Talk:False friend/Archive 1

Archive 1

lounas is lõuna in Estonian, not lõunais!

Notes

Maybe not a true false friend, but the 'oldtimer' bit has kept me thinking.
Like in German, Oldtimer refers to a car, not an old person. Likewise we have some odd words in the Dutch language that sounds like of English origin, but really aren't:

• Smoking (tuxedo, dinner jacket)
• Video-recorder (VCR)
• Songtekst (lyrics)
• Playback (lip-syncing)

There may be more ... --Marc NL 18:58, 11 October 2005 (UTC)

For the record, video recorder is fine in British English at least. Flapdragon 13:40, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Isn't VCR an abbreviation of Video Cassette Recorder, anyway, and isn't playback a loanword from showbiz lingo? Cf. playback singer. 惑乱 分からん 00:04, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

Smoking is short for 'smoking jacket' presumably from the turn of the 19th/20th century when smoking was a chic thing to do. It is also used in German and maybe French.

This also reminds me of the false friend "parking" as a noun (in its own right, not a gerund). In French and German "a parking" is a parking place or parking spot (ie one that is avaiable) but I have never heard the term used as in the sentence "Look for a parking", but it is quite common to hear German and French people making this kind of mistake when speaking English. Timdownie (talk) 22:15, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

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Hi!

There is another german/englisch false friend: die.

sounds like "to die" but it means "The" in the female case. (--> not "sounds like", i mean "looks like", fux, 31.05.03)

(You also mean gender, not case; case would be nominative or accusative. And of course, it's plural too. -- John Owens 09:14 31 May 2003 (UTC))

As i say: my englisch is not very good. i forgot the word "gender", so i had to help me otherwise. more important is, you know what i mean. (fux)

Der (Mann) - The (Man) --> male
Die (Frau) - The (Woman) --> female
Das (Auto) - The (Car) --> thing

Greetings from the german wikipedia ( http://de.wikipedia.org )!

-- Fux 217.225.122.228 08:47 29 May 2003 (UTC)

As I recall, the German "die" is /di:/, while the English "die" is /daI/. So it's not really correct to say that one sounds like the other. — Paul A 09:16 29 May 2003 (UTC)

Well the Spanish "once" sounds nothing like the English "once", and that's on there... -- Jlk7e

Think Paul is correcting Fux's mistake: "sounds like "to die"." (2nd line) And not to deny that it's a false friend. --Menchi 09:30 29 May 2003 (UTC)

It's not really a false friend, though - it's a totally different part of speech and the two words are very unlikely to be confused (as, admittedly, are many of the other examples in the article). Deb 21:20 29 May 2003 (UTC)

My mistake was, that i used the term "sounds" but i ment the same writing. (it was my poor englisch ;)). But the words "murder" and (german) "Mörder" sounds exactly, but "murder" means "Mord" (in englisch: "murderer")

I can remember as i was a Kid, the movie "Stirb langsam" ("Die hard" with Bruce Willis) was in tv and i haven't had any english lessons before, so i was really confused of the subtitle of this movie "die hard" (I: "the hard???"). "Die" is really a false friend. :O)

There's a related reference in the Simpsons (I think in Cape Feare), where Sideshow Bob appears in court wearing a t-shirt with the slogan "Die Bart Die", but manages to convince the court that it is in fact in German - "The Bart, The". TSP (talk) 18:06, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Today i have on the german "False friends" page ( http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falsche_Freunde ) added some new false friends like engl. "billion" - looks like (ger) "Billion" - but means (ger) "Milliarde" and the same to "trillion" - looks like "Trillion" - means (ger) "Billion" --fux (30.05.03)

added. (fux, 02.06.03)

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In addition to a common etymological origin, another cause of false friends can be sheer coincidence, like the Latin is, the Chinese you... -- Isn't this already covered by the False Cognates section? Words with no etymological relation, but which are spelled/sound the same. -- Wapcaplet 11:27 2 Jun 2003 (UTC)

i don't think so: every word - if spelled or written - that can be misunderstood in this way (= same writing/sound) is a false friend. (fux, 02.06.03)

You're right. Their orgin is classified as false cognates on this page now. --Menchi 11:50 2 Jun 2003 (UTC)

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Independent origin and false cognates

Isn't the independent origin what caused false cognate? Currently the sentence "In certain cases, false friends were created separately in the two languages" is listed under the heading "cognate." --Menchi 11:50 2 Jun 2003 (UTC)

I just looked thru the revision history, and found that the above sentence was originally listed under "false cognate," until last year, when Uri Yanover reoraganized it in a minor edit.

