False Friends Between Brazilian Portuguese and French

Why close languages create stubborn mistakes

A completely unknown word sends a clear signal: look it up. A false friend sends the opposite signal: you already know this. That is why these errors survive long after grammar mistakes disappear. The fix is not to distrust every similar word, since most of them really are helpful. The fix is to know the small set of traps well enough that a warning appears in your head at the right moment.

Verbs that change the meaning of a whole sentence

Verbs are the most expensive false friends, because one wrong verb can make the listener misunderstand what you did or what you want.

• Entender means to understand, but French entendre means to hear. To say you understand, use comprendre: Je comprends. Je n'entends pas means I can't hear, which is useful on a bad phone line but not when the explanation is unclear.
• Atender means to answer the phone or to serve a customer, but French attendre means to wait. J'attends le bus means I am waiting for the bus. To answer the phone, say répondre au téléphone.
• Esperar covers both waiting and hoping in Portuguese. French splits them: attendre for waiting, espérer for hoping. J'espère que tu vas bien is a hope, never a wait.
• Assistir a means to watch, as in assistir à televisão. French assister à means to attend: assister à une réunion. To watch television, say regarder la télévision.
• Prender means to arrest or to fasten. French prendre means to take: prendre le métro, prendre un café. Arrest is arrêter.
• Reclamar means to complain. French réclamer means to demand or claim something you are owed: réclamer un remboursement. To complain, use se plaindre: Il se plaint du bruit.
• Pretender means to intend. French prétendre means to claim, often with some doubt: Il prétend qu'il était malade. To express an intention, use avoir l'intention de or compter: Je compte partir demain.
• Experimentar means to try something on or to taste it. French expérimenter usually means to experiment or to experience something in a more formal sense. In a shop, say essayer: Je peux essayer cette veste ?

The door that will not open

One pair causes a very physical mistake. On French doors you will often read Poussez or Tirez. Poussez sounds a lot like puxar, so many Brazilian speakers pull. In fact pousser means to push (empurrar), and tirer means to pull (puxar). Tirer is itself a trap, because Portuguese tirar means to take off or remove. To take off a coat in French, use enlever: J'enlève mon manteau.

Memory hook: Poussez, push. Both start with a p and both send the door away from you.

Small words with big consequences

Short, frequent words are dangerous because they appear in almost every sentence.

• Portuguese mais means more. French mais means but. More is plus: Je veux plus de temps. A sentence like Je travaille mais means I work, but, and leaves the listener waiting for the rest.
• Logo means soon or right away in Portuguese. In French, un logo is only a brand symbol. For soon, say bientôt; for right away, tout de suite.
• Sujo means dirty, while French sujet means subject or topic. Dirty is sale: Mes chaussures sont sales.

Nouns and adjectives that change the picture

• Esquisito means strange or odd. French exquis means exquisite, a strong compliment usually for food. Telling a host that the meal is exquis is lovely. To say something is weird, use bizarre or étrange.
• Costume means habit or custom. French un costume is a suit, or a costume for a play. A habit is une habitude, and a cultural custom is une coutume.
• In everyday Brazilian Portuguese, ordinário can sound negative, close to vulgar or poor quality. French ordinaire is neutral: ordinary, usual. Une journée ordinaire is simply a normal day.

A method that actually removes the errors

Reading a list once will not change what comes out of your mouth in a conversation. These steps work better:

1. Learn the correct French word inside a short sentence you might really say: J'attends le bus, Je comprends, Poussez la porte. The sentence becomes the automatic version.
2. Write a contrast card for each pair, with the Portuguese meaning on one side and the French equivalent on the other. Review it with spacing, as described in our guide to spaced repetition for busy adults.
3. When you catch the mistake in speech, repeat the corrected sentence aloud once. Silent correction rarely sticks.
4. Listen for the pairs. Hearing entendre and comprendre used by native speakers anchors the difference quickly. Short dictation exercises are a good way to train your ear on exactly these words.

Do not let false friends scare you off cognates

Most similar words between Portuguese and French are true friends: important, possible, la famille, la musique, la nation. Using them is a real advantage, and you should keep doing it. The goal is simply to keep a short list of exceptions under control. A related family of traps involves pairs inside French itself, such as the choice between knowing a fact and knowing a person, explained in our guide to savoir vs connaître.

If you are learning French with Portuguese as your support language, our overview of learning French online shows how Vocalyra uses your existing language to explain new structures without translating everything word for word.

Next step

Pick the three pairs from this list that you recognise from your own mistakes, and turn each into one sentence you will say this week. If you are not sure what level your French is at, the free placement assessment gives you a CEFR starting point, so you can focus on the vocabulary and grammar that matter most right now.