False Cognates are Faux Amis Who May Not Be Welcome

False Cognates are Faux Amis Who May Not Be Welcome In English and Romance languages like French, many words have the same roots, they look identical or very similar, and they share the same meaning. Thats a wonderful convenience to the student of either language. However, there are also a great many faux amis (false friends), that are  false cognates.  These are words that look identical or similar in both languages, but they have completely different meanings- a  pitfall for English-speaking students of French. A Pitfall for Students There are also semi-false cognates: words that sometimes, but not always, share the same meaning as the similar-looking word in another language.  Semi-false cognates are words that don’t look exactly the same, but they’re similar enough to cause confusion.   The  list of French-English false cognates below includes both false cognates and semi-false cognates, and the meaning of each word. To avoid confusion, weve added (F) for French and (E) for English to the titles. There are hundreds of false cognates between French and English. Here are few to get you started. Faux Amis and Semi-Faux Amis Ancien  (F)  vs. ancient (E)Ancien (F)  commonly means former, as in lancien maire  (the former mayor), although it can also mean ancient as in English  in certain contexts that discuss, for instance, very old civilizations. Attendre  (F)  vs. attend (E)Attendre means to wait for and its in one of the most common French phrases:  Je t’attends  (Im waiting for you). The English attend, of course, though similar in appearance means to take part in or to go to some event, such as a meeting or a concert. Bra  (F)  vs. bra  (E) The French bra  (F) is a limb on the human body and the opposite of jambe (leg). A bra (E) in English is, of course, a female undergarment, but the French call this garment, appropriately, a support (un soutien-gorge). Brasserie (F)  vs. brassiere (E)A French brasserie is an institution in France, a place, much like the British pub, where youd find a bar that serves meals, or a brewery. No connection to the female undergarment in the English word brassiere, of which bra  is the abbreviated form. Blessà © (F) vs. Blessed (E)If someone is blessà ©Ã‚  in France, they are wounded, emotionally or physically. This is far from the English blessed, which can apply to a religious sacrament or just great luck. Bouton (F) vs. button  (E)Bouton does  mean button in French, as it does in English, but  a French  bouton  can also refer to that bane of the teenage years: a  pimple.   Confection (F) vs. confection (E)La confection (F) refers to the making or preparing of clothing, a device, a meal, and more. It can also refer to the clothing industry. An English  confection  (E) is a class of food thats sweet, something thats made in a bakery or candy shop. Exposition (F) vs. exposition (E)Une exposition (F) can refer to an exposition of facts, as well as to an exhibition or show, the aspect of a building, or exposure to heat or radiation.  An English exposition is a commentary or or an essay developing a point of view. Grand  (F) vs. grand (E)Grand is a very, very common French word for big, but there are times it refers to something or someone great, such as un grand homme  or a grand-pà ¨re.  When it describes a person’s physical appearance, it means tall. Grand in English commonly refers to a special human being, thing, or place of notable achievement. Implantation (F) vs. implantation (E)Une implantation  is the introduction or setting up of a new method or industry, a settlement, or a companys presence in a country or region. Medically, the French terms means implantation (of an organ or embryo). An English implantation is an implantation only in the sense of an introduction or setting up or in the medical sense. Justesse (F) vs justice (E)French justesse  is all about exactness, accuracy, correctness, soundness, and the like. If something is juste, it is corect. The English justice  refers to what we expect when the rule of law prevails: justice. Librairie  (F) vs. Library (E)These two terms are  often confused, and  they are true  faux amis. Books are involved in both, but  une librairie  is where you go to purchase a book: a bookshop or newsstand. Your local library is  une bibliothà ¨que in France,  or these days  it may be part of  a  mà ©diathà ¨que.  The English library is, of course, where you borrow books. Location  (F) vs. location  (E)  There are miles between these two meanings.  A French location  is a rental, and youll often see ads for  Ã¢â‚¬Å"les meilleures locations  de vacances,† meaning â€Å"the best holiday rentals.†Ã‚  Location is the physical spot where something like a building lives, you know: location, location, location, which can be important in finding a French location. Monnaie  (F) vs. money (E)Monnaie  for the French is the loose change jingling in your pocket or weighing down your handbag. People at the checkout who say they have no  monnaie  dont have the right change. English money is all of it, both change and bills. Vicieux (F) vs. vicious (E)The French term  vicieux (F) gives us pause because its what you call someone perverted, depraved, or nasty. In English, the vicious person is brutal, but not quite so nasty as a  vicieux in French.

