False cognates, commonly referred to as false friends, are words in two languages that look or sound very similar but actually have different meanings. These false friends can play havoc on international students when they are trying to learn new words in English.
There are many false friends within English, Spanish and French because these languages share a lot of words with Latin roots, but sometimes words with the same origin can take a separate path in each language. Let’s look at some of the more common ones.
Spanish and English
Bigote ( noun ), which means moustache in Spanish, sounds very similar to the English word bigot ( noun ), which is a word used to describe a person who is intolerant towards those holding different opinions to their own. An example sentence: While my aunt claims she is an open-minded Christian, she is actually a bigot who criticizes most religions.
Bizarro ( adjective ) in Spanish means brave but bizarre ( adjective ) in both English and French has a very different meaning and is used to describe strange situations, people or even buildings! For example, in February 2016, newspapers claimed that China’s government were intending to ban bizarre architecture, such as The China Central Television Building, designed by Rem Koolhaas, in Beijing.
Being out and about in the U.K can create some annoying situations for Spanish native speakers because some common English words mean completely different things in Spanish. For example, the word exit ( noun ) simply refers to the way out of a building or car park in English but éxito actually means success ( noun ) in Spanish!
Another false friend for Spanish native speakers is the English word soap ( noun ). In the U.K, we use soap to wash our hands with but in Spain, sopa actually means soup ( noun ). You could order soup in a restaurant as a starter but wouldn’t be able to wash your hands with it!
French and English
When French words look like English words, they often mean the same thing. However, some words do not play fair! An example of a false friend is the word grand ( adjective ). If you are an English speaker visiting France and you visit a grand city you would probably expect to see amazing looking buildings, perhaps palaces and impressive looking houses! However, you would be quite wrong because grand in French simply means big ( adjective ) and when used to describe a person’s physical appearance, it means tall.
If you are visiting an English friend and they ask you if you ‘had a good journey’ they are not asking you if you had a good day. Une journee actually means a day ( noun ) in French and not a good trip ( bon voyage).
Actuellement in French means at the present time, and should be translated into English as currently or right now. For example, ‘Je travaille actuellement’ means ‘ I am currently working’. The English word Actually, means in fact or in reality ( conjunctive adverb ) and should be translated into French as en fait or à vrai dire.
As you can see, there are so many false friends to stumble across but there are far too many to write about in one article! Remember, although some of these can cause embarrassment, making funny mistakes is all a part of the learning process and many of these mistakes tend to amuse your native English friends! After all, comedy is so important in Britain!
By Rachel Abbott
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