French Words Used WRONG in English! (French words with different English meanings)

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⭐ It's insane to think how many french words there are in the english language! We borrowed over 30% of our language from the French! but what about the French words we use incorrectly in English? Today's video explores some French words that we are using in English not exactly the way the French intended them. Can't wait to see how many words you use regularly incorrectly!

If you are interested about the french language, english words with french origins, tips and tricks for learning french, check out some fo the videos below!

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[leokaizzer]

In France a "première" for a movie is the first projection for the general public, accessible to anyone, an "Avant-première" is generaly 1 or few projection before the official "sortie" of the movie, so before the day the movie will be available in every theatre

[michaelleclere]

As a French guy, I was a few times confused when English speaking people would say «  ouh la with a weird look. Apparently it has a kinky meaning which is not the case at all in French. Very bewildering to me

[McDuck]

Native French speaker here, very educational even for French people. Your content is very acurrate most of the time, your channel deserves more attention from both native English speakers and us French people

[thierryf]

In french, the "première" in the theater, is the first public session. So the session before, not public but with critics, is the "avant-première" : before the first public session.

[leolight]

The word "rencard" is short for rendez-vous in French but it has a connotation of a date. So I would translate "rendez-vous" in English into "rencard" in French.

[gudel]

Le parfait est effectivement un dessert, souvent glacé. On n'en entend pas souvent parler en France, mais ça existe. Je connaissais le terme, et ça inclut souvent de fines tranches de fruit et une crême. Je pense que c'est l'origine du parfait au yaourt des américains.

[Insaneronald]

There's a difference between appetizer and entrée in French too though, mozzarella sticks or anything would be aperitif (drunk with some alcohol) and THEN the entrée (often a salad), the mb the plat principal, and fromage and/or dessert

[annaburch]

I remember learning the REAL meaning of our borrowed French words when I started learning the language and was stunned at how we've really twisted some words. Even English to American English can be so very different, sometimes.

[honestlycastle]

Very good choices. When I saw the title of your video, I immediately thought of "touché", "risqué" and "rendez-vous". I think it's funny how "risqué" and "rendez-vous" take on a sensual connotation in English. It's kinda like when English-speaking people say "oh là là" because they're talking about something scandalous when, in French, it's used to react strongly in any kind of context (excitement, surprise, frustration, anger). Also, I agree with what you said about "avant-première". Personally, I've always said "avant-première" and I've never heard anyone just say "première". My sister, who works at a movie theater, says the same.

[anne]

I was curious about the parfait because we (in Quebec) also use this word to refer to a yogurt desert. A "parfait" is also a desert in French. I checked two dictionaries (Le Petit Robert and a dictionary published in Quebec) and both referred to a frozen dessert made of creme, but that isn't ice cream nor sorbet. I also check in an old French "pâtisserie" cooking book and their "parfait" look like a cake.
The English word "mundane" absolutely doesn't have the same meaning then the French word "mondain", even though they sound the same.

[hananoush]

Interesting and funny 😆

👩‍🏫 I think “date” is pretty new and maybe more used by younger French... the synonym who comes in my mind is “rencard” (it’s way more familiar than rendez-vous).

[Wurner]

For the première thing i think it comme from the théâtre in which the 1st official public showing of a play is called "la première" and for movies we called "avant-première" because it is shown before the official release date

[carinefleming]

In Australia Emtree means the meal before the main meal, the same as the French.

[paydretz]

J'adore avoir rendez-vous avec cette chaîne toutes les semaines !

[mac_lak]

That's even up to 60% of english language borrowed from french, according to some estimations...

Some words even did the travel twice: french "poulenet" (shortening for "poulain", meaning "foal") became "pony" in english, which came back in french as "poney" for designating not foals, but these well-known little horses. And now, most people think that "poney" is an english word / anglicism... While it's a pure french word.

That's the same for "tennis", which comes from "tenez!" ("Here you are!") which was said during service when playing "jeu de paume" ("palm game"), an ancestor of the modern tennis played directly with bare hands. The "jeu de paume" is also the reason why tennis points are counted "0-15-30-40", because it was initially a distance (in feets) from the net.

[uneviefrallemande]

In German we use "parfait" for a mousse dessert.

[zicketteaa]

In the chopped off area there is also « robe » which is for the french « robe de chambre « , while robe by itself is actually a dress 😉 got me so confused at first in the us🤣

[yannsalmon]

« À la mode » is also a French culinary terme, that is not only used for desserts. You have dishes like « Bœuf à la mode » (bœuf = beef). I guess that it was originally a way of describing a dish made according to a particular trend of cooking at the time. Nowadays, « à la mode » recipes are perceived as old fashion and very traditional. There’s also a very old French folk song that every French kid knows which lyrics are « Savez-vous planter les choux ? (Tr: Do you know how to plant cabbages ?); À la mode, à la mode… ; Savez-vous planter les choux ?; À la mode de chez nous (Tr: The way we do it around here) ».
Concerning « Rendez-vous », to be confirmed by German natives, but a German friend once told me that they used this French expression specifically to refer to a date for gay males (‘was a while ago I heard that, so it may not be still the case).

[paydretz]

I do like the fact that Americans took a word from french language and use it differently, maybe just because of the good sound of the word. That's precisely how a language is moving foward. In French we also invent some english-like word that doesn't exist in english : parking, shampoing, ball-trap, baskets(shoes), baby-foot, brushing, baba cool....

[BertrandNelson-Paris]

Bravo 👏 ! Very well researched, being French I learned a ton of things, literally for every word you selected!