencil in FR
library = a place to borrow books, but a librairie (FR) is a book store
raisin = a dried grape in EN, but a grape in FR
prune = a dried plum in EN, but a regular plum in FR
Pain = Bread
Immobilier = Realtor
Lycées = High schools
Cabinet = Suite of Offices
I very much liked recordings of the two of you speaking and hearing the differences.
When my French husband would get irritated when I didn’t immediately understand what he said, I came up with the following sentence: Le vert ver va vers le vert verre. Of course, he did figure it out but not immediately! (The green worm goes toward the green glass. Hope I got my spelling right.)
Haha, that’s a good one! Gotta love French 😉
Reminded me of… If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers….
Haha yea, I should make Tom say that one. Not even easy for native speakers
Fun post, accents and the way in which words are used are a fascinating subject for those of us who get to see different parts of the world.
Agreed! Thanks for checking out the post!
“Rendez-vous”, with the same meaning, but really REALLY difficult to pronounciate for the English speaking natives.
I love this post! We had something like this come up just this afternoon, when my Frenchie was saying Arnold Schwarzenegger. I had literally no clue what he was talking about, although we had a good laugh about it after I finally got it!
Him: Arnold Schwarzenegger was just in France
Me: What?
Him: Arnold Schwarzenegger was just in France
Me: What are you saying?
Him: Arnold Schwarzenegger! Was just in France!
Me: I have no idea what you’re saying
Him: The Terminator was just in France
Me: Oh! You mean Arnold Schwarzenegger!
Him: Oui! That’s what I said! Why you don’t understand my accent??
Hahahah yes that’s a tough one to say. I’m going to ask Tom to say it and see if it sounds halfway decent. Glad you enjoyed the post!
J’adore l’expression Double Entendre, surtout avec toutes les variations pour la prononcer. Aucune à la française. Parmi ces termes, passés dans la langue anglaise, mais non utilisés en France, il y a aussi “Bon Viveur¨ pour – bon vivant – et puis celui que j’adore “touché”. Ce dernier évoque pour moi les Trois Mousquetaires et films de capes et d’épées.