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| Mery | Monday 29th of November 2004 06:41:17 AM |
| False friends - Hi everyone,
I'm looking for bilingual people (French - English) to ask them if they can tell me whether they have problems to use false friends or not. I was also wondering if those words are learnt in the same way as the others are? Répondez SVP, j'ai vraiment besoin d'aide ;) Merci PS: false friends: e.g.: sympathique (Fr.) / sympathetic (E.) (just in case some people didn't know what I was talking about);) | |
| Marta | Saturday 04th of December 2004 02:18:47 AM |
| - I'm not actually the right person to answer this question as i'm definetly not a native English speaker:)
Anyway...so far i haven't found any false friend in French, while in English there are quite many. And i think those words which are false friends for French speaking people are at the same time false for Polish. Probably it's because we have taken a lot of words from French. It's like in your example: Polish word "sympatyczny" means exactly the same as "sympathique" not "sympathetic". So i understand difficulty in learning them:) That's so illogical!lol i know i haven't helped you, just said my oponion;) bye :D | |
| Mery | Saturday 04th of December 2004 10:57:52 PM |
| - Hi Marta :)
Thanks for expressing your opinion. I was unaware that some Polish words have a French origin. Your comment is really interesting and it helps me. I had to post a message in a linguistics forum and your reply helped me :) Thanks. I don't know anything about Polish,do you think it'll be hard for me to try to learn that language? Encore merci :D | |
| Marta | Sunday 05th of December 2004 05:49:14 PM |
| - Hello Mery,
You're welcome:) There are really MANY words in Polish deriving from French. There are also "transparent words" - that means you can guess their meaning - here is the link to them - http://www.wszpwn.com.pl/default.asp?section=KLUB&ID=3120 go to down of site. When i look at them it seems like Polish people can communicate with French speaking people useing only Polish words (transaprent ones). I believe you're able to learn Polish,however the pronunciation may be quite hard... Excatly like French one for me: i don't know if ever i will be able to say "des", "du" etc. properly:) Somewhere i have also a link to French site which teaches Polish, when i find it i'll give you! good luck! bye | |
| Mery | Sunday 12th of December 2004 05:41:30 AM |
| - Salut Marta,
Merci beaucoup pour le site internet, je le trouve très interessant, je l'ai mis dans mes Favoris. C'est incroyable le nombre de mots transparents qu'il y a. J'aimerais beaucoup apprendre le polonais mais je n'ai pas vraiment le temps en ce moment. Je ferai ça pendant les grandes vacances :D Je ne savais pas que le français était difficile à prononcer, je pensais que c'était une des langues les plus simples du point de vue de la prononciation, tu m'as encore appris quelque chose :) Encore merci A bientot ;) | |
| slasher | Wednesday 16th of March 2005 02:12:15 AM |
| - j'ai également l'ennui prononcer quelques mots, Marta | |
| jdriso | Wednesday 16th of March 2005 05:37:25 AM |
| - [quote][i]Originally posted by jdriso[/i]
Salut Mery, "Actuellement" (fran) veux dire "at the present time" en anglais, mais "actually" (ang)veux dire "effectivement" en français. Et "effective" (ang) veux dire "efficace" (fran) (il y a "efficient" (ang) aussi qui veux dire pareil). Ces mots peuvent être considerés comme des faux amis, n'est-ce pas? Attention avec les mots qui finissent "-ment". Il y a des autres qui m'échappent en ce moment... Je les ai appris en se souvenant des phrases comme "il est actuellement indisponible" ou "je fais actuellement mes études en français." Je conseille mes étudiants d'anglais (conversation) de faire pareil. "Actually, I thought it was a good movie." Je trouve que le français est extrement difficile à prononcer. Surtout par rapport à l'espagnole ou l'italien. Le français est assez rigid comme langue. Il faut changer la façon d'utiliser la bouche. Je sais bien que je perdrai jamais mon accent et de toute façon tout le monde me dit que l'accent anglaise est jolie! [/quote] | |
| Mery | Thursday 17th of March 2005 02:57:47 AM |
| - Bonjour,
J'avoue que je n'ai jamais pensé retenir les faux amis en les plaçant dans une phrase. C'est un très bon conseil que vous venez de nous donner ;) Le problème, c'est qu'il y a énormément de faux amis et que retenir une phrase pour chacun d'entre eux n'est pas toujours possible. Moi je me souviens quand j'étais à l'université, j'avais une bonne partie d'un dictionnaire des faux amis à étudier et c'était l'horreur. Certains mots sont faciles à retenir, du genre 'anniversary' et 'anniversaire', même des débutants ne les confondraient pas. Moi je me souviens avoir eu du mal avec 'to pretend' que j'employais à la place de 'to claim', à cause du verbe français 'prétendre'? Concernant la prononciation du français, je n'aurais jamais pensé que ça pouvait être difficile. Quand j'entends des anglophones parler, je comprends tout ce qu'ils disent assez facilement. Par contre eux, ils ne me comprennent pas toujours lol. Ce qui peut poser problème à mon avis ça doit être les 'r' et peut-être quelques diphtongues comme 'oi'. Je me souviens AaRon (Caramelicious), il disait 'oy' comme dans 'boy' lol. Je ne sais pas du tout si le français est plus difficile à prononcer que l'espagnol. Je n'ai jamais appris cette langue. Pour être honnête, je la déteste. Sinon, c'est clair qu'un anglophone qui parle français avec un accent c'est très beau à entendre :D Moi j'aime beaucoup. | |
| tasya-la-poliglota | Saturday 26th of March 2005 01:07:58 AM |
| - Salut!
