Hello and welcome to Learn English with Jojo.
This video is going to be about the difference between the English word, deception, and the
French word, déception, which are two false friends.
So I've made a few videos like this in the past, but they've been longer videos, and
I've covered three words per video and this video is going to be very short, hopefully
about three minutes, where I just give you an example and I talk a little bit about the
etymology so that you understand.
And that way, if you are searching for a specific false friend, you can find it easily in the
title instead of a video like "three false friends."
So this video is going to be in English, obviously, and it will be for people who speak English
and want to learn French and for people who speak French and want to learn English, so
I am going to try to speak as clearly and as slowly as possible, but sometimes I forget.
Anyway, let's get started.
So.
Deception, in English, means to dupe someone.
To... such a good word: dupe.
It means to tell someone that you're going to do something and then do something completely
different, usually for your own advancement, for you to have something good at the expense
of someone else.
But the word, déception, in French means: a disappointment.
So that's a little bit different.
Even though when someone deceives you, when there is a deception, someone would be disappointed,
it's not exactly the same thing.
So I will give you an example of why this could be a problem for a French speaker trying
to learn English.
Let's say I am talking to a French person, who is in the United States, and I tell them,
"that party was such a deception."
The French person might think, "oh that party was a disappointment.
It wasn't as good as I thought it would be.
Ugh."
But when I say that party was a deception, I could mean that person who threw the party
was throwing the party just to tell us his idea about his start-up and to try to get
investors and so he was being... he was basically lying to us saying it was going to be a fun
party, but he really had an ulterior motive.
Ok now let's talk a little bit about the etymology of the two words to give us some context and
to maybe put it in your head more, so that you can remember it.
And I just think it's interesting.
So the word, deception, in English comes from the French word, "déception" in the early
1400's and a lot of words came from French that are in English today because of the Norman
conquest in 1066.
So it took about 400 years, a little under 400 years, for this word to come into English,
but when it did, it actually meant "deception" like it does in English.
The French word has since changed to mean disappointment.
Actually there's a word in French that is the same, it's désappointer.
So there's also that, but people don't really use désappointement, they use déception.
Déception changed from meaning "tromper" or "duper," to wrong someone or to dupe someone,
in the 19th century.
Yes, in the 19th century.
I don't know why it changed, I just know that it did, and I find it interesting.
I would love to know more.
If you are a linguist and you know the answer to why it shifted in definition, please let
me know in the comments.
Otherwise, it's just an interesting fact.
And that's it.
If you would like to see my sources for the etymology, I will leave them in the description
and let me know what you think of this video, if you found it helpful, if I spoke too quickly
in English, I'd like to hear all of your feedback.
That's it.
Ok.
Bye.
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