False Friends

[Barb_D]

Anyone who has ever been embarrassed or amused by using or hearing a "false friend" in speech (or who fears such embarrassment) might enjoy this article:
False Friends: Diverting Traffic in the Language Classroom : Teachers at Work : Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus

 

[Alex Case]

Nice article, thanks. Embarazada meaning pregnant rather than embarassed in Spanish was one that always caused amusement when I was there

It would be nice if more people could add examples here, as you have to be a member over there to comment

 

[riquecohen]

The author mentioned my favorite, pretender. I often hear from my Brazilian students statements like "I pretend to be a doctor." Isn´t that a crime in the US?

 

[Raymott]

There are many false friend lists on the 'net. Here's one.
False Friends - Spanish Words That Are Easily Misunderstood

There are also false friends between dialects of English: 'fanny' comes to mind.

 

[mara_ce]

Embarazada meaning pregnant rather than embarassed in Spanish

Embarazada means pregnant in Spanish, but there´s a similar word that means embarrassing: embarazoso/a
A situation / moment can be embarazosa/o.

embarazoso - Diccionario Ingles-Español WordReference.com

 

[philadelphia]

French and English have got heaps of false friends and of right friends, which may be helpful and funny or merely embarrassing. There's a chunk of in this: http://www.learn-english-today.com/lessons/lesson_contents/faux_amis.html. Here's an example of a false friend: 'attend' doesn't mean << attendre >> (meaning 'wait for'). Here's an example of a right friend: 'rendezvous' means << rendez-vous >>.