fou mad, crazy. Cognate with fool, folly. Note the irregular inflections of this word: folle and folles for feminine, fol for masculine singular before vowel. It’s not uncommon to see ou-ol interchange in French. The adverb, follement, is formed from the feminine singular. Examples, il est fou (“he’s crazy”); il est fou d’elle / de course automobile (“he’s crazy about her / about car racing”); une femme folle (“a mad woman”).

café coffee; café, cafe, coffee shop or a small restaurant. Note that unlike in English, this word primarily means “coffee”. Examples, café au lait (“coffee with milk”); café instantané (“instant coffee”; the adjective is not instante but more like English instantaneous); je voudrais (prendre) un café (“I’d like (to have) a cup of coffee”; note café is masculine, and you don’t say du café when you answer the waiter or waitress).

parvenir to manage to (do), to succeed in (doing), to achieve, to attain. The root venir (“to come”) is cognate with the root of avenue, adventure (in the sense of “something to come”). This word, followed by à or à (faire), can be literally understood as “to come through”. French parvenu (“upstart”, “person of humble origin who has become rich”), which is also the past participle of parvenir, has entered English; it literally means “(who) has come through”. Example, il est parvenu à ouvrir la bouteille (“he managed to open the bottle”).

frais fresh (food, air, etc.); cool, chilly; fee, cost, charge. fraîcheur freshness; coolness. These words are not cognate with English fresh unless traced to Proto-Indo-European. But you can use fresh as a good mnemonic for the first sense of frais. In the third sense of frais (“fee”), or rather, of a different word spelled the same, it is cognate with the root of defray (“to provide money to pay”). Or simply use fee as a mnemonic. Better yet, remember all the meanings with a link mnemonic or a chain of scenes: on a cool day, you go to a restaurant to eat fresh food, which costs a lot. The noun fraîcheur is from the feminine form of frais plus a noun suffix, taking its first two senses only; many abstract nouns are based on the feminine rather than the masculine form (see §3 of the Notes). Examples, il fait frais (“it’s chilly / cool”, referring to air temperature); les frais d’épicerie (“the expenses for grocery / food”).

échapper to escape (cognate). Change é- to es- and ch- to c- to see the cognation. Note that English escape as a noun is évasion in French, etymologically unrelated to échapper. Also note that échapper is intransitive and must be followed by a preposition. When followed by à, it means “to escape from (someone or something)”, not “to escape to”, which would be échapper vers; à does not mean “to” here. When followed by de, it means “to escape from (some place)”. The “something” in échapper à quelque chose can be abstract such as a situation. For example, échapper à la prison (“to escape imprisonment”), échapper de prison (“to escape from prison”).

demeurer to remain, to stay, to live, to dwell, rester, habiter. demeure residence, dwelling place. Cognate with demur (“to raise doubt and postpone a decision”). The root (without de-) is cognate with moratorium (“delay in payment”). Not to be confused with demure (“shy”, “modest”, “reserved”), which is not a French word even though its root is from Old French and cognate with mature. Unrelated to mourir (“to die”), whose conjugated forms include meure.

langue tongue; language. Examples, tirer la langue (“to stick the tongue out”); je l’ai sur le bout de la langue (“it’s on the tip of my tongue”, literally “I have it on the end of the tongue”). See also langage.

second second, deuxième. seconde second (time); feminine form of second. Note that the pronunciation of the second syllable starts with /g/, not /k/. For example, second is pronounced /səgɔ̃/. (In the 13th and 14th centuries, the word was spelled segonder. But in the 16th century the second syllable consonant changed to c probably by pedantic scribes trying to restore the spelling to the original Latin form. Nevertheless people continued to read it like g.) Also note that compared to deuxième, second implies there is no more after this one, although some consider the distinction arbitrary. If, God forbid, the Third World War were to befall humanity, la Seconde Guerre mondiale (“Second World War”), currently more common than la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, would certainly be replaced by the latter. In some set phrases, such as seconde nature, you don’t use deuxième.

entrée entry (cognate), entrance; starter (of a meal), appetizer. This word is easy but note the second meaning. In the US and some parts of Canada, an entrée is the main dish. But in France and many other areas of the world, it’s only the starter served before the main dish (which would be le plat principal in French). You may want to keep this in mind when dining at a French restaurant to avoid embarrassment.

