Franglais and language confusion

You might have noticed at some point that English has a lot of French words in it.  Words/phrases like piece de resistance, apertif, ingenue, and tete-a-tete come directly from French and are common enough in English.  In fact the English language is about half old French and half old Germanic languages due to the way it evolved.

Anyway, there are also a lot of French-ish phrases used in English that have gotten mixed up over time so that they either don't exist anymore in French or are bastardized to the point where they just don't make sense.  But I'm willing to bet that most people would assume they're real phrases taken from French.

"Double entendre" - In English this means an innuendo, or a phrase that's understood to have two distinct meanings.  It makes no sense in French, and would never be used; it's not only grammatically incorrect but just seems odd.  In French the phrase would be double sens, or literally a double sense.

"En suite" - As in an "en suite bathroom" or something like that, meaning a bathroom that is attached to a bedroom.  Or I guess this could be a whole set of rooms, say in a hotel or something.  Anyway, in French the word ensuite, put together like that means "then" or "after."  Suite has a similar meaning to the English phrase but it doesn't really make sense to say en suite in that context.

"Seance" - This of course in English is a gathering meant to communicate with the dead, or do occult stuff.  This word exists in French, but it just means any kind of meeting or session, without any of the mystical connections.  Classes in college/university meet in seances, and businessmen would have them often.

"A la mode" - In English this can have the connotation of the literal French meaning of "in fashion," but it often means a dessert that comes with ice cream.  I've found that when this phrase refers to food in French it actually means a dish that comes with carrots and onions!

"Entree" - While we're on the subject of food, here is another one that's confusing.  In English this refers to the main dish of a meal, while in French it means an appetizer (it literally means the "entrance" to a meal).

"Menu" - In English this is the list of all food a restaurant serves, or a meal plan or whatnot.  In French that meaning is la carte, or the card that lists all of that.  A menu is more or less what English speakers think of as a "prix fixe," or a two or three course meal with a limited amount of options per course for a set price.

"Matinee" - This specifically refers to the early time of a show/movie in English, but in French it just means "the morning."

"Corsage" - Most English speakers would understand this as the little flower a woman wears when going to a formal event, like prom.  In French it's a kind of old fashioned term for a woman's chest (like the area from shoulder to waist) or the part of a top/dress that covers that area.

"Negligee" - In English, a skimpy nightgown or something like that.  In French this would literally mean a woman who neglects herself/her appearance, but it's not really used as such.  It can be used as the item of clothing without the last E, but they also say nuisette for that.

"Decolletage" - This refers to the neckline of a woman's top/dress in English, but in French it would mean the act of lowering that neckline!  The word in French for the noun is decollete.

"Encore" - In English this is used at the end of concerts or plays to get the performers to come out again and perform something else.  This word means "again" in French, but French speakers don't use it in this situation; they say bis (bees) the Latin word for "twice."

"Cause celebre" - A famous or popular issue to discuss and work for, in English.  It simply doesn't really exist as such in French, and I don't know what the equivalent phrase is.

The French have their own fair share of these words that go in the opposite direction - that is, words that are sort of taken from English but don't really make sense or are just weird to English speakers.

Parking - In French this means a parking lot, not the act of parking.  So they might tell you to meet them at the parking.

Shampooing - Again this is a noun rather than a verb; it means shampoo.  Used in the context of, "Oh, I need to pick up some more shampooing."  Conditioner is apres-shampooing, "after shampoo."

Dressing - This means "wardrobe" in French, as in the total collection of someone's clothing, rather than the physical place where clothes are kept.  Like, "Would you like to look through my dressing to find something to borrow?"  It can also mean a dressing room or very large closet.

Re-looking - In French this means "a makeover."  It makes sense in a weird way, I guess, but it just doesn't exist in English.

Smoking - This is a "smoking jacket" rather than the act of smoking.  Not only that, but it's actually used to describe just a cut of clothing that is not really close to a smoking jacket.

Brushing - This comes close to the actual reference, but actually means to get your hair blow dried, rather than brushed.

Talkie-walkie - This one is pretty obvious, but mysteriously got switched around in translation.

Baskets - In French this means "sneakers" or "tennis shoes" or "trainers" (British).  It comes from calling them "basketball shoes," and they will also shorten "basketball" to basket.

Cake - This is not "cake" as we understand it, but is more often some kind of sweet bread type of thing (like for example banana bread would be a cake in French).  It can be savory, too, but it's a cake if it has that kind of a shape.  "Cake" like as in a birthday cake doesn't really exist here as much, but would be closest to a moelleux or a gateau.

I've heard that cornflakes can be used to refer to cereal in general but have never actually heard someone do it in real life.

I'll probably be back soon with more linguistics fun as it's something I've been pondering a lot recently, and there are so many examples!