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Onutz Posted 22 years ago
Grammar

French-English Cognates!

Hi!

Does anyone know if there is a corups, or some data sets that have french-english cognates annotated?..
Which is the best way to measure if 2 words are cognates or false friends?

thank you for your time and good luck!

Oana
  

Top answer

I don't know of any data sets as such, but I would recommend looking up French words in a French-English dictionary. If the definition which defines the French word could quite plausibly also be the definition of the same (or very similar) English word, I would count that as a "true" cognate. If the definition could not apply to the English word, it's a "false" cognate (false friend).

— CalifJim

  • I don't know of any data sets as such, but I would recommend looking up French words in a French-English dictionary.
  • If the definition which defines the French word could quite plausibly also be the definition of the same (or very similar) English word, I would count that as a "true" cognate.
  • If the definition could not apply to the English word, it's a "false" cognate (false friend).
  • Examples (French word and its English definition): science: science [true cognate] comment: how [false friend] scolastique : scholastic [true cognate] chair: flesh [false friend] jalousie : jealousy [true cognate] sort: fate [false friend] singe: monkey [false friend] longitude: longitude [true cognate] Hope that helps.
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2 Answers
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I don't know of any data sets as such, but I would recommend looking up French words in a French-English dictionary. If the definition which defines the French word could quite plausibly also be the definition of the same (or very similar) English word, I would count that as a "true" cognate. If the definition could not apply to the English word, it's a "false" cognate (false friend).
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Thank you for your message...the only problem is that i have to decide on the cognates pairs by developing a program, not manualy...but u helpt me, because i now know some more pairs of cognates examples
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