The confusing false friends: English is the third most spoken language in the world after Chinese and Spanish. Over 360 million people speak it as their mother tongue and another 500 million as their second language.
It´s great flexibility to conjugate verbs, and its easiness in pronuntiation, have helped English to gain ground and become the most used universal language in the world.
Nevertheless, as in all languages, its convenient to perfectly know how to use it, in order to avoid bad translations or misunderstandings. In today´s article we´re going to talk about what we call false friends, and how they have been a great headache for all of those who have adventured in discovering Shakespeare´s language.
False friends
False friends? Yes, false friends. That is exactly what it means. Continue reading and you´ll know why they are called this way. As a false friend these words can play a dirty trick.
False friends are words that seem very similar in two languages in their written form, however, they have totally oposite meanings.
All of us who are or have been students of this language, have been in a tight spot with these tricky "false friends". If we don´t know these words and we translate them just by their similarity, it can cause confusing or uncomfortable situations, bringing about the laughter.
Most common false friends
Following is a list of the most used false friends and their correct translation:
Realizar (make): confused with "to realize"
Introducir (insert): confused with "to introduce"
Argumento (reason): confused with "argument"
Fábrica (factory): confused with "fabric"
Archivar (to file): confused with "to achieve"
Asistir (to attend): confused with "to assist"
It´s a hugh list, and it would take us several more posts in our blog. Nevertheless, we hope that the concept of "false friends" is clear, and how easy it is to make mistakes.
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