English words that originally come from French can be surprising to people learning la langue française (the French language). For many learners you have to be careful not to make any mistakes by thinking in English or falling for les faux amis (false friends).

Photo by Abby on Flickr. Licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.

L’autre jour (the other day), I was Skyping with ma mère and while we were talking she mentioned le dîner (dinner) saying she would be sautéing the vegetables. I grew up hearing le mot sauté (the word sauté) in English, but did not think about it being un mot français (a French word) until I heard ma mère say it out loud!

It made me curious about le mot and I wanted to find out if it was used the same way en français or if it was as different as the origin of French fries.

Sauté is the past participle of le verbe sauter (the verb to jump). That means it’s not a part of the present conjugations du verbe, but is used for le passé composé and sometimes as un adjectif (an adjective).

As a reminder, voici les conjugaisons du verbe sauter au présent : 

Je saute 
Tu sautes 
Il/Elle Saute 
Nous sautons 
Vous sautez 
Ils sautent 

Et voici les participes du verbe sauter : 

Participe passé : Sauté* 
Participe présent : Sautant

*When used as un adjectif le participe passé has to agree in number and gender with the noun it is modifying.

Ex : 

Les champignons sautés
La viande sautée

La grammaire may be confusing, but le terme (the term) is easy to understand. Its use in la cuisine (the kitchen) comes from the way that sautéing involves flipping the food and making it jump! En français, it is often used as a noun and refers to un plat (a dish) that is sautéed.

Le sauté :

Plat consistant en morceaux (de viande, etc.) cuisinés à la poêle.

Dish consisting of pieces (of meat, etc.) cooked in a frying pan.

There are many English words that come from French. It can be fun learning new definitions for words you thought you already knew and it can also make remembering le vocabulaire easier.

Imagine les champignons (mushrooms) jumping around la cuisine and you’ll never forget the word sauter!