Faux Amies

When I was first learning French, my teacher always stressed the importance of avoiding faux amis {false friends}.

She was referring to those words that sound exactly the same in French and English but mean completely different things.

Some of these like:

assist - which means to attend
attend - which means to wait
bless - which means hurt
bras - which means arms
preservative - which means condom {this wasn't part of my French class but consider this my PSA}

While learning all of this though, I never imagined how much these "Faux Amies" would permeate every aspect of my life.

Those times when you go to the grocery store and you buy what you think is lemonade only to find that it is really lemon concentrate. 

This became more evident after my boys were born.  Taking them to the park to play footbal doesn't involve going long or throwing the ball.

Footbal for us involves kicking and running.

I wonder what they will think when they finally see a "real" American football game.

They will probably confuse it with this other sport they love to play.  The one that is also played with an oval shaped ball.

But please don't call it football - because here in France {and especially in Auvergne} we refer to it as rugby.

This little baby has future ASM star written all over his face!  Who knows, maybe he'll want to grow up and play football or footbal even.