sage
well-behaved or wise
Les enfants sont sages.
The children are well-behaved.
AVOID THE TEMPTING MISTAKE!
In this case, sage means well-behaved. But if we said our grandparents were sages, we would probably mean they were wise. Of course, well-behaved grandparents are welcome, too!
TODAY
Our topic is especially useful. While French and English have many cognates — words that are derived from the same root word and consequently look and sound a lot alike — these words sometimes have similar meanings but other times do not. When they don’t, they are called false cognates and can provide plenty of pitfalls for language learners. Today’s word can be one such example. Click here to discover more false cognates on our Web site.
WILL YOU BE FOOLED?
Take our False Cognates Quiz to see if you can navigate troublesome false cognates in French.