Faux amis

I've learned that the English and French languages have more words in common than I might have suspected. For example, words ending in -able  (comfortable, formidable) mean pretty much the same in both languages, although of course the pronunciation is different. And, there are quite a few words that were just plain adopted from French to English (or vice versa. Who knows?) such as rendezvous, avenue, and baton.

But French also has a way of lulling you into complacency with "faux amis", or false friends. These are words that look the same but do not mean the same at all. Try these:

singe:  to lightly burn, perhaps? Nope!  A singe is a monkey! Les Singes à Paris!

introduir:  to introduce? Not really. If you used it that way people would understand. But usually it means to insert. Be sure you presèntez a friend to your female colleague instead!

attendre:  to go to, or attend? Nah, almost the opposite. It means "to wait."

douche:  Troy uses a douche almost every day here, and be glad he does. It's a shower.

There are thousands of these. We may discuss more of these later!