fer iron. Cognate with ferrous, ferric, or chemical element symbol Fe. Examples, le rideau de fer (“the iron curtain”); le chemin de fer (“the railway”); oxyde de fer (“iron oxide”; note the names of the components in a chemical compound are reversed between a Germanic language such as English and a Romance language such as French).

chair flesh; pulp (of fruit). Cognate with carnage, doublet with carne (“meat”). Latin ca- regularly changed to cha- in French. This word is a false friend of English chair, which would be chaise (“chair” in general), chaire (“chair in university”; “pulpit in church”) in French. Examples, chair à saucisse (“sausage meat”); avoir la chair de poule (“to have goosebumps”; literally “to have the flesh of hen”; imagine what the skin of a chicken looks like after you remove all feathers; it’s the same analogy in Spanish).

copain buddy, pal, friend; boyfriend, petit ami, petit copain. Cognate with companion. From Latin com- + panis, literally “together, bread” or “sharing bread”. Whether un copain / une copaine imples a romantic relationship depends on the context. But if it’s preceded by mon / ma, there’s a greater chance it does. If preceded by petit / petite, it definitely does. See also pain (“bread”).

sale dirty. Cognate with sallow (“of unhealthily yellow”; “dirty”) if traced to Proto-Germanic. Alternatively, use a mnemonic such as “His clothes are soiled.” Or use sully (“to damage one’s purity or integrity”) as a mnemonic. Note this word is a false friend of English sale. But as a mnemonic, imagine that a Frenchman coming to the US for the first time doesn’t want to buy anything labeled “Sale!”. (Compare to the joke, based on an unfounded rumor, that the Chevrolet Nova was not sold well in Spanish-speaking countries because no va means “does not go” in Spanish.)

voler to fly; to steal, to rob. vol flight; theft. volée flying, volley. Cognate with volatile, volley (as in volleyball). It’s a frequently asked question why this word has these two very different senses, which is unique in French among various Romance languages. It is believed that in falconry, the bird of prey flies over and robs or steals other animals. Which meaning it takes depends on the context. For example, the song in the movie Ratatouille has volant en chemin tout ce que je peux (“stealing on the way all I can”), where volant cannot be “flying” because the next line reads car rien n’est gratuit dans la vie (“because nothing is free in life”). Examples, je vais voler de Paris à Londres (“I’ll fly from Paris to London”); voler quelque chose à quelqu’un (“to steal something from somebody”). See also volet (“shutter”), voleur (“thief”).

terrible terrible (cognate), horrible; (informal) terrific (cognate), excellent, formidable (as in French, not English). Note the meaning in informal or colloquial usage. While all derived from the same Latin source, English separates the two opposite meanings into terrible and terrific but French keeps one form, taking different meanings according to context and tone of speaking voice. Examples, c’est terrible (“this is terrible”; “this is great”); c’est / ce n’est pas terrible (“it’s not very good”; with pas, French terrible only means “terrific”).

roman novel. It’s not because a novel is mostly about romance or is predominantly a love story that roman means “novel”. Instead, roman referred to the then Romance language i.e. Old French, as distinct from Latin. Since stories were told in this vulgar i.e. popular language, the name of the language also denoted the story, and later this literary genre. Not to be confused with its doublet romain (“Roman”). Incidentally, the French word romance means “ballad”, “love song”, but it is a historical term. English romance is simply amour in Modern French. But the word romantique does mean “romantic”. Examples, un roman d’amour (“a romance novel ); un roman policier (“a detective story”); un roman-feuilleton (“a serial novel”, “a novel published in installments”).

dessiner to draw, to sketch; to design (cognate). dessin drawing; design (n.). Latin g in gn, gm, etc., always dropped out in French, also seen in malignus > malin, benignus > bénin, pigmentum > piment (“spice”), etc. Note that French désigner (“to designate”) does not mean “to design”. Example, un dessin de Léonard (“a drawing by da Vinci”; un dessin de Vinci is less common). See also dessein (“intention”, “design”).

