So I asked my wife to tell me what she thought the English translation of the following words would be and she answered just as I did…wrongly.
les economies = the economies? No, savings.
la lettre recommandee = the letter of recommendation? No, registered mail.
Some others that I find bothersome:
l’arret = not the arrest, but “stop”
attendre = “to attend”? Nope, “to wait”
la place = not “the place”, but “the seat”
le pain = not “the pain”, but “the bread”
rester = not “to rest”, but “to stay”
demander = “to demand”? No, “to ask”
I am sure there are many more but you get the point. If a word in French sounds like it should mean something in English don’t assume that it does. It just may not. I hate false cognates!
the archives near Emmaus 
they’re still cognates, just not as transparently as you would like — you can see the shared root meanings in all of those.
Brian, I know that I’m difficult to deal with, but I think that this post would be extremely appropriate for a couple of other blogs I participate in:
http://betterbibleblogs.com
and
http://goddidntsaythat.com
The people there are way more “flexible” than I am and will very much enjoy your contributions.
Cheers.
I don’t know why it upsets you that French is French, and English is English! 😉
Mike: True, but I think the closeness makes it even harder to get it right sometimes. I can’t tell you how many times I have been frozen by attendre!
WE: Thanks! I am more than willing to keep having discussions with you but I think that sometimes you use verbiage that can be defeating to the conversation.
Esteban: This is the mystery of all things French, is it not?
le pain also not to be confused with lapin!
Jason,
True, though you could have a meal that includes both