French and English Similarities (80+ Cognates Included)

A major upside for English speakers learning French is that there are a lot of similarities between the two languages. But there are lots of differences too—like a bunch of words that look similar but mean different things.

Here are several French and English similarities and differences, including over 80 French-English cognates.

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Why So Many Similarities Exist Between English and French

French is the most common source of borrowed words in English and vice versa. While close geographical and cultural contact between France and England over many centuries led to the intermingling of French and English, historian Bill Bryson tells us that things stopped being nice and started getting real in the year 1066 AD, when William the Conqueror became King of England.

During his rule, Norman French became the official language of government, the church and the upper classes in general in England. English, in turn, became the language of the masses. For about 300 years, this was the state of affairs, and thousands of French words made it into the English language. Most of these words are still in use today.

Most of these words are still in use today, but they don’t always mean what we expect them to mean. The best way to master these is memorization and immersion—exposing yourself to real French and figuring out how they’re used in real life. You can do this easily today with a program like FluentU.

French and English Cognates

One of the biggest similarities between French and English is their “shared” words.

These are called cognates—words that are either spelled the exact same or very similar and have the same meaning. There are tons of them, but here’s a list of over 80 common French and English cognates:

Common False Cognates in French

Below are some nouns, verbs and adverbs that may cause confusion.

Some of these aren’t strictly false friends, but rather words that share only some of the English meanings (but not all of them).

Let’s take a closer look at how they should be dealt with.

Nouns

• Avertissement. Un avertissement is not an advertisement (that’s a publicité), but rather “a warning.”
• Conducteur. Un conducteur in French is a person who drives a vehicle (any vehicle—most often a car, but also a train). Un cheminot is the word in French that commonly refers to any other train employee, and un contrôleur is a ticket-collector.
• Caution. Une caution refers to a security deposit. Un avertissement (see above) is what we use in French if we want to warn someone about something.
• Chair. If you want to mention a chair in French, “une chaise” is what you’re looking for. La chair refers to flesh, as in en chair et en os (in the flesh).
• Délai. Un délai primarily refers to a period of time, as in “j’ai un délai de 3 semaines pour écrire l’article” (I have three weeks to write the article). It can also refer to an extension. Un retard is how you would refer to a delay in French.
• Habit. This is another word for vêtements (clothes) or fringues, if you want to get slangy. As a mnemonic device, recall that “to dress (oneself)” is s’habiller. Une habitude is the French for “habit.”
• Parole. Based on the pattern, you’ve probably guessed that une parole has nothing to do with freedom or imprisonment. La liberté conditionnelle is French for “parole,” while une parole primarily refers to words or other speech acts. The expression donner sa parole, for example, means “to give one’s word” or “to make a promise.” Paroles can also refer to song lyrics.
• Rang. Un rang can either refer to a row (as in columns and rows), a ranking or a classification. Sonner, which is a verb, means “to ring (a doorbell).” “Tu as sonné ?” translates to “you rang (the doorbell)?”
• Sommaire. In French, un sommaire primarily refers to a book’s table of contents. It’s an example of a false cognate with a shared meaning. Its secondary definition refers to a summary. Résumé, however, is the more colloquial word of choice for “summary” in French.

Adverbs

• Actuellement. Actuellement is the French for “currently.” If you mean to say “actually,” vraiment is the word you should use.
• Éventuellement. Éventuellement, rather counter-intuitively for Anglophones, means “may,” “might,” “possibly” or “potentially.” “Eventually,” on the other hand, can be expressed with au fur et à mesure (bit by bit).
• Finalement. This is actually another way of saying “eventually,” but also “finally,” as one would expect. Enfin is another French adverb that can be used to mean “finally.”  

Verbs

• Achever. The verb achever  means “to finish” or “to complete.” “To achieve” in French is accomplir (to accomplish) or atteindre (to reach) as in atteindre son but (to reach one’s goal).
• Avertir. Avertir means “to warn” or “to alert.” The French for “to avert” is éviter, which also means “to avoid,” or détourner, as in the case of averting one’s gaze (détourner son régard). 
• Contrôler. The primary definition of contrôler is “to check” or “to verify.” It can also mean “to dominate” or “to control,” as one might expect, but maîtriser is usually the more appropriate choice.
• Détenir. Détenir can mean “to detain,” as in to hold in police custody, but it’s important to note that it can also be used to mean “to possess” or “to have,” as in “Marc détient des documents importants” (Marc has important documents) or “to hold (a title, for example)” as in “Teddy Riner détient le titre de champion de judo” (Teddy Riner holds the title of judo champion).
• Ignorer. Ignorer means “to not know” or “to be ignorant of.” The verbs bouder or mépriser mean “to ignore.”
• Prétendre. In French prétendre means “to affirm” or “to maintain.” Faire semblant, on the other hand, is French for “to pretend.”
• User. User means “to wear out.” Utiliser is the French verb for “to use.” 

The next steps for improving your French despite the similarities and differences? Read actively, pay attention to context. Make flashcards for any new words you come across and use them when you speak and write.

Follow these tips, and you’ll be unstoppable in no time.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

And one more thing...

If you like learning French on your own time and from the comfort of your smart device, then I'd be remiss to not tell you about FluentU.

FluentU has a wide variety of great content, like interviews, documentary excerpts and web series, as you can see here:

FluentU brings native French videos with reach. With interactive captions, you can tap on any word to see an image, definition and useful examples.

For example, if you tap on the word "crois," you'll see this:

Practice and reinforce all the vocabulary you've learned in a given video with learn mode. Swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you’re learning, and play the mini-games found in our dynamic flashcards, like "fill in the blank."

All throughout, FluentU tracks the vocabulary that you’re learning and uses this information to give you a totally personalized experience. It gives you extra practice with difficult words—and reminds you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned.

Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)