Speaking Better French: more Faux Amis!
Saul H. Rosenthal
Paperback, 6x9 in, 156 pages
Wheatmark, April 2008
ISBN: 9781604940206
Endorsements
"I am amazed at how much fun to read, as well as how incredibly
informative, the book is. It’s a wonderful tool that
I’ll be happy to recommend to my colleagues and
students."
— Brigitte Humbert/Chair, Dept. of French,
Middlebury College
"I love the Faux Amis, especially the relaxed, conversational
presentation. I’m going to suggest that we recommend it for
students in our intermediate and advanced classes as a
supplementary reference book”
—Norman Shapiro, Professor, Dept. of
French,Wesleyan University
"It’s the kind of book that would be very useful for
students that are making their first forays into writing in French.
You signal just the kind of traps that students fall into all the
time.”
—John F. Moran, Director of Language
Programs, Dept. of French, NYU
Description
It’s easy to assume that French words mean the same as
English words, when they look and sound pretty much the same. Most
of the time you’d be correct. However, some of these word
pairs may have completely different meanings. They are called false
friends, or faux amis.
These faux amis can cause misunderstandings,
uncomfortable situations, and even embarrassment if you use them in
conversation and they mean something entirely different than what
you expected. This book is written to help you avoid these awkward
misunderstandings.
This book isn’t a dry list of faux amis. It’s
written in conversational language and is easy and fun to read.
Each faux ami word pair is explained so that you will
understand the differences in how the French word is used compared
to the English. You’ll also see examples of its usage in
sentences and phrases.
When you’ve finished reading this book, you will have
learned most of these faux amis without ever having had to
consciously memorize them, simply because they’re so
interesting.