But Uri is not a Wikipedian anymore, so I couldn't ask him about it. What are your thoughts on where the sentence is better placed? --Menchi 03:50 3 Jun 2003 (UTC)

It's been almost 20 days, and nobody responded, so I have moved. Feel free to move back with an explanation. --Menchi 03:11 23 Jun 2003 (UTC)

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The table really should be split into two tables, one for friends of identical/similar pronunciation (that would be the more interesting one, IMO) and one for identical/similar spelling (of which there are many more cases, once you start to look for them.) For example, the German Rat is pronounced more like rot, and die is pronounced dee, not like the English verb die. Mkweise 03:12 3 Jun 2003 (UTC)

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Another false friend is from Tabasaran, a Daghestanian language of the Caucasus. The word is /jiR/ (pronounced as English year but with an uvular fricative at the end); it sounds like year, but really means day. thefamouseccles 05:29 29 Sep 2003 (UTC)

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Our friend 65.89.202.98 (I so hate contributions where people can't be bothered to give themselves some kind of name) has removed several examples of false friends, two of which were perfectly good examples in English and in German: dick and wanken. I have re-entered them with comments to show that they were there in a totally correct context. If, however, s/he thinks anything is to be gained by bowdlerizing a language they couldn't be more wrong. We have to live with a language as it is, rather than being comfortable only with the words we like. Dieter Simon 23:10, 22 Oct 2003 (UTC)

--

Some other suggestions: Chinese (I don't know which) 'Gai' -- sounds like 'guy', means 'chicken' Japanese 'Hai' sounds like 'Hi' (hello), means no (sort of). Japanese 'Ile' or 'Iie' (depending on translit), sounds like 'Yeah', means. 'No' 'Weiner' in German/Austrian, of course, does not mean 'hot dog' or anything of similar shape by any means. I once saw a site for a live-action vampire role-playing game troupe in Vienna that went by the name 'Weiner Blut' which sounds all fine in German, but when read by a native English speaker sounds like something much more painful.

Huhhh, late response, but Japanese "Hai" doesn't mean "No!", it means "Yes!", it's just that the Japanese respond "Yes!" to a negative query, instead of "No!"

Dieter, if a name were really considered a requirement, WIki wouldn't allow people to edit without logging in with one, would it?

No, my main objection was really to the removal of the German words "dick" - "fat or thick" and "wanken" - "to yield, to sway, to waver, to falter" (and quite a few more synonyms), both words are perfectly legit. Why they were ever taken out I do not know! All I meant was they should have the courage of their conviction so I can talk to them person to person about the removal of the words. There was no offence intended on my part. --Dieter Simon 19:19, 3 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Dictionary intro

The original meaning of false friend is someone who appears to be a friend, but is actually an enemy. The phrase "false friend" is an old phrase. It is found in William Shakespeare's Richard III, act III scene i.

In it, Richard III tells Prince Edward:

Those uncles which you want were dangerous;

Your grace attended to their sugar'd words,

But look'd not on the poison of their hearts :

God keep you from them, and from such false friends!

To which Prince Edward replies:

God keep me from false friends! but they were none.

From this comes the use of the term false friends to describe pairs of words in two languages...

