Posted by Although French is quite hard comparing to other European latin language, for an Asian language native speaker, it might sounds impossible. But as I already learned English in school, it helped a lot, especially in terms of vocabulary, as a reward of learning a new language, I also gained more English words, as the two languages have many things in common.
However, living in Europe for a while, I am surprise how much my English has been compromised. There are quite some words which looks similar or exact the same, they mean more or less the same thing, typically in the sense of negative or positive. However, there are still some differences in nuance and accuracy, which I noticed on the people around me, and unfortunately, I also pick up those mistakes unconsciously.
ennuyeux vs annoying
One of my ex colleague told me “I would like to have a bulk update system, it will be so boring to update the documents one by one on the system”.
I don’t see any kind of document updating way is interesting, that is why I was wondering why she is saying it used the word “boring”. I was searching for the word “irritating, annoying, time consuming…”
In fact in her native language, she was looking for the word “ennuyeux” which means two things in English, “boring” or “annoying”.
But in this context she should have used “annoying”.
corps vs corpse
In French the word “corps” is often used as normal body part. For instance you will see “Shampoo pour le corps” on your shampoo bottles. However in English, “corpse” word means specifically dead body.
Tips for French speaking sales people, don’t talk to your client “Put this lotion on your corpse in the night…”
gentil vs gentle
In English you must heard a lot about gentle, in the context of “ladies and gentlemen”, gentle in English means mild, soft, moderate, tender temperature…
“Gentle” is originated and then evolved from French word “gentil”, however, “gentil” in French only means nice or kind. Their origin is the same, both positive, with different nuance, English version is deeper,
célibat vs celibate
English word celibate is a very strong word, it means abstaining from marriage and sexual relations, typically for religious reasons.
It originates from French word “célibat” which only means unmarried, single.
In this case, English version is much stronger than French version.
calme vs calm
“Calm” in English typically means a person emotionally peaceful, absence of strong feelings, or there is no wind, so the wave is calm.
However, the French version “calme” contains the meaning of the English one, but also contains the meaning of quiet.
On a Friday, I often chat with my colleagues and say, “most people work from home today, it is so calm here in the office.”
The above sentence is not correct, I was not talking about emotion nor wind, I simply got unconsciously influenced by my European colleagues and began to include the French scope to the English words. And I bet, if you work in Europe you will hear a lot about the misusing of this word.
calme in French has more meanings than English version
voyage – voyage
Voyage in French means travel, go for a trip, short or long one, format does not matter. However, the same word in English means a long journey involving travel by sea or in space.
Allo vs Hello
Once I was having a drink with a French speaking friend, I wanted to order another coffee so I raised my hand to the waitress and said “Allo, allo..” My friend was laughing like hell and said, we only use “allo” in telephone, when the signal is not good. In this case you can say “excusez-moi”, “s’il vous plaît”, “pardon”…
Two people meet each other, in English, it can be “hello”, in French it will be “bonjour, bonsoir..”
To get other people’s attention, in English: Hello, in French: “excusez-moi”, “s’il vous plaît”, “pardon”…
With Telephone, English “Hello”, French: “Allo”
désir vs desire
Désir in French means simply want something, typically used when buying something in the butcher, ordering something in café and so on.
However, desire in English has a very strong meaning, typically indicates a strong wish for something.
I personally do not use English word “desire” that much in real life, but the French one “désir” is frequently used.
Conclusion
There are much much more words having the same roots but mean different things in current two languages, like grand – grand, blank – blanc, maison – mansion etc.
I hope along the language journey, we keep improving and mastering better all the languages instead of let languages mess up in our brain 😀 😀
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