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A cognate, in French, or any other language, is a word that shares common meaning and etymological roots between two languages. The common root is usually seen in similar spellings and pronunciations, in this case between English and French.

For example, the cognate word "table" is spelled the same in both English and French. They both share roots in Old French, ultimately come from the same Latin word, tabula, meaning board.

The words for duck (English, of germanic origin) and canard (French, of latin origin) are not cognate, and sound obviously different due to their dissimilar roots.

Beware of loan words, however. Some words, like facade, or cafe, are borrowed terms from the French language, and as such have no true English equivalent and are not cognate.

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13y ago

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