--- title: False friends — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «False friends», a lesson of the french course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Many French words look just like English ones and mean the same, like animal or table - but some look friendly and then trick you: these are called false fri --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/35-false-friends/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [French](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/) / False friends # False friends Lesson 35 of the french course of Mova's primary school: 16 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/french/35-false-friends/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/35-false-friends/0/) — Many French words look just like English ones and mean the same, like animal or table - but some look friendly and then trick you: these are called false friends (faux amis). - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/35-false-friends/1/) — Raisin looks like raisin, but in French it means a juicy grape; a librairie looks like a library, but it is a bookshop; and attendre looks like attend, but it means to wait. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/35-false-friends/2/) — Picture breakfast in a French hotel: you want jam, so you try to make up a word from English "preserve" - and your teacher jumps in fast, because that word, préservatif, is a famously embarrassing false friend that does not mean jam at all; the word you want is confiture. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/35-false-friends/3/) — The safe habit is simple: when a French word looks too easy, check it before you use it. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/35-false-friends/4/) — A false friend can still be a good friend once you know it: un car is a coach, la monnaie is your change, and la lecture is reading time, not a boring talk. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/35-false-friends/5/) — Faux amis, false friends, are French words that look like English words but mean something different. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/35-false-friends/6/) — Le raisin means grapes; a dried raisin is un raisin sec. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/35-false-friends/7/) — Jam is la confiture; préservatif is an embarrassing false friend and does not mean jam. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/35-false-friends/8/) — Sensible in French means sensitive (easily upset or touched); "sensible" in English is raisonnable or sage. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/35-false-friends/9/) — Attendre means to wait: J'attends le bus means "I'm waiting for the bus". - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/35-false-friends/11/) — Un car is a coach for trips; a car is une voiture and a city bus is un bus. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/35-false-friends/12/) — La monnaie means change or coins; money in general is l'argent. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/35-false-friends/13/) — Blessé means hurt: "Tu es blessé ?" means "Are you hurt?", and une blessure is an injury. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/35-false-friends/14/) — To say you are full after a meal, French people say "Je n'ai plus faim" (I'm not hungry any more); "je suis plein" sounds odd. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/35-false-friends/15/) — La location means rental or hire: location de vélos means bike hire; a place is un endroit or un lieu. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/35-false-friends/16/) — La lecture means reading; a long talk is une conférence or un cours. - ← previous: [France and the French-speaking world](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/34-france-and-the-french-speaking-world/) - next →: [English words that came from French](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/36-english-words-that-came-from-french/) - ↑ back to [French](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/)