From : https://www.thelocal.es/galleries/culture/funny-false-friends |
Hello people,
Today I'm going to show you my favourite list of false friends. It's not that I don't have many real friends, hehe. As you know, false friends are words that are similar to other words in one language, but the meanings are different, in other words, terms that have a very different meaning than expected but a similar form in another language. Most languages have false friends and they are words that we must carefully study if we do not want to be misunderstood. Today I will be presenting the selection of my favourite false friends in English (in contrast with Spanish) :
WORD
|
MEANING
|
SENTENCE
|
HOW DO YOU SAY…?
|
assist
|
help
|
I need some assistance.
Can you help me ?
|
‘asistir’ in English is ‘attend’ (‘go to’)
|
attend
|
go to
|
I can’t attend
lessons today. I’m busy.
|
‘atender’ in English is ‘assist’ (shop-assistant)
|
embarrassed
|
ashamed
|
She felt embarrassed
after falling down in front of the whole class.
|
‘embarazada’ in English is ‘pregnant, with child’.
|
success
|
triumph, victory
|
He gained his success
because of his hard work.
|
‘suceso’ in English is ‘event’ (‘news’)
|
succeed
|
get success, triumph
|
You need a lot of effort to succeed in life.
|
‘suceder’ in English is ‘happen’
|
exit
|
way out
|
I can’t find the emergency exit.
|
‘éxito’ in English is ‘success.’
|
fabric
|
textile fibre
|
This jacket is made with high-quality fabric.
|
‘fábrica’ in English is ‘factory’
|
carpet
|
rug, tapestry
|
I wasn’t careful and I accidentally spilt the milk
on the carpet.
|
‘carpeta’ in English is ‘folder’
|
actual
|
real
|
We want to know the actual cost of the repairs. If not, we won’t pay for it.
|
‘actual’ in English is ‘current’
|
rope
|
piece of string to tie things up
|
In the past, people were hanged. Yes, they used rope to hang people.
|
‘ropa’ in English is ‘clothes.’
|
casualty
|
death
|
When we are at war, there are a lot of casualties.
|
‘casualidad’ in English is ‘coincidence’, ‘chance’
|
college
|
university
|
In the US, teenagers become independent the moment
they go to college.
|
‘colegio’ in English is ‘school.’
|
constipation
|
The opposite of diarrhoea
|
Eating vegetables is the best thing to prevent constipation.
|
‘constipado’ in English is ‘cold.’
|
pretend
|
fake, feign
|
Don’t pretend
that everything is OK ! You’ve got real problems.
|
‘pretender’ in English is ‘intend.’
|
intend
|
have the intention of
|
I intend
to become a doctor. I’ll do whatever it takes.
|
‘entender’ in English is ‘understand’ or ‘comprehend.’
|
lecture
|
chat or talk about a topic
|
My favourite professor is giving a lecture today. I’m
so excited !
|
‘lectura’ in English is reading.
|
professor
|
university teacher (highest degree)
|
He is not just a simple teacher. He is one of the
best professors. His research on
genetics is amazing.
|
‘profesor’ in English is ‘teacher’
|
library
|
the place where students study.
|
You can borrow this book from the library.
|
‘librería’ in English is ‘bookshop’ or ‘book store’.
|
support
|
encourage someone, stand by someone
|
We have to support him. He’s been through a lot. He
needs us.
|
‘soportar’ in English is ‘stand’, ‘put up with’, ‘tolerate’.
|
sensible
|
thoughtful, considerate, realistic
|
John is good at making decisions. He is quite
sensible.
|
‘sensible’ in English is ‘sensitive’.
|
sensitive
|
emotional, sympathetic, someone easily affected by
other people’s feelings.
|
She is quite a sensitive girl. She always cries when
she sees other people suffer.
|
‘sensato’ in English is ‘sensible.’
|
sympathy,
sympathetic
|
sensibility, empathic
|
Joe has always been so sympathetic. He understands how other people feel. His sympathy is amazing !
|
‘simpatía’ in English is friendliness. ‘Simpático’
in English is ‘nice’ or ‘friendly.’
|
large
|
big
|
I’ve got a really large family : twelve brothers !
|
‘largo’ in English is ‘long’
|
So, how do you like false friends ? As you know they are extremely important not to cause misunderstanding. False friends will haunt you during your language-learning process, so you'd better start learning them. Next week I'll be writing another post related to false friends, only this time a bit more interesting ! What's your favourite false friend ? Post it in a comment.
P.S. If you want to laugh for a little bit, visit this webpage. You will find humorous examples of sentences with false friends.
P.S. If you want to laugh for a little bit, visit this webpage. You will find humorous examples of sentences with false friends.
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