Removed: since this is an encyclopedia, we are interested in things, not words for things. Martin 20:56, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I reckon this should be put back somewhere in the article, just not at the top. The derivation of a term is surely encyclopedic. --Phil 08:31, Mar 4, 2004 (UTC)

Well, if this article was instead titled false cognate (a synonym), would you still consider the derivation of false friend relevant? I think that's a good test for when we're including etymology for good encyclopedic reasons, and when we're including it just because we happen to know it. Personally, I'd say no, but perhaps you disagree? Martin 22:33, 4 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Letters

Does people really talk about "false friends" when it comes to letters?

I changed the example of Russian "H", because I believe it was wrong, I replaced it with the greek "P" example, instead, though I am not completely sure if it's correct...

As a matter of fact, it's not. Roman "P" is related to Greek "pi" - when this took its modern form 'rho' was modified to keep it distinct, thus: "R". You can see the older forms at Latin alphabet.

While this can certainly be confusing, I'm also dubious of calling letters "false friends". --Damezi 02:07, 25 Mar 2005 (UTC)

What about CCCP? Is that Cee Cee Cee Pee, or Ess Ess Ess Air? Pawyilee (talk) 15:39, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

It's SSSR. 71.194.38.54 (talk) 10:32, 8 January 2010 (UTC)Larry Siegel

Definition

"False friends are pairs of words in two languages or letters in two alphabets that look or sound similar but stem from unrelated sources and differ in meaning. False cognates, by contrast, share a common root but have come to have different meanings."

Not regarding the strange information about "letters", I believe this is wrong. False friends doesn't have to come from unrelated sources, they might just as well have come from the same source originally. Also, the statement about "false cognates" is completely wrong. False cognates shares different roots, but have come to have similar meanings and appearance. I rephrase this.(Haakan)

[discussion of the meaning of 'false friend' in social relations, as opposed to language, removed] 71.194.38.54 (talk) 10:33, 8 January 2010 (UTC)Larry Siegel

Homonym

Under the heading Homonym see the following: "For example, the Latin is, the Chinese you, and the German Rat (= council) when compared to the respective English words". Please add the meanings of Latin is and Chinese you as you have done with the German Rat. Dieter Simon 8 July 2005 22:30 (UTC)

I wanted to, but they are understandably hard to Google for. :) I have replaced them with another Chinese example. – Smyth\^talk 8 July 2005 22:52 (UTC)

Merge

Hi,

I don't think that "Embarazado" should be merged into this article. I just added two large paragraphs of info to that article, so integrating it into this one would clutter it up and change the subject dramatically. It would also make it harder for people to find information on the word embarazado. So, I'm removing the tag as there appears to be no interest in the subject. If you disagree, feel free to restore it.

Thanks,

Primetime 06:28, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Just pairs?

"pairs of words in two languages" There are some false friends going across more than just two languages. Leer: English - a lusty stare, Spanish - to read, German - empty.Schizombie 21:10, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

For simple words, there probably are examples of words going across tens or more of different languages, I can come up with i (English:I, Swedish:Inside, Danish:You(plur,nom case)/inside), be (English:be, Swedish:Pray) and de (Swedish:They, Dutch:The, Chinese:Of/'s, Spanish:Of, French:Of, Japanese:"By means of") just from the top of my head. If I looked through word lists, I could probably find lots of languages with different meanings for simple words like these... 惑乱 分からん 08:58, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

Incorrect translations

Changed the incorrect English translation ("cool") of Swedish rolig to "funny".

Bilingual dictionaries

Even compilers of bilingual dictionaries are sometimes fooled by false friends, particularly when they are cognates. For example, the Spanish embarazada at first glance looks like "embarrassed," but actually means "pregnant."

