Faux

[druiaghtagh]

Meaning false?, how is it pronounced please?

[jno]

yes (French word), pronounced foe

[druiaghtagh]

thanks jno , that was quick !!

[Artful]

I think, jno, it is more 'fo' - foe is too long a sound and 'fo' is cut short in fact a little like the 'ow' as found in 'crow'.

I'm sure their are technical words for these vowel sounds, in fact I know there are but...

[kempie]

Brings new meaning to the phrase 'Friend or Faux'.

[acw]

Note though, that in its plural form, it is pronounced "fose" - to rhyme with hose.  Eg "faux amis" - which means literally "false friends" and refers to phrases that mean one thing on one language, but when literally translated to another, mean something VERY different. 

[jno]

If you're speaking French, artful is right; if just using a French word while speaking English, I don't think the length of the sound is that important. The plural pronunciation fose applies only if the next word starts with a vowel; otherwise the French would pronounce it the same as in the singular.

 As I understand 'faux amis', it means French words that an English speaker thinks he understands, because they look like English words, but in fact have different meanings. For isntance, 'actuellement' looks as if it's going to mean 'actually' but it really means 'at present'.

[magicdice]

acw sorry to be pedantic but the reason it's pronounced like that in the expression "faux amis" is because of liaison - "amis" begins with a vowel sound so the last letter of the preceding word is often pronounced as though the two words are merged, with a slight pause ("fo zamee", put crudely)

[acw]

Touche magicdice - touche! :-P (yes - i klnow, no accents!)

JNO, my Belgian friend uses the phrase "faux amis" to describe phrases as I described between Dutch/Flemish and German.  My German teacher also used the phrase.  When I think of an example, I will post it - on the tip of my toungue at the moment.  You are not wrong, but neither am I.  (Or at least, if I am wrong, it's because the definition of the phrase has now been expanded by general usage)!

[xmanfe1999]

Hello, I'm French and I teach English in a secondary school. I can tell you there are heaps of these false friends and they are sometimes so funny for us, Frenchies, that my pupils actually love them... As for me, my favourite is "rampant" that means exactly the contrary in French ... the lions on the British coat of arms are rampant, which is perfectly hilarious for us : rampant meaning "crawling" : les serpents rampent (snakes crawl) ,du lierre rampant ("crawling" ivy)...etc.