French word that sound the same but mean differently?

Question

what are they called again? i remember the teacher saying it was "false something."

Answer 1

i think you mean a "false friend".

Answer 2

Sava = ça va

As in "comment ça va?"... How are you?

Answer 3

I believe you mean "des homonymes" (homonyms). You have them in English as well.

Examples in French can be:

vert = green

verre = glass

ver = worm

vers = towards

False friends (or faux amis) are pairs of words in two languages or dialects (or letters in two alphabets) that look and/or sound similar, but differ in meaning.

We talk about false cognates when the words have the same meaning but different roots.

e.g.

Arabic sharif and English sheriff

Arabic anta (you, masculine singular) and Japanese anata / anta (you, singular)

English aye (yes, affirmative vote) and Japanese hai

French lai (song) and Urdu lai (song)

French le (the) and Samoan le (the)

Answer 4

Homophones sound the same but have different spelling/meaning. Here is a French lesson on the topic.

http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/a/...

But  "false something" would be faux amis. Smae English/French spelling but completely different meanings.

http://french.about.com/library/fauxamis...

Answer 5

false cognate.

Answer 6

well this guy from france came and vistited my friend and we leared that sava with a question mark means how are you and sava with a period means i am fine.

(and i'm not really sure how to spell the sava word) haha (:

Answer 7

False friends.

Ex. rester, to stay.

to rest, se reposer.