Using cognates and near-cognates — AQA GCSE French
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Using cognates and near-cognates explained
Teach the concept of 'false friends' (faux amis) alongside cognates and near-cognates.
Read the full explanation
While many French words look like English words and share the same meaning ('good friends'), a few look similar but mean something different. For example, 'expérimenté' means 'experienced', 'sensible' means 'sensitive', and 'large' means 'wide'. Students must use this deduction strategy with care, working in collaboration with visual and verbal context to check if the assumed meaning makes sense. Despite these exceptions, learners should actively use cognates and near-cognates, as these 'good friends' vastly outnumber the false ones and are highly useful for anglophone learners.
Your focus
- Define what a 'false friend' is in the context of language learning.
- Correctly translate specific false friends such as 'expérimenté', 'sensible', and 'large'.
- Apply contextual clues to distinguish between true cognates and false friends in a text.
Using cognates and near-cognates exam tips
Marking Points
- Identify 'false friends' as words that look similar in French and English but have different meanings.
- Translate 'expérimenté' correctly as 'experienced' rather than 'experimented'.
- Translate 'sensible' correctly as 'sensitive' rather than 'sensible'.
- Translate 'large' correctly as 'wide' rather than 'large'.
- Use surrounding verbal and visual context to verify the meaning of a potential cognate.
Examiner Tips
- 💡Memorise common false friends like 'sensible', 'large', and 'expérimenté' to avoid easy traps in reading and listening exams.
- 💡Always read the whole sentence before deciding on the meaning of a word that looks like English.
- 💡Do not be afraid to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words that look like English, as most will be true cognates or near-cognates.
Common Mistakes
- Translating 'sensible' as 'sensible' in English; correction: translate it as 'sensitive' and use 'raisonnable' for 'sensible'.
- Translating 'large' as 'large' (big); correction: translate it as 'wide' and use 'grand' or 'gros' for 'large'.
- Ignoring the context of a sentence when guessing a word's meaning; correction: always check if the cognate's meaning logically fits the sentence.