[Lexicog] False friends

[Vanessa Combet]

they are a bunch between English and French - the only ones I can think of
are definitely/définitivement and sensible/sensible...

-----Message d'origine-----
De : Fritz Goerling [mailto:Fritz_Goerling at sil.org]
Envoyé : mercredi 22 septembre 2004 14:29
À : lexicographylist yahoogroups
Objet : [Lexicog] False friends



I found the following in the Internet.
Do you have examples of false friends between English and your language?

Fritz Goerling

False friends (English-German)

The good news: German and English are closely related and have many words in
common.
And the bad news? German and English are closely related and have many words
in common.

Any English-speaker learning German should be aware of this fact. But
sometimes things
are not what they seem to be. Among the many words the two languages have in
common
lurk the so-called "false friends." Linguistic false friends can be just as
dangerous
as the human variety. These treacherous words pretend to be something they
aren't.
They can lead to embarrassment, or if you're lucky, just laughter.

False friends, more accurately known as "false cognates," are particularly
prevalent
in the two Germanic languages English and German. Because the two languages
are such
close relatives, they have a lot of words that look and sound alike or very
similar.

The genuine cognates can be just as helpful for a German learning English as
for an
American learning German. But the false ones can also be a hidden danger
going both ways.
(There are many German books warning of such dangers in learning English.)
Whether they
are called "confusing words," "false friends," "words to watch out for," or
anything
else, false cognates are something a language-learner must always be aware
of.
It's too easy to fall into the trap.

So, just what are we talking about, actually (aktuell)? Eventually
(eventuell), we have
to be brave (brav) and face the problem (Problem).

In the two preceding sentences, only one of the German words in parentheses
next to the
English word is a true equivalent of that word. Do you know which one? Of
the four, only
das Problem could be used in the same sense as the English. Although aktuell
looks almost
like a twin of "actual" or "actually," the German word actually means
"current, topical,
up-to-date." German eventuell is almost the opposite of "eventually,"
meaning "possibly"
or "perhaps." English "brave" is expressed in German by tapfer or mutig,
while brav means
"good, well-behaved"--as in "Du bist ein braver Junge, Hans." ("You're a
good boy, Hans.")

Some false friends are only a problem in the wrong context. Rezept resembles
the English
word "recipe" and can mean just that. But ein Rezept is also a
"prescription" for the
pharmacist (Apotheker). On the other hand, if you think "receipt" when you
see Rezept,
the German word you really want is Quittung or Beleg.

The German word Star can mean "starling" (bird), "cataract" (eye, grauer
Star) or the word
it resembles, "movie star." One thing it does not mean is a "star" in the
night sky. That
would be Stern, another false cognate.


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