There seems to be an implication here (perhaps unintentional) that the word embarazada has been translated in a bilingual dictionary as "embarrassed" because it looked as if it should mean that. Can we have a reference? If that wasn't meant as a specific example, can we have a specific example? Thanks. Flapdragon 13:31, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

I never have seen the embarazada/embarrassed confusion in dictionaries, but a a good example would be cynic/cinico. Is a common mistake in english/spanish dictionaries to put one as the traslation of the other when they mean very different things (cynic = suspicaz ,cinico = shameless liar). They only mean the same thing when refering to the original philosophical meaning (the greek cynics). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.227.204.142 (talk) 06:00, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

Embarazado/a again

Contributors to this article may be interested to know that the article on Embarazada (the Spanish for "pregnant" mentioned in this article) is currently up for deletion at Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Embarazada. Flapdragon 13:45, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Japanese -> Chinese "Heavy Bleeding" in Examples

The phrase that the Japanese use for a big sale can be understood properly as a HK cantonese slang. I have no clue whether the term remains lost in translation if a Mandarin speaker reads it though. Calyth 11:02, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

I don't think 大出血 really qualifies as a false friend between Chinese and Japanese. It's not only understandable but is considered a normal usage for "heavy bleeding" in *both* languages (Just look at the first page of Google Japan results --- about half are actually medical advice pages) It's just that in Japanese, it's been extended by metaphor to mean a sale (e.g. the shop owner is "bleeding" away his profits by selling at such low prices), similar to how "blow out" is used in English (when its original meaning is about explosions). cab 14:51, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

Then please delete it or modify it if you're sure on that becuase it seems strange to me too. grendelsmother 05:07, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

Chevrolet "No va"

Please keep the legend about the Chevy Nova not going well on Spanish-speaking markets away from this article. There is not even a grain of truth in it, and as nova is not really an English word, I don't even see where this pair would qualify as false friends according to the definition given in the article even if the misunderstanding had taken place. See Chevrolet Nova#The urban legend for details. --Daniel Bunčić 08:57, 6 June 2006 (UTC) the aaccentuation's different Nova is pronounced /'no,va/ while no va is /no 'va/--AleG2 21:28, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Majority of Examples section really neccesary?

Is it really relevant to the article for that paragraph about a potential embarassing situation a native Swedish speaker could come across? It's all conjecture, and I'm sure if we went through every language we could come up with a hundred similar situations, so shouldn't we keep it limited to realistic situations, or situations that have actually happened? I can't imagine a Swede ever saying "I like your cock", since that's not even grammatically correct in Swedish. Same for the 'Whore Soldiers' 'Mercenaries' thing. I mean, it reads like the dude came up with it off the head top. At the end, "Actually, they're quite similar" sounds totally unencylopedic. I don't want to delete it since I'm not familiar with the article, but I think the reader gets the point after the first two examples. Flannel 22:51, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

The whole is example section is tritely written in my view, it should stick to a concise "word(french) = word(english)" format, for example. "chef" below is a good example, it's used in lots of European languages to mean "boss", in Czech and Slovak for example "šef". grendelsmother 05:14, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

"Chef" in German means "boss"

Maybe you'll like to add these false friends: The German word "Chef" means "boss", not "chef de cuisine (head cook)". -- Irene1949 01:21, 25 September 2006 (UTC) modified by 71.194.38.54 (talk) 10:35, 8 January 2010 (UTC)Larry Siegel

I believe in French it means the same, or "chief". Tim from Canada. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.34.225.122 (talk) 18:04, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

Correct, but is that an example of a false friend? As I understand it, it's an example of only half the term "chef de cuisine" being brought into English.

Spanish

I requested a list of Spanish/English false friends. I can contribute to this article, but can someone else start it please. Thanks. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.244.165.71 (talk) 23:41, 13 January 2007 (UTC).

Fish and chips example is not helpful

The main example of a false friend, the fish and chips example really is a very poor one, it reads:

"For example, in the US the common British fish and chips is generally taken to mean something very different than it is in Britain (namely fish and potato chips, which are known in Britain as crisps) unless the listener is +aware of the difference."

In just about every country I have ever been to (including the US), "Fish and Chips" over-rides all cultural and language barriers to become the British fish and chips. The only difference I have ever found is in the type of fish never in the type of chips.

In fact I would go as far as saying that "fish and chips" is an example of a true-friend as far as language is concerned as opposed to a false one. Anyone in the mood to think up an example that actually works? Maybe just "chips" would be a lot better an example since that one really would be a false-friend.