English is my second language. When learning languages, our base language (or the language we use to compare or translate the french words) is always English. I have to admit there are a lot of times wherein we mistake the French words with their English counterparts. Yes, false friends or "faux amis" as we call them. I've checked a couple of sites that give an overview on these false cognates. I think it's important to learn the difference and the meaning of the words to avoid misunderstanding. :D | |
| Caramelicious | Saturday 26th of March 2005 01:29:57 AM |
| - I didn't know that people compare words from languages that they are learning to english. Being native to english may lead one to think that this would make me biast toward it, but it doesn't. I really don't like it that english is used to compare with other languages. I think it should be the language that you speak nativly and not always english. | |
| Leto_Atreides | Friday 01st of April 2005 02:03:24 PM |
| - Lost you back there....
[quote][i]Originally posted by Caramelicious[/i] I didn't know that people compare words from languages that they are learning to english. Being native to english may lead one to think that this would make me biast toward it, but it doesn't. I really don't like it that english is used to compare with other languages. I think it should be the language that you speak nativly and not always english. [/quote] | |
| Ulven | Friday 01st of April 2005 11:16:14 PM |
| - [b]monument[/b] (Fre) = can be used to mean [u]a building[/u], I notice. But in English, a monument is only ever a [u]small structure[/u]. Some monuments have a purely decorative room inside, but not large enough to move around in. A monument in English can be qualified by a statue ontop of a base which can be walked on (not that you're allowed to walk on it).
eg. 1- a memorial for the Sept. 9/11 victims is a monument (Eng), not a building. eg.2 - Le Louvre in France is NOT a monument in English, but it may be called a monument in French, judging by our current "debate n.4 patager son opinion" thread. [b]habits[/b] = [u]clothes[/u] (Fre), but = [u]addictive/repetitive actions[/u] (Eng) [b]harrasser[/b] = [u]to exaust[/u] (French. So my dictionary says. Correct me on this if I'm wrong). But (Eng) = [u]to bother[/u] eg. sexual harrassement is when someone is approaching someone sexually against their will. A pretty simple one, not likely to cause confusion because their contexts will make it clear they're not related- [b]fin[/b] (fre) = end, (Eng) = part of a sea creature. A shark fin is the part sticking out of the water. Though, if you are in the water and see a fin (Eng), it will be the fin (Fre) for you. :D [b]tableau[/b] (Fre/Eng) = board. This word can be used to mean a painting in French, but in English it can't. Not in general language. In English, a tableau is a piece of equipment that can be used for painting or drawing on, but once the paint is on, it is never again qualified as a tableau. In English, it never means 'picture'. [b]pose[/b] (Eng) = when a person models and stands still for a photo. Though, English does take the French usage eg. "May I pose a question?", but it really is only a French word for [u]ask[/u]. But, it can be used in the French way. Alot of these examples are French words which English has adopted, so they are sometimes used similar to French. But a French speaker needs to know that their common meaning in English is unrelated. | |
| Ulven | Monday 04th of April 2005 04:43:49 PM |
| - J'ai des problemes entre l'usage des mots [b]rentre[/b], [b]retourner[/b] et [b]revenir[/b]. (Ils sont les formes différents du mots anglais 'to return'). Je crois que je peux utiliser revenir correctement la plupart. Mais encore, je voudrais voir des exemples. Ainsi, si quelqu'un a le savoir à faire, s'il te plait partager. Merci!