étroit narrow. Cognate with strict, strait, with the root of restrict, constrict. St- changed to est- then ét- (the diacritic sign indicates omission of s), and -ict changed to -oit, which is also seen in Latin directus > French droit (“right”). See §7 of the Notes of this book. Detroit, the city in Michigan, is from French détroit, literally “strait”, surface analyzed as dé- + étroit. Detroit was named by French Colonists for the Detroit River, which is a strait linking two large bodies of water, Lake Huron and Lake Erie. Not to be confused with étoile (“star”), which does not have the immutable -tr-.

médecin (masc.) doctor, docteur, physician. médecine medicine (field of study). médicament medicine, medication. Note that the masculine word médecin can refer to either a male or a female doctor. The feminine word médecine does not refer to a female doctor, nor to medicine (as drug or medication), but to the field of study or medical science (see §3 of the Notes of this book for the tendency of a feminine noun to refer to an abstract concept). To refer to a female doctor, just say une médecin even though the word is grammatically masculine, or une femme médecin if you want it to be more explicit (compare the feminine word personne, which can refer to a person of either sex). Note the spelling of the two words; the second vowel is e, while it is i in médicament. Also note médecin should not be confused with the unrelated French word physicien (“physicist”, not “physician”). Examples, aller chez / va voir le médecin / le docteur (“to go see the doctor”); étudier la médecine (“to study medicine”).

parfum perfume; flavor (of ice cream, etc.). Note the second meaning, which is not in English perfume. Isn’t this evidence that the French people are more likely subject to synesthesia, or a perception in which one sensory pathway leads to another?

soie silk. Cognate with seta (“rough hairs”, a biological term derived from the Latin word for bristle). The etymology may sound strange because silk is fine, delicate weaving material. But in medieval times, silk is imported as strings. This word is not from sī, the Chinese word for silk, which originated in China. Alternatively, use a mnemonic such as “Ladies wear silk dresses at a soirée (formal evening party).” Or use moiré as a mnemonic since it’s easy to form a moiré pattern on silk. Examples, papier de soie (“silk paper”, “wrapping tissue”; this is not tissue paper for personal hygiene); route de la soie (“Silk Road”).

thé tea (cognate). The intercalation of h may be an explicit indication of aspiration in the southern Chinese word for tea, which is a convention in romanization of Chinese words by the early missionaries and sinologists in translating Chinese to a language with weak aspirations. (Another convention is to use an apostrophe instead of h.) Examples, un salon de thé (“a teahouse”); une tasse de thé (“a cup of tea”); une tasse à thé (“a teacup”).

putain (vulgar) whore, bitch, prostitute; (vulgar) fuck (interj.), bloody hell. Spanish puta (“prostitute”), a possible cognate, has entered English vocabulary. Also possibly cognate with putrid (“rotten”, “stinky”), putrefy (“to rot”), which can sure be used as mnemonics. This word is absolutely unrelated to Russian president, commonly Latinized as Putin, and the French transliteration of his name has to be manually adjusted to Poutine to avoid confusion as well as for phonological reasons (see www.nytimes.com/2005/04/03/magazine/putinpoutine.html). Also unrelated to poutine (a type of Canadian food). Example, j’ai passé un putain de bon moment (“I had a fucking good time”). See also pute (“whore”).

siffler to whistle; to hiss, to boo. sifflet whistle (n.). Cognate with sibilate (“to hiss”), sibilant (phonetic sounds when pronouncing s, sh etc. in English). While in Latin, b, v and f are often confused. The -fler ending sounds like passing air in the mouth or nose, as in souffler (“to blow”), ronfler (“to snore”), gonfler (“to inflate”), renifler (“to sniff”). So use that analogy plus the si- sound which mimics hissing or whistling as a mnemonic. For the connection of sound to meaning in a word, refer to Wikipedia or other sources on phonestheme or ideophone. Example, l’arbitre a sifflé la mi-temps (“the referee blew the half-time whistle”).

langage language. This word is masculine in grammatical gender in spite of the e ending. Note that in French, the language as a linguistic term is a different word, la langue (e.g., la langue française, “the French language”; une langue étrangère, “a foreign language”; la langue maternelle, “the mother tongue”; un langage de programmation, “a programming language; la langue de Molière, “Molière’s language”, “French”), while the wording or style of speaking or writing is le langage (e.g., le langage commercial, “the business language”; le langage administratif , “administrative language”). To remember which is which, consider that langage is derived from langue with suffix -age and not the other way around; only after we have a human language in its linguistic sense can we build on top of it and develop various styles of using the language. Also, langue can also mean “tongue”. See also langue (“tongue”; “language”).

