French and
English share an amazing number of false friends, i.e. words that you think you
know what they mean because of their similarity with your native language but
provide complete surprises. I have had
recently four encounters with words that were extremely misleading to the
eye. They include:
a. Une radiation
b. Un event
c. Un acte de
rectification
d. Une autonomie
limitée en temps
Put them
together, you might think of a nuclear accident that needs to be fixed by quick
government action.
Alas, nothing is
farther from the truth. Radiation in this case means being removed from
a list, such a Register of Commerce. The
event refers to an air vent for an electrical device. An acte of rectification is a death
certificate. Finally, most laptop users suffer from this autonomie, i.e limited
battery life.
To clarify, my
reaction to discovering these meanings was WTF or what in the hell is the
connection? Looking on the bright side, life would be so boring without these
linguistic puzzles.
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