Trick question. They’re called patate frites normally, but everyone just calls them frites.
Correct. The “frites” part means exactly the same as “fries” (well, technically it means “fried”).
Americans just LOVE to make things sound fancier by adding “French” to the name to give it some “ooh là là”. See also: “French” vanilla ice cream (everywhere else in the world it’s just vanilla).
“Frites” is a portmanteau of the words “French” and “frites”, so it’s still just “frites”.
Incidentally, when translating the word “frites” to English, you can’t be certain of how many instances of the word “French” you need to add, and the only way to be certain is to ask the original author. This has led to many difficulties in translating posthumous works.
No, the question is, what are French?