Lawrie 17:55, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Table (verb) is probably the best. JackLumber. 20:01, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

"Cognates"

I'm not sure that Eng. "preservative" and Ger. "Präservativ" ought to be called "cognates". It is true that they have a common ancestor in the French/Latin "préservatif/preservativus", but they are both BORROWINGS of that word.... The word "cognate" is usually reserved for words that are descended from a common ancestor through a process of regular sound change w/out borrowing, e.g. English "father" and Latin "pater".--Gheuf 04:28, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

So what do you call words from the same language that have different meanings but a common origin? I'm thinking of English golf and club, both from a (deduced) Old High German word kolb, meaning a hit or whack.

Nuttyskin (talk) 13:11, 16 December 2009 (UTC)

False friends vs. false cognates?

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what a false friend is, but, to be a false friend instead of a false cognate, doesn't the word have to look like it is the same word in another language? For example, "leer" in Spanish (to read) vs. "leer" in English (lascivious look). But "embarazar" doesn't look like an English word at all—though it does look like a cognate for an English word (embarrass). RobertM525 (talk) 10:02, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Causes: Idioms

I think that the example from South African English and British/American English would be a slightly better example. "Just now" in UK/US English means immediately, were as "Just now" in SA English means I'll do it shortly or in the near future. Webhat (talk) 03:29, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

"Just now" does not mean "immediately" in UK English at all. It means "just a moment ago", such as in this phrase: "Just now you said (something) and now you are saying something quite different". It is the immediate past, not the immediate future in British English. "Just now" as used in U. S. English, is "at this (very) moment" in British English, as in "at this very moment I am standing outside the pub". Unfortunately and redundantly, we also have this ridiculous phrase "at this moment in time", meaning the same thing. Dieter Simon (talk) 00:14, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

Causes: Homonyms

I noticed that the German example actually misses a German Homonym: Rad - short for Fahrrad - pronounced rat means bike.

"Demand in English and demande in French or domanda in Italian are representative of a particularly treacherous sort of false friend, in which – despite a common origin – the words have differently shaded meanings. The French and Italian homologues simply mean "request", not a forceful requirement. This led to several historic misunderstandings, such as in Canada, the failing of the Meech Lake Accord where Quebec constitutional requests were interpreted as demands.[citation needed]" I don't remember it that way at all. Quebec's requests WERE in fact demands in the English sense of the word. The provincial government was very vocal about what it wanted out of the constitutional deal. However, it is true that some French-Canadians who don't know English that well will use "demand" when they mean "ask" or "request", and cause unintentional offense. Tim from Canada. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.34.225.122 (talk) 18:14, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

Bekommen / become

The examples section says bekommen means to get, that is, to come by, not to become, and is thus a false cognate . To me, that is a non-sequitur. The fact that the words look and sound similar but have a different meaning surely means that they are false friends as per the definition? So it should say "is thus a false friend".

The question of whether they are false cognates or not seems unrelated. I do not fully understand the concept, but to me it seems they can't be totally false cognates, because their 'parent' (?) words, kommen and come are cognates. ([1])

Open4D (talk) 11:34, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

I agree. I think the whole section on German examples could use an edit for clarity.maxsch (talk) 06:04, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Bekommen and Become are actual cognates, however their meanings have shifted over time, like gift in German and English. 68.251.46.14 (talk) 16:49, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

Done. Open4D (talk) 16:36, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

Parker Pen

Does anybody know of a better source for the Parker Pen marketing gaffe reported in this article? The only sources I could find, the Serva one included, are secondhand reports by translation service providers. These are 1) not neutral, and 2) hearsay. It is not even clear what the actual Spanish phrase used was, and I am becoming more and more suspicious that this whole thing is an urban legend. maxsch (talk) 17:50, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Magazine/Chef

Magazine in English and магазин (magazin) in Russian (from the French word "magasin" of the same meaning) mean publication and shop/store, respectively.

