French Word of the Day: Actualités

A 'false friend' word that comes in very handy if you're trying to find the latest news, changes or updates.

Because this should be your first stop if you're searching for updates on a French website.

Actualités - pronounced ack-too-all-it-ay - is a classic 'false friend', which looks like it would mean the same as the English word 'actually'.

In fact, its most common meaning translates as news, latest developments or updates.

Almost every website has an ' Actualités ' section which encompasses the latest news or any new developments or changes. It's therefore a useful word to know if you're searching for things online.

In the 'news' sense, it's usually used in administrative contexts for updates or to talk about the latest information or statements from a company or an official body. News in the sense of the media is usually referred to as ' les nouvelles ', likewise if you're talking about a person who has news, you would also use nouvelle / nouvelles .

Actualité in the singular means currently, or in the present tense.

But what it doesn't mean is actually - the most common way of saying actually in French is ' en fait ', similar to 'in fact' in English.

Je croyais qu'il était prof, mais en fait, c'est un étudiant - I thought he was a teacher, in fact he's a student

Avez-vous droit à la réduction pour retraités ? En fait, je n'ai que 42 ans - Do you qualify for the pensioner discount? Actually, I'm only 42.

Actualités de vos droits et démarches - Updates on your rights and procedures

Voici les dernières actualités de la fédération - Here are the latest updates from the federation

Ce roman est saisissant d'actualité - This novel is set in the present day