[u]en anglais[/u] -I need some help distinguishing the usages of [b]revenir[/b], [b]retourner[/b] and [b]rentre[/b]. (All forms of the English 'to return') I'm quite able to use revenircorrectly alot of the time, but not the other two. If anyone is confident they know the differences and can provide example usages, please share. Thank you. | |
| Mery | Tuesday 05th of April 2005 09:09:21 PM |
| - Ok :) Je vais essayer de t'expliquer tout ça
I think you meant [b]rentrer[/b] and not [b]rentre[/b] => e.g. = je dois rentrer à la maison pour prendre mon sac = I have to return home to take my bag [b]retourner[/b] => Pierre doit retourner aux Etats-Unis pour voir sa famille = Pierre have to go back to the US to see his family [b]revenir[/b] Here are some examples from my dictionary: [quote]return [rɪˈtɜ:n] intransitive verb1. [go back] retourner [come back] revenir as soon as she returns dès son retour to return home rentrer (à la maison or chez soi) 2. [to subject, activity, former state] revenir let's return to your question revenons à votre question to return to work reprendre le travail she returned to her reading elle reprit sa lecture he soon returned to his old ways il est vite retombé dans or il a vite repris ses anciennes habitudes the situation should return to normal next week la situation devrait redevenir normale la semaine prochaine 3. [reappear - fever, pain, good weather, fears] réapparaître [/quote] Je ne sais pas si ça peut vraiment t'aider, si tu as besoin de plus d'exemples n'hésite pas à demander :) | |
| tasya-la-poliglota | Friday 08th of April 2005 07:30:32 PM |
| - To Caramelicious:
Salut! Ici aux Philippines on parle tagalog (notre langue native) et anglais. :) In the schools here in my country, English is used more often than Tagalog. Apart from that, our books (or the majority of our books) are also written in English. These are the reasons why we use English as our reference when learning another language. :D | |
| ashxth | Monday 06th of June 2005 08:00:02 PM |
| - [quote][i]Originally posted by Mery[/i]
Hi everyone, I'm looking for bilingual people (French - English) to ask them if they can tell me whether they have problems to use false friends or not. I was also wondering if those words are learnt in the same way as the others are? Répondez SVP, j'ai vraiment besoin d'aide ;) Merci PS: false friends: e.g.: sympathique (Fr.) / sympathetic (E.) (just in case some people didn't know what I was talking about);)[/quote] I don't know what do you mean by "false friends " and I hope someone tell me but about Eglish and French , I think All EU languages have some same words and that because they all take many of them from latin !!!!!!!!!!! | |
| Mery | Monday 06th of June 2005 08:53:33 PM |
| - OK, I am sorry, I've just realized my explanation wasn't very clear.
Let me try to explain... You agree that the words sympathique and sympathetic look similar. Actually their meaning is completely different. Sympathique means nice in French and not sympathetic. An English learner for example could make a mistake and use the word sympathetic instead of the word nice simply because he thinks sympathethic and sympathique have the same meaning because they look similar. (Hmù not sure it's clear :p) E.g. = he's sympathetic *** BUT he's nice Sympathetic and sympathique are false friends. I hope you can understand :) | |
| Caramelicious | Monday 06th of June 2005 09:47:47 PM |
| - OK, I think that in the beginning it is confusing but because you know that they are different but they look alike, to me it kind of "triggers" something in my brain to tell me that they are actually different. It doesn't take that long to learn them... | |
| Daan | Tuesday 07th of June 2005 01:05:01 AM |
| - Oui, quand il y avait des visiteurs de la France ici, ils disaient souvent "he is sympatethic". J'ai dit qu'on doit dire "nice" mais ils ne voulaient pas :p | |
| MagnumPI | Tuesday 07th of June 2005 01:11:36 PM |
| - Encore (english) - again, repeat
example - Channel 5 will have an encore presentation of "Gone with the Wind". Encore (french) - still example - Robert et Mireille sont encore à la terrasse de la Closerie des Lilas I was told encore can mean again in French, but so far every time I hear it, the context suggest it means "still". | |
| Kazeki | Tuesday 05th of July 2005 02:46:10 AM |
| - The most confusing faux amis I have ran into that got me was le bureau. Le bureau in French means the desk, but in English bureau means a firm/organization or something of that nature. | |
| mula | Tuesday 05th of July 2005 03:00:15 AM |
| - In fact, "le bureau" might mean "an office" in French as well. I'll just copy-paste some lines from the dictionary:
bureau, x 1. desk 2. [pièce d'une maison] study 3. [lieu de travail des employés] office aller au bureau - to go to the office || [salle de travail]: elle est dans son bureau she's in her office 4. [agence]: bureau de poste - post office bureau de renseignements - information desk bureau de vote - polling station <...> It's from Larousse. | |
| Caramelicious | Tuesday 05th of July 2005 07:25:34 AM |
| - I think that Kazeki means that in english we use the word "Bureau" as a word that symbolises a film or organization. But when translating from French, it means a desk. ;) Hard to explain, but I think I understand.... the english word "bureau" borrowed from the french language rather than the translation of the french word into english. ;) | |
