Video: Funny English mistakes made in France (and how to fix them!)

Video Transcript:

Not sure if you're making funny mistakes in English?

By the end of this video, you will hear some of the funnier mistakes that French speakers make in English, and you'll be able to fix them so that you can become a more confident English speaker for the best free English lessons.

Subscribe to my channel and hit the bell to be notified. When I post a new video. Hi, my name is Kathryn and I have helped hundreds of students improve their English and fix these common mistakes. Now it's your turn.

1. Fun/Funny

First of all, I didn't make this video to mock French people. I actually love hearing these errors because it means you can speak another language. And that is amazing. Okay. Let's dive in straight to the first funny mistake and it is actually to do with the word fun. French people often get the word fun and funny, mixed up in sentences. For example, I went to a party last night. It was funny. This is not correct. What you mean to say is it was fun.

It's not funny as in haha. That was so funny. So you need to be aware of these two distinctions. The difference between being funny, which is ha and fun, which is useful. Yes, it was good. It was interesting.

2. Cook/Cooker

The second funny mistake is when you call yourself or somebody else a good cooker. So this is funny for me because it brings up a mental image in my head of the appliance, a cooker. So when we want to say that we are good at cooking or that we cook, or that our job is in that area, we say, I am a cook are a good cook. Are I am a good chef? Now for those French people who call, who tried to, uh, translate the word chef, we actually use the French word in English. We say, I work as a chef, not a chief.

3. Mispronunciations

The third funny mistake. Mispronunciations um, when you're translating from French to English, for example, the first one is the word shit of French in French it's mouth. Okay. So notice how I said shit. It's very short sound shit. It's not sheet sheet is something you put on your bed. So practice that with me, that movie was shit. Not that movie was sheet. Another pronunciation mistake is when you order a drink in a cafe or a bar, um, and you say, can I have a cock, please? It is not spelled C K, which is a male appendage. It's Coke. It's a very long sound Coke. Another word that is often missed pronounced is the word peace.

So peace is also a very long sound piece. It's not peace. Oh, go wait, just give me some peace. It is not give me some peace means something completely different. It's what you do when you go to the toilet, the fourth mispronunciation. He's one that I hear all the time in French. And in the context, everyone knows what you mean, but it still sounds funny to English ears. And that is the word "can't". So in another video, here I go through how to pronounce this word correctly. Basically you open your mouth quite a bit. It's caaaan't caaaan't it's not cunt. Okay? Because that means it's a very, very bad word. I'm won't even try and explain it. It's a very bad word in English. And so if you say I can't do it, I can't do it. It is very wrong. You say I can't do it.

I can't do it. So be careful how you pronounce that word now

Tor my last pronunciation, these two words often get mixed up and it can cause quite a lot of confusion.

The difference between angry and hungry. Okay. I often hear French people say I am very angry I am very angry. That means you are 'en colère' but that is not what you meant. You meant I am very hungry. In English we say that 'H' word all the time. Um, so for that word hungry, you can, you can feel the breath on your hand, hungry and that sound after the 'H', is , uh, an, uh, sound. It's not an, ah, sound like an angry, angry has no 'H' - it's angry. And the 'H' sound is hungry. If I'm hungry, je suis en colère. I am angry.

4. Medicine/doctor

The fourth funny mistake is getting mixed up between the word doctor and medicine in English. Medicine is the stuff that you take to make yourself feel better. And doctor is the person who gives it to you. You do not say I went to the medicine to get a prescription. You say I went to the doctor. Okay.

What do you do? I'm a medicine. Uh, no, I'm a doctor.

Comment below. If you've ever said something and had a strange reaction from an English person after you've said it, I'd love to hear your story.

5. Rupture conventionelle

For the next funny mistake. I get many different translations for this. It's a very specific French term. Now I don't know if this exists anywhere else in the world, but it's very common in France. And I teach a lot of business English and this comes up quite a lot and people never know how to translate it. They say conventional rupture, conventional break, which to our English ears doesn't mean anything. So if you are going to a foreign country that speaks English, you need to know how to say this. If you are going for an interview, you would say, it is a mutually agreed termination. What does that mean?

It means that you and the company came to an agreement that is beneficial to both of you. Each party has its advantages.

6. ing V -ed endings

So the sixth funny mistake is the difference between the adjective ed endings and I N G for example, French people often say, I am exciting to be going to Paris. What they mean is I am excited. I'm excited to be going to Paris. We normally use the ING endings before a noun, for example, an exciting discussion, an exciting movie, something like that. So we leave the ed ending before actions. He was excited, uh, to go to the, he was excited because it was his birthday and another one in the same kind of, uh, area is interesting and interested. I'm very interesting, which means she is passionée, but people often what they mean is I am interested in something I'm interested in going to the movie with you.

Not, I am interesting in going to the movie with you. It can be a very funny mistake when people say it on its own. Like I am interesting. Oh, really? Are you an interesting person? That's lovely.

6. a bloody steak

Thank you for the seventh. Funny mistake. We're going to turn to food in a restaurant, in an English speaking country. You do not order a bloody the stick because bloody in English is an adverb. It's kind of rude. If you say, can I have a bloody steak? It means a ASCA should have on stickers, civil blade. So [inaudible] um, so you don't say, can I have a bloody steak? You say, can I have a rare steak? Are, if you wanted, literally just cooked one minute on either side, it's kind of have a Blue steak.

7. experimented/experienced

And lastly, I get this an awful lot. People say in an interview, I am experimented. We say, I am experienced, not experimented. So that's one that you need to remember if you're going for an interview.

I really hope you liked that video. And if you did, why not watch some of my other videos to help improve your English? If you liked it, click like, and subscribe and share with all your friends. Thanks for joining me and see you in the next video.