10 French words you already know
Surprising everyday words that are actually French — and the two that will catch you out.
If you have never studied French, you still know more of it than you think. English borrowed heavily, and the borrowed words mostly kept their meaning.
Ten you already use
- déjà vu — already seen
- rendez-vous — an appointment, not only a romantic one
- café — both the drink and the place
- menu — in French, often the set menu; the list is la carte
- souvenir — literally "to remember"
- entrepreneur — one who undertakes
- cliché — originally a printing plate
- bouquet, ballet, genre — all unchanged
The pronunciation catch
Knowing the word is not the same as being able to say it. French usually drops the final consonant — rendez-vous ends on the vowel, not the s — and the nasal vowels in entrepreneur have no English equivalent at all. Borrowed spelling, native pronunciation: that is the whole difficulty.
And two that will catch you out
These look borrowed but do not mean what you expect — see faux amis.