formidable fantastic, great. Cognate with formidable (“fearsome”). In spite of cognation, this word does not mean “formidable” and is one of the most popular false friends. Although it could mean “formidable” as late as a century ago, the sense of “fantastic” or “extraordinary” started to take over even in Balzac’s time. English formidable may be translated into French as redoutable or simply terrible. Example, le film était formidable (“the movie was fantastic”).

oreiller pillow. From oreille (“ear”). It’s not clear why “pillow” is related to “ear”, presumably because lateral sleep position is the most common (according to sleep researchers) and when you sleep on one side, the pillow takes in an ear; suffix -er generally has many meanings but in oreiller probably indicates a receptacle. Contrast it with Spanish idiom planchar oreja, literally “to iron (one’s) ear”, which means “to sleep”. Alternatively, use a mnemonic such as “O’Reilly Auto Parts sells car seat cushions that can be used as pillows.” See also oreille.

crayon pencil. English crayon is from French. Note this word means “pencil”, not “crayon”. English crayon, since at least a few decades ago, has a sense of “wax” in it, and so may be called craie de cire (literally “chalk of wax”) in French, although crayon de cire (literally “pencil of wax”) is fine too. To help remember the difference between crayon and craie, note -on is a diminutive suffix in French and a pencil is usually smaller in diameter than a crayon. Example, écrire au crayon (“to write in pencil”). See also craie (“chalk”).

pénombre dim-light, penumbra (cognate), twilight, darkness. Unless you know English penumbra, it helps by analyzing pénombre, where pén- is à peine (“hardly”, “almost”, like pen- in peninsula, penultimate) and -ombre means “shadow” or “shade” (cognate with English umbrella). Just don’t try splitting the word into pé- + nombre; this word is completely unrelated to nombre (“number”) and pé- makes no sense.

gré liking, will (n.). Cognate with grace (“free favor from God” in religious context). Often used in phrases such as contre le gré (“against the will”), à son gré (“to his liking”). Example, il a quitté l’ecole contre le gré de son père (“he quit school against his father’s wishes”). See also malgré (“in spite of”).

exciter to excite. This word looks easy but note that it (as well as excité, excitation, excitant) sometimes has a sexual connotation. If you want to avoid this ambiguity, you can say je suis ému / surexcité / ravi instead of excité for “I’m excited”. But due to influence of Anglicism, this connotation may be going away.

affecter to affect, to influence; to feign; to assign (a role to a person, a value to a variable), to allocate (fund). The root is from a Latin word meaning “to do”, whose derivatives understandably could mean a lot of things. Note that English affect no longer has the meaning “to assign”, and rarely means “to feign” although this meaning is well preserved in the noun affectation. Examples, l’incident l’a beaucoup affectée (“the incident greatly affected her”); affecter de faire (“to pretend to do”).

renseigner to inform; (reflexive) to find out. enseigner to teach. renseignement information (about something specific); intelligence (secret information about enemy). The root is cognate with sign, signal. Think of teaching as pushing or bringing information into the students’ brains. Examples, pouvez-vous me renseigner sur ...? (“can you tell me something about ...?”); il est bien renseigné sur le sujet (“he’s well informed about the subject”); je vais me renseigner (“I’ll find out / ask around / look into it”); enseigner le français aux élèves (“to teach the students French”); une renseignement (“a piece of information (you ask for)”; French does have information, often used in plural, but the word refers to general information you get passively such as news from TV).

morale morality, morals (n.), ethics; fem. of moral (adj.). Note that this word as a noun does not mean “morale”, which, perhaps surprisingly, would be moral as a noun. (But French moral as an adjective means “moral”.) French morale of course can also be the feminine singular of the adjective moral. Examples, la morale chrétienne (“christian morality”); la morale de cette histoire est (“the moral of the story is”); une obligation morale (“a moral obligation”; morale here is adj.). See also moral.

bijou jewel, piece of jewelry. Celtic origin. Use “bead jewel” as a mnemonic and try pronouncing d and j lightly. Or “wear this jewelry, be confident, be you”. The plural of this word is bijoux. Examples, un bijou en or (“a gold jewel”); bijoux en diamant (“diamond jewelry”; English jewelry is better translated as plural bijoux).