Major Events in the Trojan War

Major Events in the Trojan War The ancient Greeks traced their history to mythological events and their genealogy to the gods and goddesses. Perhaps the most pivotal event in the early history of ancient Greece was the Trojan War. This is that most famous of ancient wars that the Greeks ended with an insidious gift. We call it the Trojan Horse. We know about the Trojan War primarily from the works of the poet Homer (the Iliad and the Odyssey), as well as stories told in other ancient literature, known as the Epic Cycle. ​Goddesses Set the Trojan War in Motion According to ancient, non-eye-witness reports, a conflict among the goddesses started the Trojan War. This conflict led to the famous story of Paris (known as The Judgment of Paris) awarding a golden apple to the goddess, Aphrodite. In return for Paris judgment, Aphrodite promised Paris the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen. This world-class Greek beauty is known as Helen of Troy and called the face that launched a thousand ships. Perhaps it didnt matter to the godsespecially the goddess of lovewhether Helen was already taken, but for mere mortals it did. Unfortunately, Helen was already married. She was the wife of King Menelaus of Sparta. Paris Abducts Helen Discussed in more detail in connection with Odysseuswho was one of the leaders of the Greek (Achaean) side of the Trojan Waris the importance of hospitality in the ancient world. While Odysseus was away, suitors abused the hospitality of Odysseus wife and household. Odysseus, however, relied on the hospitality of strangers to survive his 10-year odyssey home. Without certain standards of expected behavior on the part of host and visitor, anything could happen, as, indeed, it did when the Trojan prince Paris, a guest of Menelaus, stole from his host. Now, Menelaus had been aware of the possibility that his wife, Helen, would be snatched from him. Helen had been snatched before their marriage, by Theseus, and she had been courted by almost all the Achaean leaders. When Menelaus finally won the hand of Helen, he (and Helens father) extracted a promise from all the other suitors that they would come to his aid should Helen be taken away again. It was on the basis of this promise that Agamemnonacting on brother Menelaus behalfwas able to coerce the Achaeans to join forces with him and his brother and sail against the Asian city-state of Troy to win back Helen. Trojan War Draft Dodgers Agamemnon had trouble rounding up the men. Odysseus feigned madness. Achilles tried to pretend he was a woman. But Agamemnon saw through Odysseus ruse and Odysseus tricked Achilles into revealing himself, and so, all the leaders who had promised to join did so. Each leader brought his own troops, weapons, and ships and stood, poised to sail, at Aulis. Agamemnon and His Family Agamemnon was from the  House of Atreus, that cursed family that stemmed from Tantalus, a son of Zeus. Tantalus had spitefully served the gods a feast with an awful main course, the cooked body of his own son Pelops. Demeter was upset at the time because her daughter, Persephone, had disappeared. This left her distracted, so unlike all the other gods and goddesses, she failed to recognize the meat dish as human flesh. As a result, Demeter ate some of the stew.  Afterward, the gods put Pelops back together again, but there was, of course, a missing part. Demeter had eaten one of Pelops shoulders, so she replaced it with a piece of ivory. Tantalus did not get off unscathed. His well-suited punishment helped inform the Christian vision of Hell. Tantalus  familys behavior remained unimproved through the generations. Agamemnon and his brother Menelaus (Helens husband) were among his descendants. Raising the ire of the gods seems to have come very naturally to all the descendants of Tantalus. The Greek troops heading for Troy, under the lead of Agamemnon, waited at Aulis for  a wind  that just wouldnt come.  Eventually, a seer named Calchas deduced the problem: The virgin huntress and goddess, Artemis, had been offended by a boast Agamemnon had made about his own hunting skills. To appease Artemis, Agamemnon had to sacrifice his own daughter Iphigenia. Only then would the winds come to fill their sails and let them set off from Aulis to Troy. To put his daughter Iphigenia to the sacrificial knife was hard for Agamemnon the father, but not for Agamemnon the military leader. He sent word to his wife that Iphigenia was to marry Achilles at Aulis (Achilles was left out of the loop). Clytemnestra and their daughter  Iphigenia  went happily to Aulis for a wedding to the great Greek warrior. But there, instead of a marriage, Agamemnon performed the deadly ritual. Clytemnestra would never forgive her husband. The goddess Artemis  appeased, favorable winds filled the sails of Achaean ships so they could sail to Troy. The Action of the Iliad Begins in the Tenth Year Well-matched forces dragged the Trojan War on and on. It was in its tenth year when the climactic and most dramatic events finally took place. First, a sacrilegious Agamemnon, leader of all the Achaeans (Greeks), captured a priestess of Apollo. When the Greek leader refused to return the priestess to her father,  a plague  struck the Achaeans. This plague may have been  bubonic since it was connected with the  mouse-aspect  of Apollo. Calchas, the