Magazine and the aforementioned chef are examples of words borrowed into English wherein users fixate on one usage and forget others closer to the original sense. See magazine (disambiguation) for English usage in storage (of ammunition.) Even the publication was once considered a storehouse of information, but that meaning has been relegated to Digest (and occasionally to bible—but in the latter instance, bible (disambiguation) is of no help.) As for chef, it still means boss or chief in English, but with their authority restricted to kitchens. I am not, however, about to make changes to the article lest I be deemed false friend. Pawyilee (talk) 15:24, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

in german there are also the two mentioned meanings of "Magazin". Store of amuunition and weapons in military use and store of tools in a factory, but of course also the meaning newspaper of some kind. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.101.218.172 (talk) 12:52, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Just saying, but the word magazine originates from the Arabic word al-makhzan (المخزن) which also means storage room (mil. or other). 84.61.133.164 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 15:15, 17 June 2011 (UTC).

Proposal for lists of false friends in different languages

Anybody think starting some lists of false friends in different languages would be warranted? For List of English-Polish False Friends, for example, there'd be angina (heart disease in Eng, a sore throat in Pol), actual ('real' in Eng, 'up-to-date' in Pol), absurd (an adjective in Eng, a noun in Pol)... My major reservation is that apart from dictionaries, there are not many good sources so it comes close to original research - but that rule is waived for book summaries so it could be here to some extent too. We could then have lists for every language pairing that we could bother coming up with. Anybody think this is a good idea? All views are welcome:) Malick78 (talk) 13:07, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Can I just interrupt here for a mo. "Angina" is not a true false friend really because it too means 'a sore throat' in English, namely 'quinsy' which is a kind of inflammation of the tonsils, so very much a sore throat. If you look it up in a dictionary you'll see it. Dieter Simon (talk) 01:49, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

In fact Angina tonsillaris will refer you to tonsillitis. Dieter Simon (talk)

• In a very prescriptive way you are right, but I will bet you you've never heard someone say "I have angina" and mean their throat and not their heart. Basically, Poles use 'angina' to mean a range of problems from tonsillitis, to strep throat, to a bad sore throat - much broader than an English-speaker would ever use. And anyway, 99% of the time we'd just say those three versions given above, and the word 'angina' would be left unmentioned. But, btw, this is all beside the point. What do you you think of the idea of lists? :) Malick78 (talk) 15:18, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

It's in Wiktionary. --Vuo (talk) 16:52, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Spanish Examples

"In addition, the word Sympathetic in English is very similar to the Spanish word simpático, meaning "nice" or "kind", while its correct translation is "empático"."

I'm very certain that is incorrect, but I'd like to get a yes/no before removing it (and I don't want to just remove something without explaining why either). I'm not fluent in Spanish, but I imagine that "empático" means "empathetic." Besides, "nice" or "kind" is a simple way to define "sympathetic," which furthers my suspicion. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 167.206.48.220 (talk) 01:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

"Sympatico" in Spanish means nice or kind, and is especially used to describe someone having a friendly and accessible personality. It does not carry the connotation of feeling sorry or fellow-feeling that the English word "sympathetic" has. Thus "sympatico" has been adapted as an English word meaning what I just said it meant in Spanish; it has no exact English one-word equivalent. 71.194.38.54 (talk) 10:40, 8 January 2010 (UTC)Larry Siegel

In the Portuguese example, "humoroso" is very seldom used in Portuguese, being "humorado" the prefered form.Any native speaker can atest that "humorous" doesn't exist in Portuguese, not even as slang. And what is "American Portuguese"? The only country speaking Portuguese in the american continent is Brazil and the language is called Brazilian Portuguese, not "American". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 187.15.28.34 (talk) 08:54, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

The best example

wiktionary:olla is "to be" in Finnish and Estonian, and "to touch with the glans" in Swedish —Preceding unsigned comment added by Stuart Morrow (talk • contribs) 10:45, 22 April 2009 (UTC) And, in Spanish, a type of cooking pot. 71.194.38.54 (talk) 10:42, 8 January 2010 (UTC)Larry Siegel

Typographical inconsistencies

This article is inconsistent in the use of italics and quotation marks (inverted commas).