chouette owl; (informal) cool (adj. or interj.), great. In the sense of “owl”, it is cognate with chough (a crow-like bird), but folk etymology believes it’s from chat (“cat”) + hurler (“to howl”), which serves as a good mnemonic. The second sense, “cool”, may still be related to an owl (as in expressions ma chouette or une belle petite chouette in old literature) but may also be related to chou, which literally means “cabbage” but is often used informally as “baby” or “darling” (so with -ette, chouette is like saying “little darling”). Alternatively, use the interjection Sweet!. For old-timers, use Swell!. This word is unrelated to chute (“fall”) but you can imagine an owl flies down.

coudre to sew, to stitch, to mend. From Latin consuere (“to sew”). Letter d was inserted for euphonic reasons. The derived word couture (“sewing”, “dress making”) has entered English as a term in fashion industry meaning “making of high-end dresses”. In many conjugated forms of this verb, the second syllable consonant is s (e.g. nous cousons, ils cousent, j’ai cousu, etc.), which reflects true etymology; the root in these forms (not the infinitive coudre) is cognate with English sew, suture. Note that the infinitive should not be confused with and is not related to coude (“elbow”). Examples, une machine à coudre (“a sewing machine”); elle a cousu un bouton sur le vêtement (“she sewed a button on the clothes”).

actuel current, present, en ce moment. Cognate with actual. This word, which does not mean “actual”, is one of the most well-known false friends in French (or other Romance languages for similarly spelled words). You may still think of the connection, though, as in “what’s actually happening currently”. On the other hand, English actual may be translated into French as réel, véritable. Example, il y a une fonction féminine qu’il est actuellement presque impossible d’assumer en toute liberté, c’est la maternité (“there is a female function that it is currently almost impossible to undertake in complete freedom, and that is motherhood”; S. de Beauvoir famously said that in her 1949 book but H.M. Parshley mistranslated actuellement as actually, causing English-speaking scholars including Drucilla Cornell to wrong Beauvoir, according to Toril Moi).

délice delight (masc. n.) (cognate). Also cognate with delicious, delicate (which historically was related to “pleasure”). (Had it not imitated light, etc., English delight would have been delite, from Old French, from Latin delectare, frequentative of delicere.) To aid memory, think of decilious food as a delight. This is one of the few French words that are masculine in singular but feminine in plural, other two examples being amour and orgue (“organ”). Example, quel délice! (“what a delight / a joy / a treat!”).

décoller (airplane) to take off; to unstick, to peel off. From dé- + coller (“to stick”, cognate with colloid). An airplane taking off is likened to unsticking or the opposite of sticking (the plane to the ground). (But landing is atterrir, a word related to terre, “land” or “earther”, not to sticking.) Examples, l’avion va décoller dans 5 minutes (“the plane will take off in 5 minutes”); le papier peint est en train de se décoller (“the wall paper is peeling off”; in the sense of “to unstick”, the word is a transitive verb and se must be added if something does so by itself). See also coller.

gâcher to ruin, to spoil, to mess up, to botch. If traced to Proto-Germanic, cognate with wash, waste (in the sense of “to become weaker” when said of a person’s body), with the root of devastate. The Old French source of gâcher meant “to soil” and “to wash”. Although the initial letter especially consonant rarely changed when a word developed from Latin to French, the change of w to g (which primarily happened in Parisian France) is an exception, which is the source of French garantie but English warrant, French gardien but English warden, etc. Alternatively, as a mnemonic, imagine you say “Oh gosh” when you see a big mess, or you see dirty water gush into a beautiful garden and ruin it. Examples, gâcher la nourriture (“to spoil the food”; “to waste food”); le mauvais temps a gâché la fête (“the bad weather ruined the party”). See also gâter (“to spoil”).

habile skillful, adroit, slick. habileté skill. Cognate with able. Related to habiller (“to dress”). But it’s better to use English able to aid memory and note h is silent. These words are unrelated to the words with root habit (note the presence of letter t), e.g. habitude (“habit”), habiter (“to live”). Examples, un habile artisan / artisan habile (“a skillful craftsman”); il est très habile de ses mains (“he’s very good with his hands”).

déception disappointment. Cognate with deception. In spite of the cognation, this word is a false friend of English deception (which would be tromperie in French). At least as a mnemonic, imagine that a French-speaking person does not react strongly to deception as an Englishman and only shows disappointment. This French word used to mean “deception” down to at least mid-19th century, as A. Brachet’s Dict. étym. lang. française published in 1868 noted that it had the same sense as the Latin word deceptionem (“deception”). This sense change also happened in Spanish and Portuguese.

