Clothes in French

This list is the one a shop assistant will use on you within thirty seconds. The fifth entry, la veste, looks like « vest » and is not it. In French une veste is the jacket you take off and hang over a chair, the top half of a suit — ta veste est sur la chaise. A British « vest » is the sleeveless thing worn under a shirt, and an American « vest » is the waistcoat of a three-piece suit, which is un gilet in French. So the same four letters name the outermost layer on one side of the Channel and the innermost on the other. Le manteau stands one entry later and settles the rest: that is the overcoat, worn on top of the veste. Two words, two layers, and no overlap with English at all.