Teacher

No language possesses 100% of its words that are free from any foreign influence. The English language is no exception to the rule and contains many words borrowed from many different languagesworldwide.
Today, English is pointed out as the main language on which new words are based (especially in scientific research and Information Technology). This can appear as a great advantage, especiallyfor non-native English speakers who have to deal with the English language at work. Indeed, this makes it easier for them to understand new words because they can guess the English meaning by findingthe equivalent which is similar to their own language.
However, it is dangerous to simply "transpose" a word from one language into the other. This could create big misinterpretations because themeaning of some words can be misleading. Such misleading words are called: Faux-amis (false friends). These are opposed to transparent words that have the same meaning in both languages.
Transparency =transparence 
Transparent words are two words that have a similar spelling and the same meaning. For example, the words "Kalendar" (German) and "calendar" (English) are nearly identical and theirmeaning can be deducted very easily. A lot of transparent words can be found in English. However, they are not always as transparent as they appear.
What is a Faux-ami?
Two apparently transparentwords that have a complete different meaning. If a French speaker for example comes across the sentence: "The family was sympathetic towards Julia." He could consider sympathetic as a transparent word andunderstand the sentence meaning that the family was friendly to Julia since "sympathique" in French does not mean compassionate but friendly. Here, there is quite a difference in the meaning and thiscan have a lot of consequence on the text.
How to recognise a Faux-ami?
It is not a simple task to differentiate Faux-ami from transparent words. Unfortunately, there are no set rules that allow...