injure insult (n.). injurier to insult, to swear at, to revile. Note that these words do not mean “injury”, “to injure”, respectively, which would be blessure, blesser in French. Although the English idiom add insult to injury has unofficially entered Canadian French as a calque ajouter l’insulte à l’injure, it is not understood in France because the two French words mean essentially the same thing. See a detailed description and correct translations on the Office québécois de la langue française webpage (http://bdl.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/bdl/gabarit_bdl.asp?id=2882). Example, le politicien a injurié les immigrés (“the politician insulted / swore at the immigrants”).

miel honey. Cognate with English molasses. From Latin mel (“honey”), hence mellitus (“of honey”), which exists in English as part of diabetes mellitus, commonly shortened to diabetes, the disease one symptom of which is sweet urine. Alternatively, use a mnemonic such as “he eats a meal with honey”. Interestingly, the Chinese word for honey, pronounced mì, is a loanword from Tocharian (a branch of the Indo-European language family), thus related to French miel. (The latest research may be the 2017 article The Word for ‘Honey’ in Chinese, Tocharian and Sino-Vietnamese, by K. Meier, M. Peyrot.)

chauve bald. Cognate with callow (“immature”, “inexperienced”; previously “bald”). Chauvinism is named after “Nicolas Chauvin, a legendary and excessively patriotic soldier of the French First Republic” (Wiktionary). The surname Chauvin literally or originally means “bald man”. Alternatively, use shave as a mnemonic, or imagine a bald chauffeur or driver, or think of the common image of a group of right-wing chauvinists that are bald-headed.

parapluie umbrella. From para- (“to guard against”) + pluie (“rain”). The prefix is cognate with parry (“to ward off”), which is parer (“to fend off”) in French. If you happen to know Spanish, you may think of the word as meaning “for rain”, which serves as a good mnemonic. See also parer.

péter (slang) to fart. Cognate with fart if traced to Proto-Indo-European. (When Proto-Germanic, the ancestor of English, inherited the word from PIE, the first consonant changed from p to f, just like the first letter of English father vs. Latin pater or French père.) Note that, completely unrelated to this, the common given name Peter in English corresponds to Pierre in French. Nevertheless, as a mnemonic, if you have a coworker named Peter, associate his name with this word for at least a few weeks, mentally, not verbally.

orphelin child who has lost one or both parents; (adj.) of such a child. Cognate with orphan. Note while English orphan almost always refers to a child who has lost both parents, French orphelin (as well as Spanish huérfano or the equivalent word in some other languages) may refer to a child only one of whose parents has died. Example, une orpheline de père (“a fatherless child”; this is a good phrase to break ambiguity; translating it as “an orphan of father” would make no sense in English).

meurtrier murderer (n.), tueur; murderous (adj.), deadly. meurtre murder (n.). These words are cognate with English murder if traced to Proto-Germanic. They don’t seem to be related to French mourir (“to die”) or English martyr, which can be used as mnemonics if you don’t think of murder immeiately. Note there is no verb in French matching English murder as a verb; use assassiner or simply tuer instead. Example, les accidents de la route les plus meurtriers (“the deadliest road accidents”).

éventuel possible, prospective, likely or expected to happen. éventuellement possibly, maybe. Cognate with eventual. In spite of cognation, éventuel does not mean “eventual” (“final”, “at the end of events”), and éventuellement could mean “eventually” only in Quebec French presumably influenced by English; consider them false friends. French éventuel is more literal, more closely related to event in the sense of “in case a certain event happens”. This is one of many cases where a Romance language word is usually more literal in meaning than an English word if they have an etymological relationship (cf. goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/24433799-try-interpreting-new-words-literally-first). Example, les conséquences éventuelles (“the possible consequences”).

comédien actor (particularly in a theater). This is a false friend of English comedian, since un comédien (or une comédienne, “actress”) does not necessarily play in a comedy or an amusing show or drama. French humoriste matches English comedian better. Also note that in common parlance, French acteur differs from comédien in that it refers to an actor in a movie, not on a theater stage. French comédien sometimes is used in a pejorative sense, e.g. quel comédien! (“what an actor / a hypocrite!”).

