4 Comments
User's avatar
Lou's avatar

You're right, false friends always stick!

I'd like to add a classic one for English speakers learning French: "I would like to introduce myself". In French, "s'introduire" is only literal, not figurative. Instead, you can say "se présenter ", much less graphic

Oleg's avatar

International words shared across many European languages is like a minefield, because there even really advanced speakers make mistakes. In Lithuanian "aktualus" means relevant, and "transliuoti" means "to broadcast", so a phrase "we need to translate these actual news" uttered by a Lithuanian would have the meaning of "we need to broadcast these relevant news".

Thomas L. Hutcheson's avatar

The can also be a gateway into language history. Take, Spanish "necio" and "nice." it's mainly the English word that has changed since the divergence.

Oleg's avatar

Hadn't made the connection before! How funny that the word for "foolish" became "nice.