Faux ami: sentence

A faux ami (a ‘false friend’ in English) is a word which looks or sounds similar to a word in another language but has a different meaning. I previously wrote about other faux amis on my blog.

I recently heard a French lawyer using the word sentence to describe the final decision in an arbitration. The French expression sentence arbitrale translates in English as an arbitration award, not an arbitration sentence.

In legal English, a sentence is a punishment given to someone convicted of a criminal offence. It can be used as a noun or a verb. For example:

• The offender received a 10-year prison sentence.

• The offender was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

See also this blog post on how to translate the French word condamner in legal English.