seer, summoned once again, augured that health would be restored only when the priestess was returned. Agamemnon agreed, but only if he could have a substitute war prize: Briseis, Achilles concubine. When Agamemnon took Briseis from Achilles, the hero was outraged and refused to fight. Thetis, Achilles immortal mother, prevailed upon Zeus to punish Agamemnon by making the Trojans stymy the Achaeansat least for a while. Patroclus Fights as Achilles Achilles had a dear friend and companion at Troy named Patroclus. In the movie  Troy, he is Achilles cousin. While thats a possibility, many consider the two not so much cousins, in the sense of son of ones uncle, as lovers. Patroclus tried to persuade Achilles to fight because Achilles was so capable a warrior that he could turn the tide of battle. Nothing had changed for Achilles, so he refused. Patroclus presented an alternative. He asked Achilles to let him lead Achilles troops, the Myrmidons. Achilles  agreed and even  lent  Patroclus his armor. Dressed like Achilles and accompanied by the Myrmidons, Patroclus went into battle. He acquitted himself well, killing a number of Trojans. But then the greatest of the Trojan heroes, Hector, mistaking  Patroclus  for Achilles, killed him. Now the situation was different for Achilles. Agamemnon was an annoyance, but the Trojans were, once again, the enemy. Achilles was so grieved by the death of his dear Patroclus that he reconciled with Agamemnon (who returned Briseis), and entered the battle. A Madman Kills and Disgraces Hector Achilles met Hector in single combat and killed him. Then, in his madness and grief over Patroclus, Achilles dishonored the Trojan heros body by dragging it  around  the ground tied to his chariot by a belt. This belt had been given Hector by the Achaean hero Ajax in exchange for a sword. Days later, Priam, Hectors aged father and  the king of Troy, persuaded Achilles to stop abusing the body and return it for proper burial. The Achilles Heel Soon after, Achilles was killed, wounded in the one spot  where  legend tells us he was not immortalhis heel. When Achilles was born, his mother, the nymph Thetis, had dipped him into the river Styx to confer immortality, but the spot where she held him, his heel, remained dry.  Paris  is said to have hit that one spot with his arrow, but Paris wasnt that good a marksman. He could only have hit it with divine guidancein this case, with the help of Apollo. The Next Greatest Hero The Achaeans and Trojans valued the armor of fallen soldiers. They triumphed in capturing the helmets, weapons, and armor of the enemy, but also prized that of their own dead. The Achaeans wanted to award the armor of Achilles to the Achaean hero they thought came next in stature to Achilles. Odysseus won. Ajax, who thought the armor should have been his, went mad with rage, tried to kill his fellow countrymen, and killed himself with the sword which he had received from his belt-exchange with Hector. Aphrodite Continues to Help Paris What had Paris been up to all this time? Besides his dalliance with Helen of Troy and slaying of Achilles, Paris had shot and killed a number of Achaeans. He had even fought one-on-one with Menelaus. When Paris was in danger of being killed, his divine protector, Aphrodite, broke the strap of the helmet, which Menelaus was clutching. Aphrodite then shrouded Paris in a mist so that he could escape back to  Helen of Troy. The Arrows of Hercules After the death of Achilles, Calchas uttered yet another prophecy. He told the Achaeans they needed the bow and arrows of Hercules (Herakles) to defeat the Trojans and end the war. Philoctetes, who had been left wounded on  the island of Lemnos, had said bow and poisoned arrows. So an embassy was sent to bring Philoctetes to the battlefront. Before he joined the Greek battle line, one of the sons of Asclepius healed him. Philoctetes then shot one of  Hercules  arrows  at  Paris. There was barely a scratch. But ironically, like the  wound  Paris had inflicted on Achilles one weak spot, that scratch was enough to kill the Trojan prince. The Return of Odysseus Odysseus  soon devised a way to end the Trojan Warthe erection of a giant wooden horse filled with Achaean (Greek) men to be left at the gates of Troy. The Trojans had noticed Achaean ships sailing away earlier that day and thought the giant horse was a peace (or sacrificial) offering from the Achaeans. Rejoicing, they opened the gates and led the horse into their city. Then, after 10 years of privations for the sake of the war, the Trojans brought out their equivalent of champagne. They feasted, drank hard, and fell asleep. During the night, the Achaeans stationed inside the horse opened the trap door, crept down, opened the gates, and let in their countrymen who had only pretended to slip away. The Achaeans then torched Troy, killing the men and taking the women prisoner. Helen, now  middle-aged but still a  beauty,  was reunited with her husband Menelaus. So ended the Trojan War and so began the Achaean leaders torturous and mostly deadly trips home, some of which are told in the sequel to The Iliad, The Odyssey, which is also attributed to Homer. Agamemnon  got his comeuppance at the hand of his wife Clytemnestra and her lover, Agamemnons cousin Aegisthus. Patroclus, Hector, Achilles, Ajax, Paris, and countless others were dead, but the Trojan War dragged on.