False friends and other unfortunate coincidences

[GrandPiano]

False friends are words in different languages that look and/or sound similar but have different meanings, often tripping up learners. One good example might be the first example given in the False cognates thread, the Welsh and Hebrew feminine singular third-person pronoun /hi/, which is pronounced exactly the same as the English masculine singular third person pronoun (<he>). You can also give examples of ordinary words in one language that sound like less mundane things (e.g. swearwords) in other languages (such as Mandarin 给 gěi "to give" and English gay) or even words that are only a little similar but still trip you up e.g. because they mean opposite things (such as Mandarin 南 nán "south" and English north, which tripped me up for a while because they both start with [n]).

Here are some other examples I know of:

• Mandarin 书 shū "book", shoe
• Spanish embarazada "pregnant", embarrassed
• Spanish and French sensible "sensitive", English sensible
• Mandarin 那个 "that (one)", also used as a very common filler, is pronounced "nà ge" in standard Mandarin but is often colloquially pronounced "nèi ge" (especially when used as a filler), which many English speakers hear as "n***er".
• Spanish carpeta "folder", English carpet

[Lao Kou]

which many English speakers hear as "n***er"

Many?

[HoskhMatriarch]

This isn't as good as yours, but here's some (although these are more like cognates that have semantically drifted apart):

Gift "poison" and gift
bekommen "to get" and become (I've heard of an Austrian child learning English who said "this Christmas I became a bike")
geh "go" and gay
Fahrt "trip", fahrt "drive" and fart
hell "light" and hell
aß "ate" and ass/arse (German needs to stop having so many words like this)
nein and nine (no one is confused by these, but I've said „nein!“ and had people go like "eight!" before)
blesser "to injure/offend" and bless (I've heard of someone trying to say "I bless you" in French and using blesser so they really said "I injure/offend you")

[GrandPiano]

which many English speakers hear as "n***er"

Many?

Are you suggesting that not a lot of English speakers hear it that way or that almost all do? In my experience (mostly from what people have said on the Internet), it seems like a lot of people hear it that way, but maybe I'm wrong.

Also, another false friend: Spanish quitar "to remove" vs. English quit

hell "light" and hell

I can't believe I forgot that one! The other ones you gave are good, too.

[HoskhMatriarch]

Thanks. hell and hell are actually from the same root in PIE IIRC, so the might be actual cognates, but they don't mean the same thing at all anymore.

[Creyeditor]

Hausa: shi "3SG.M" she "3SG.F"
Hausa: -ku "2PL.POSS" -ku "1SG.POSS"
Hausa: -mu "1PL.POSS" -mu "2SG.POSS"
Hausa: doki "horse" donkey

The first one is especially cool, if Hebrew 3SG.F is really 'hi', because they are both Afro-Asiatic.

[Thrice Xandvii]

which many English speakers hear as "n***er"

Many?

Yes!

My whole class thought our Chinese teacher was saying that until someone finally got the cojones to ask him what he was really saying!

[Lao Kou]

which many English speakers hear as "n***er"

Many?

Yes! My whole class thought our Chinese teacher was saying that until someone finally got the cojones to ask him what he was really saying!

Okay. (Weird, but, okay. )

[Thrice Xandvii]

Mist shit, manure; mist light fog, gentle rain, also a setting for one's windshield wipers

[Sglod]

顔 kao face cow

[gestaltist]

rewelacja - something exquisite revelation
kolacja - dinner/supper colazione - breakfast
fracaso - failure fracasso - confusion, din, crash
barraca - hut, cabin, storage shed barracks
Bau - construction (site) bow

[Thrice Xandvii]

constipado stuffed up, congested; constipated unable to poop

(Weird, I just looked this one up and it appears as though Google Translate doesn't agree with me. I specifically recall this being taught to us in Spanish and our class having a lot of fun with this fact. Hmmmm.)

[Znex]

Nah, I think Google Translate's got it wrong. I just looked up a number of actual Spanish dictionaries and they agree with you.

[HoskhMatriarch]

OK, I apologize for this one:

Fach "subject, trade" and fuck

Not really so similar I would have thought of it off the top of my head, since only the first consonants are the same (at least with the German and English pronunciations I have, many English speakers say /x/ as [k] and some non-standard English dialects say final /k/ as [x]), but it apparently sounds similar to the average English speaker since someone had to comment that the word fach (as an English jargon term in classical vocal music) "isn't as obscene as it sounds" and I accidentally thought to myself sometime before then about if amateur classical singers "get fached" and then immediately thought that that would probably be misheard by 99% of the English-speaking population (even though I mentally said it [faχt] as a weird German-English hybrid word). If anyone wants to try to use fach as a verb in spoken conversation and then count what percent of people think you said something else to test my hypothesis, feel free to do so.

[GrandPiano]

alumno, alumna "student" (male and female, respectively), alumni (especially since there's another Spanish word "estudiante" that means the same thing)

colegio "school", college (similarly, there's another Spanish word "escuela" that also means school)

[Dormouse559]

Adding to GrandPiano's pair:

colegio "school", college, collège "middle school"

[Thrice Xandvii]

(I feel like we are missing out on a lot of fun French ones... where's Dormouse when you need her him!?)

arena sand; arena
chocar to crash (into); to choke
colorado reddish; colored
fábrica factory; fabric

This one... well...

mama breast; mom, mother

Edit: Well, speak not of the devil, lest he should appear!

[Dormouse559]

I added on to a couple of ThriceXandvii's and after that are a few French-English false friends off the top of my head. That last one shocked me so much when I first ran across it because I read that a French celebrity had had her first shooting after giving birth.

chocar to crash (into); to choke; choquer to shock
colorado reddish; colored; coloré colorful

étiquette label; etiquette
cabinet office; cabinet
compréhensif understanding; comprehensive
clip music video; clip
se scratcher to crash; to scratch
shooting photoshoot; shooting

(I feel like we are missing out on a lot of fun French ones... where's Dormouse when you need her!?)

Realized I've never said anything about this, but I'm male.

[Thrice Xandvii]

Realized I've never said anything about this, but I'm male.

Good to know!

It's funny, cuz I actually had that as "him/her" originally... But then I remembered the Dormouse in the story was a female mouse (wasn't she?) and changed it.

[Dormouse559]

It's funny, cuz I actually had that as "him/her" originally... But then I remembered the Dormouse in the story was a female mouse (wasn't she?) and changed it.

Which story? Ultimately, my nick alludes to Alice in Wonderland, and as far as I know, that dormouse is male.