salaire salary (cognate), wage, pay. This word appears to be easy but note the position of i in this and in its derived word, salarié (“salaried”, “having a salary”; more commonly used as a noun, “waged worker”, “employee”), where -é indicates an origin as a past participle like -ed in English; the Latin etymon refers to the money given to soldiers for salt (sal in Latin, sel in French). To avoid confusing the two words, as a mnemonic, just remember what’s spelled like salary in French (namely salarié) does not mean “salary”, but “worker”, “employee” instead. Then you know what’s spelled not like salary (i.e. salaire) means “salary”.

dauphin dolphin; successor, dauphin (heir apparent, héritier apparent). English dolphin is from Old French and dauphin from Modern French (hence the unchanged spelling). It is justifiable to give two distinct etymologies to these two words, spelled the same in French. The latter, meaning “successor”, is from the title assumed by Guigo the Count in 1140 and by the eldest son of King of France in 1343. It’s possible that the adoption of this title was originally related to the sea animal dolphin, commonly seen in Southeast France.

reporter to postpone, to push back; (reflexive) to refer, to check; reporter (n.). The sense of “reporter” is from English. In other senses, the word is a false friend of English reporter, and may be better understood literally as re- (“back”) + porter (“to carry”). (And French report, meaning “postponement”, is the noun for the verb reporter.) While a schedule is pushed back in English, it is “carried” back in French. English reporter is journaliste in French, and English report is rapport (n.) or signaler (v.) in French. Note this word, reporter, should not be confused with rapporter (“to bring back”). There exists a French word rapporteur, which denotes a person in charge of court or government records, or the angle measuring tool protractor. Example, reporter un rendez-vous (“to postpone an appointment”).

répartir to share, to apportion, to divide, to allocate. Think of English partition. Not to be confused with repartir (“to leave again”, “to restart”; re- is pronounced /rə/ not /re/), which has a higher usage frequency. Historically, the sense of “to share” appeared first. When the sense “to leave again” appeared, the form for “to share” changed its prefix from re- to ré- to avoid confusion. Only as a mnemonic, think of re- for simple repetition (“again”) and the slightly less simple ré- for a less intuitive meaning, in this case, “to share”. Example, répartir le travail entre les ouvriers (“to distribute the work among the workers”).

librairie bookstore, bookshop. This word is one of the best known false friends. It does not mean “library”, which would be bibliothèque in French. One hint that may help remember the difference is that librairie is from Latin libraria, from liber (“book”) + -aria. The suffix -aria is -ería in Spanish and the Spanish-influenced words such as cafeteria, washateria, are easily understood to be a store or shop due to the ending. Thus, in French, it’s librairie, not bibliothèque, that will be understood as a store. Alternatively, just as a mnemonic, think of -thèque as “high-tech”. A modern library has sophisticated high-tech equipment while a bookstore does not. See also bibliothèque.

palme palm tree leaf; swim fin, flipper (for swimming or diving). Note that English palm, a cognate, combines two meanings in one word: “palm tree or leaf”, which is palme in French, and “palm of hand”, which is paume in French. To help remember the difference, as a mnemonic, think of l in palme as the tree trunk and u in paume as a spread-out palm. The meaning “swim fin” is due to a swim fin's resemblance to a palm leaf. Example, la Palme d’Or est la récompense suprême décernée au Festival de Cannes (“the Palme d’Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival”). See also paume.

patienter to wait, to wait patiently, attendre. While French patient has both senses of English patient, “sick person” (n.) and “willing to wait” (adj.), French patienter only means “to wait”, patiently or not, and does not mean “to become a patient”. Example, veuillez patienter! (“please wait / hold!”, as said during a phone call).

chantage blackmail, extortion. From chanter (“to sing”) + -age (suffix for noun). According to J.S. Farmer’s Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present published in 1891, some bad guys extorted money from singers to be performing at a London music hall. If they were refused the money, they would hoot and hiss during the show. This word has entered Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, and a number of other languages spoken in areas as far as Turkey, and Russia. It may be known to some English speakers. Examples, faire du chantage (“to blackmail”; the noun chantage does not have a verb form); Viktor Orban sur l’aide à l’Ukraine : « La Hongrie subit un chantage » (“Viktor Orban on aid to Ukraine: ‘Hungary is being blackmailed / is subject to a blackmail’”).

