French false friends: words that look English but aren't

After the Norman conquest of 1066, French became the language of England's ruling class for centuries, and English absorbed a huge amount of French vocabulary. That's why so many French words look familiar. It's also why, when meanings drifted apart over the centuries, the lookalikes became traps.

Here they are, grouped by how much trouble they can cause.

Mildly confusing

These won't get you into trouble, but they'll make a sentence mean something odd.

• Une librairie is a bookshop. A library is une bibliothèque.
• Actuellement means currently. "Actually" is en fait or en réalité.
• Éventuellement means possibly, if need be. "Eventually" is finalement or à la fin.
• Une journée is a day (the length of a day), not a journey. A journey is un voyage or un trajet.
• Une location is a rental. Location de vélos means bike rental. A location is un endroit or un lieu.
• Assister à means to attend. J'ai assisté au concert means you went to the concert. To assist someone is aider.

Confusing in everyday situations

• Rester means to stay, not to rest. Je reste à la maison means you're staying home. To rest is se reposer.
• Attendre means to wait (for). J'attends le bus means you're waiting for the bus. To attend is assister à.
• La monnaie usually means change (coins). Vous avez de la monnaie ? is "Do you have any change?" Money in general is l'argent.
• Un coin is a corner. A coin is une pièce.
• Sensible means sensitive. A sensible person is raisonnable or sensé.
• Blessé means injured, not blessed. Blessed is béni.

Potentially embarrassing

Un préservatif is a condom. If you're asking whether a jam contains preservatives, the word you want is conservateurs. This one reliably causes laughter at markets.

La chair means flesh. A chair is une chaise.

Excité often has a sexual connotation in French, more than "excited" does in English. To say you're excited about something, j'ai hâte ("I can't wait") or je suis enthousiaste are safer.

Shared with Spanish

If you're also learning Spanish, some traps appear in both languages: French librairie and Spanish librería (bookshop), French actuellement and Spanish actualmente (currently), French assister and Spanish asistir (attend). Learning one set makes the other easier. Here's the Spanish list.

Making them stick

False friends are easier to remember once you've misread one in context and been surprised. Reading French regularly, whether short stories or news, gives you plenty of those moments. And because written French often looks closer to English than it sounds, it's worth learning how French spelling maps to pronunciation alongside the vocabulary.