Cog-mates! We understand each other, my French friend!

French English Cognates

‘What on earth are cognates and why on earth do I need to know what they are?’ I hear you ask. Cognates are words that look the same, are spelled or nearly spelled the same way, you just have a difference in pronunciation. Cognates are what I like video, I’m teaching my little annoying brother some French English cognates.

And here is a PDF a that summarises the cognates for you on one handy page so that you too can practise a little haw he hawing, in a French kinda way – not a like a donkey! French Pronunciation and Cognates PDF

Suffixes

Cognates – a fancy term for words that look the same or similar and mean the same in different languages. Around 50% of English is derived from Latin so we share a lot of cognates with the French language. Some suffixes (last bit of the word) are the same and other change. See the list below. If you don’t know how to pronounce French check out this link.

ion – prononciation, réservation, condition
ance – importance, France, chance
ence – indépendance, évidence, différence
age – âge, cage, courage
ude – attitude, gratitude, solitude
ure – agriculture, sculpture, température
ible/able – possible, terrible, table, capable
ant/ent – important, intelligent, accident
um – aluminium, calcium, minimum
ary – aire – nécessaire, vocabulaire, militaire
ory – oire – victoire, territoire, gloire
ic/ical – ique – identique, logique, magique
sm – sme – organisme, racisme, bouddhisme
ty – té – identité, anxiété, honnêteté
or – eur – acteur, majeur, horreur (quelle horreur!)
ist – iste – dentiste, artiste, liste
ian- ien/ne – parisien/ienne, canadien/ienne, australien/ienne
ive – if/ive – positif/ive, compétitif/ive, massif/ive

Faux-Amis – They ain’t no friend of yours!

So far you can see that French is easy peasy! Well, at least 50% of the time. So, if in doubt say something in English with a French accent and you might just get away with it. If you’re unlucky enough to fall upon a false friend (faux-amis) – we’ve all got some of those haven’t we! – because you may cause a bit of confusion. A false friend is a false cognate – it’s a trickster. It looks like an English word but it doesn’t mean the same. These have been created to make you look and feel a fool. Especially these: Préservatif doesn’t mean ‘preservative’ but ‘condom’ which could get you into trouble when enquiring about the ingredients of tin at the supermarché. ‘Are there any condoms in here?’.

Ça suffit pour aujourd’hui – That’s enough for today – Merci et à la prochaine – Thanks and until next time.

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Bisous bisous