inhabituel unusual, uncustomary, insolite. Since habituel means “usual”, “customary”, “habitual”, this word with the in- prefix means exactly the opposite. Just don’t confuse it with English inhabit (which would be habiter in French) or its related words. The key to remember is that English prefix in- here means “in”, “within”, “inside” while French in- signifies negation. Thus, for instance, English inhabitable is French habitable, English uninhabitable is French inhabitable.

labourer to plow (plough), to till. labour cultivation, plowing. Note that English labor, or labour in British English, is labeur in French; labour in French, on the other hand, refers to plowing or the hard labor of plowing the field only. To help remember which is which, as a mnemonic, recall boue (“mud”), which sounds like the second syllable of French labour or labourer, but not labeur; French ou is pronounced as /u/, eu as /œ/. Examples, labourer le champ (“to plough the field”); bœufs de labour (“plowing oxen”).

forcené fanatic, frenzied. The root of the word -cené is cognate with sense, and the no longer productive prefix for- cognate with for- in English forget, forbid, forbear, etc., meaning “away from” or “outside”. The word literally means “out of sense”. If the meaning of for- is too obscure, use false or faux as a mnemonic. In any case, resist the temptation to split the word between force and né, unless you can think of a mnemonic with “force” and “born”. Examples, travailler comme un forcené (“to work like a maniac”); une envie forcenée (“a fanatic / crazy desire”).

doyen dean (in university) (cognate); doyen (senior member of a group). This word or its ancestor has entered English vocabulary, twice; the first time, Old French deien (from Latin decanus meaning “chief of ten people”) developed into an Anglo-Norman word and entered English as dean, and the second time, the Modern French doyen, which descended from Old French deien, was directly borrowed by English (as Economist called Henry Kissinger “the doyen of American statecraft” in the memorial article). As usual, the older a borrowing, the more likely the spelling and pronunciation differs. Tip to remember the word: since oy in this word is pronounced /wa/, treat it like oi and so as a general rule change it to i, then the spelling dien is close to dean.

émail enamel (cognate). English enamel is from en- + a later development of Old French esmal (“enamel”). Also cognate with smelt, whose relation to émail is easier to see if you change é- to s-. This word, in which é is read /e/, is an obvious false friend of English email, which in French is email (e is read /i:/), e-mail or courrier électronique. Diacritical marks in many French words are essential; this word is one salient example. It has its verb émailler (“to coat with enamel), and the plural of the noun is émaux. Example, émail dentaire (“dental / tooth enamel”).

draguer (colloquial) to chat up with, to flirt with; to dredge. From English drag. Sense development is peculiar. English dredge (“to clear the bottom of water by removing mud, etc.”; “to catch fish with a dragnet”) may be from drag. The sense of dredge, but the spelling of drag, entered French. But a more common sense of draguer is its colloquial, figurative, usage: flirting with a girl is likened to catching a fish. God forbid you use drug as a mnemonic. Examples, draguer un bassin (“to dredge a pond”); draguer une fille (“to pick up a girl”); sans les restos et les bars (fermés à cause du covid), je ne peux plus draguer! je ne rencontre personne (“without the restaurants and bars (closed due to covid), I can’t flirt anymore! I don’t meet anybody”).

embaucher to hire, to employ. From en- + bauche (“wood beam”, from bois “wood”) + -er. Here is one easy way to explain the sense development. English debauchery (“indulgence in sensual pleasures”) is from French débaucher, literally “to entice away from work”, presumably because erecting beams (as in roofing) is hard work. The opposite of prefix dé- is en-, or em- in front of b (or p). Hence the meaning of embaucher as the opposite of “to stay away from work”. Alternatively, use employ as a mnemonic. Or think of boss for the root bauche-. Example, l’entreprise embauche 3 ingénieurs (“the company is hiring 3 engineers”). See also ébaucher (“to sketch”).

épi ear (of corn, etc.). Cognate with spike if traced to Proto-Indo-European. A corn ear has sharp sticks or spikes. To see the cognation, change é to s (normally you would change it to es, but sometimes to s as in the case of école, “school”). It’s always important to distinguish é from e as they represent different etymologies; the prefix epi- (“above”) is completely unrelated to this word. Example, un épi de maïs / blé (“an ear of corn / wheat”; épi is masculine).