'False Friends' - 'Faux-Amis' !

Languages sometimes sound or look similar, which can be very helpful when learning another lingo. But sometimes some words can turn out to be 'false friends' or 'faux-amis' and mean something completely different.

Below are five "embarrassing" situations :

1 - English "preservatives" Vs. French "préservatifs" : 

The verbs "to preserve" in English and the verb "préserver" in French are actual cognates ( similar or identical words sharing the same meaning in two languages ).

You may think that "preservatives" and "préservatifs" are cognates too but if you asked for some jam with no preservatives in France you would actually ask for jam without condoms. Hell, it looks like English. The actual word the French use is 'conservateurs'.

2 - English "Cushion" Vs. French "cochon": 

"Cushion" in English and "cochon" in French sound similar. But if you went to France in a hotel and asked for a pillow for your bed, as follows: "je voudrais un 'cushion' pour mon lit, s'il vous plaît". You may end up with a pig in your bed. Indeed, the English word 'cushion' sounds awfully like the French word for 'pig', 'cochon'.

In addition, "Un cochon" also means a dirty man! Just like you would call someone "a pig" in English. So, "un cochon pour son lit" is really funny or is it ?

3 - English "constipated" Vs. Spanish "constipado" : 

This is a message to all the Spanish coming to the U.K in the winter, finding hard to adapt to the weather conditions and ending up catching a cold.

Por favor (please), don't ask anyone in the street for a tissue because you are "constipated". This is not appropriate and much too personal. Why ? Because, however similar "constipated" and "constipado" look, they don't mean the same. "Constipado" has nothing to do with the nose for the British.
Look up in a dictionary ! Gracias !!

4 - French "payer en espèces" / Spanish "pagar en especies" :

To say "pay in cash", the French sometimes use the expression "payer en espèces" which sounds and looks a lot like the Spanish "pagar en especies". But, if, as a Frenchman, I went to Spain on a shopping spree and say to the store assistant, (trying to cross the language barrier by mixing the two languages) "Can I 'pagar en especies' ? ... I may not make a very good impression as "pagar en especies" actually means "pay in kind"... well you get the kind of 'kind'. Try it yourself though, you'll see ! At least say 'por favor' !!

5 - English "embarrassed" Vs. Spanish "embarazada" : 

In Spanish if you say "estoy embarazada", it doesn't mean "I'm embarrassed", but rather "I'm pregnant" !


Enjoy languages ... and people !!