Learn who your real French friends are

This week’s faux amis is a double feature; we’ll be looking at the French words rude and rester. So settle in with your popcorn or cheese sticks and let’s go!

The French word rude translates to harsh and is used to describe a person’s manner (you could also say ‘abrasive’, or ‘prickly’). The English word ‘rude’ is more accurately translated ‘impoli’ (to describe a person’s attitude). You could also use ‘grossier’ (feminine ‘grossière’) to describe something that is vulgar (note this is an adjective and not a noun). To say that someone is saying a rude word (or swear word), you can use the expression ‘dires des gros mots‘. Let’s look at some examples:

Son patron est souvent impoli avec lui, et il ne peut rien y faire – His boss is often rude to him, and there’s nothing he can do about it

Franchement, je la trouve un peu rude – Honestly, I find her a little harsh

Elle aime raconter des blagues grossières – She likes to tell vulgar jokes

‘Rester’ is a false friend of the English ‘to rest’; the verb actually means ‘to stay’ or ‘remain’. It can apply to a place or a state of being (happy, sad, content, etc.). ‘To rest’ is better translated using the reflexive verbs se reposer or se détendre (which carries the connotation of ‘relax’ or ‘unwind’). Let’s look at some examples:

Je suis restée en Espagne pendant trois mois quand j’étais jeune – I stayed in Spain for three months when I was young (notice that ‘rester’ is a DRMRSVANDERTRAMP verb and therefore uses ‘être’ in the passé composé; that is also why it has the ‘e’ at the end to indicate the speaker is feminine).

Je n’ai aucun temps pour me détendre pendant le semestre – I have no time to relax during the semester (in casual spoken French, it is common to drop the double negation and say ‘j’ai aucun‘ instead of ‘je n‘ai aucun‘)