GCSE French: False Friends

Every sentence here contains one word that an English speaker will think they already know. The question is always the same — what does the sentence mean — and one of the wrong answers is always the reading the familiar-looking word invites.

Some cost you a detail. Going à la librairie is going to a bookshop, and the place you borrow from is la bibliothèque. A street that is très large is wide rather than big, and big is grand. A journée is a day considered as a stretch of time, not a journey, which is un voyage or un trajet. Gardez la monnaie is keep the change; money in general is l'argent.

Others change the meaning of the sentence completely. Mon frère est très sensible says he is easily hurt, not that he is level-headed — sensible in that English sense is raisonnable. Je reste à la maison is staying in, not resting; resting is se reposer. Elle a assisté au concert means she went to it, not that she helped with it. Il s'est blessé au genou is an injury, and blessing is bénir. And actuellement is about time rather than about correction: it means at the moment, where actually, in the sense of in fact, is en fait.

The one worth being most careful with is the exam. "Il a passé son examen hier" tells you only that he sat it. Whether he passed is a separate matter and a separate verb, réussir à un examen — which is why congratulating a French friend on the strength of that sentence can be premature.

Each explanation gives the English of the whole sentence, names the false friend, and supplies the real French for the English word it resembles, so the card you leave with has both halves of the pair rather than one. The accompanying flashcards do the same in one line each.

Every French form has been checked by hand, accents included. Nothing is reproduced from any exam board specification, past paper or mark scheme; every sentence is an ordinary classroom example.

Zestly is an independent study tool. It is not affiliated with any exam board and it is not an exam centre.

• Translate a sentence containing a false friend without being pulled by the English-looking word
• Give the real French word for the English meaning a false friend resembles
• Distinguish librairie from bibliothèque and journée from voyage
• Read sensible, large and monnaie in their French senses
• Use rester, assister à and blesser correctly
• Say what passer un examen does and does not tell you
• Use actuellement for time rather than for correction

Ten classroom sentences, each carrying one word that looks English: a shop where a novel is bought, a brother who is easily hurt, a whole day at the beach, an evening spent at home, a concert somebody went to, an exam sat yesterday, change handed back at a counter, an injured knee, a wide street, and where somebody is living at the moment. Eleven flashcards pair each French word with its real meaning, the English word it resembles, and the correct French for that word — librairie, sensible, actuellement, journée, rester, assister à, passer un examen, la monnaie, blesser, large, une location.