Faux amis. They’ll get you every time. Get access to my guide to Paris at https://go.parisinmypocket.com/aKAAqi and help me make better videos at http://patreon.com/jayswanson 🥳
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My name is Jay Swanson – I’m an American writer living in Paris since 2017 with an earlier stint in 2012. Paris (yes the one in France) has been my home long enough that I finally earned French citizenship in 2024! You can see the vlog about my French citizenship ceremony here: https://youtu.be/e4fl9D0oUso
I write science-fiction and fantasy, vlogged daily for 3+ years, and love pizza a little too much. Now I make videos about visiting Paris on my second channel @paris.in.my.pocket and put everything else here on this channel: life in Paris, traveling in Europe, and trying to share what I’ve learned along the way. I hope you enjoyed what you found.
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25 Comments
3:48 Jay est une personne brillante… ça fonctionne.
3:13 On peut aussi napper une tarte avec du nappage à l'aide d'un pinceau par exemple, c'est valable aussi.
4:38 le mail veut dire une voie ou une allée également.
Yep, English language is a wondrous thing. I'll never forget coming to a stationery store in NY looking for a rubber and being sent to a pharmacy!! 😂 Guess the same thing would happen if an American were to look for some jam in France…
Fun one! There are so many more, probably because French words make up about 27% of the English language.
It helps to know Spanish, because it translates most of the time. There are exceptions like some you mentioned, but or the most part I treat them in Spanish and hope it translates 😂. The fun part is when you actually find what it really means and is nothing in Spanish or English.
"Sensible" in English also has (as a secondary meaning) the same "French" meaning of sensitive , only in English it can mean over-sensitive. For example, Jane Austen wrote "Sense and Sensibility" to contrast the ways people go about their lives, using common-sense or over-active feelings.
Nice…
Un banc: a bench
Une banque: a bank
My French is intermediate enough to function in Paris and improve it, but still at the level where some of the fausse amis still surface periodically (Éventuellement?!-merci), so I REALLY appreciate this video! Thank you. Plus de langages S.V.P.
These language videos light up my former closed captioner's brain. I'm also pretty happy I haven't lost my ability to understand French (which I had been questioning earlier this summer when I spent a good chunk of time in Quebec), so merci!
you missed dramatique vs dramatic where dramatique means tragic when dramatic indicates only the scale of the event or change, whether positive or negative
And, apparently, "eau de toilette" doesn't mean, "Eaaugh! Da toilet!"
This was sooooo fun🥰
"Bra" is a short for the french "brassière", on old world meaning… "bra" . Today it's "soutien-gorge" ("soutif" in parisian slang) , "brassière" today is a baby's cloth . "Napper" exists : in cooking it means covering with a layer of sauce , or liquid chocolate (from "nappe", meaning a table cloth or a layer of liquid , like subterranean water or petrol) .
Most of these words come from ancient french and kept their former signification in english while evolving in the french culture through usage and change of regime…
It was up to English to pick words with the right meaning.
1:43 Embrasser can mean embrace. Embrasser une cause. OK, c'est bon, tu l'as ?
3:55 Brillant can mean briliant too. OK, c'est bon, tu l'as ?
Funny american, restons bons amis
J'adore ça ~ Je voudrais plus, s'il vous plaît❤
The joys of learning another language- I love it.
0:12 Because of English, a lot of French people call the penguins "pingouin" instead of the actual name "manchot".
The word "pingouin" is used for two species of birds: "petit pingouin" (razorbill) and "grand pingouin" (great auk, now extinct).
The word "penguin" in English was first used for the great auk and later started being used for a similar looking bird.
4:49 And that was not "un ballon" in your hand but "une balle".
Email is courriel in french, but it is almost never used
One of the most dangereus faux-amis is the word "constipated" between Spanish from Spain (no latinoamerica) and French. I tell my students to watch out for this. I you go to a pharmacy in Spain and you say : Estoy constipado; they will give you something for a cold; it means that you have your nose stuffed. If you go to pharmacy in France and you say : je suis constipé: they will give you a laxative.
"Un mail" is a way bordered with trees. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_(voie)
It's also "a mall". By the way "a mall" comes from the french "un mail".
"Une maille" is "a mail" (like in chain mail armor) or a mesh.
And Maille is a famous mustard brand.
"Aille" is the verbe "aller" in the subjonctive form, third person.
So you can say "je lui ai écrit un mail pour qu'il m'aille prendre de la Maille au mail" which can be confusing and probably never happen in real life.