I suggest authors follow the usual English convention of italicising foreign words and placing definitions of words or expressions in quotation marks.

Furthermore, authors should use one style of quotation mark throughout the text - either single or double.

I have capitalised the initial letter of two German nouns in this article.

(Erik, The Netherlands)

213.10.17.29 (talk) 15:59, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Hi Erik, thank you for capitalising the German words. Yes, they should have been written in this way.

I am not altogether sure which other examples you are referring to. All foreign words should be italicised. However, if you are setting side by side English and foreign words, as in the illustrations of the "actual", "preservative", etc. examples then it would be silly not to italicise the English word as well. After all it is part of the same examples being discussed. In the case of Russian or Greek transcriptions from their original into English pronunciations, it is natural to put it into quotation marks as you are quoting what you'd expect English pronunciatio to be like.

Ethelred the 'Unready' is not a quotation but part of the informal name of a wellknown historical figure.

All actual quotes or citations should be in quotation marks. Perhaps I haven't noticed all the examples which you think are faulty, and you can let me know what they are? Dieter Simon (talk) 00:25, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I found some examples and shall put them right promptly. Dieter Simon (talk) 00:29, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

Have now completed the more unified transcription from some languages into English. Sorry, yes, you were right, there were quite a lot of them. Thanks for pointing that out. Dieter Simon (talk) 01:02, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

Hi, Dieter. Many thanks for your prompt answer. Yes, the page now looks much better. (Erik)

213.10.17.29 (talk) 02:38, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

(which is now anachronous)

"(which is now anachronous)"

Well, I must say this is the worst written article about language I have ever heard (yes I know what a false friend is, but anyone coming to this article that does not will not find out. What is wrong with plain English? What is wrong with Wikifying for example the foreign languages using {{lang}} or {{lang-de}}, {{lang-fr}} and so on?

Now, to "which is anachronous". Obviously whoever wrote this does not know what an anachronism is, that is, a term used now that would not have been used at the time the statement or action is set. I cannot see how something can, now, by implication become an anachronism when it was not before.

Illiteracy like this litters this article. It really will not do. Si Trew (talk) 02:23, 25 October 2009 (UTC)

Well spoken, (SimonTrew). You can contribute to this article as well as anyone else, so do have a go. Do not however say, that complex concepts such as false friend/false cognate are easy to paraphrase, or that they are easily simplified. I agree that newcomers to these subjects have to don their thinking cap, but we are not creating Simple English articles with this.

Take a look at the article parameter, for example, how would you like to paraphrase that into something a newcomer can deal with? Near impossibilty, I would say. Dieter Simon (talk) 01:12, 26 October 2009 (UTC)

Avianca crash: not false friend

The Avianca crash was not due to a false friend, a similar-sounding word with different meaning in two languages. Not being myself an aviation professional, I would expect to be able to say in everyday English "I'm out of fuel, I need a priority landing", and would take "priority landing" to be about the same as "emergency landing" in this context. In Spanish we have "prioridad" and "emergencia", with about the same implications. In technical jargon (both in English and Spanish I believe) "priority"/"prioridad" has come to be a nuanced word; e.g., priority 10 overrides priority 9 (or viceversa; numbering may go up or down). In the technical aviation world presumably an "emergency landing" has a technical definition and an approved procedure; "priority" may have a different meaning, or no formally defined meaning. What I am saying is that the Avianca crew didn't follow air traffic control English jargon and procedures; it's not an instance of a false friend at all, and the same could have happened to an English-speaking non-pilot, or in a Spanish-speaking environment. It's simply not true that "prioridad" is an absolute, not a matter of degree; here is an example in modern computing usage: asignando prioridad a los procesos (assigning priority to processes). I will delete this example; in case anyone cares to reinstate it I have pasted below the original text.

For an example of a false friend with implications, confusion between French "demander" (ask) and English "demand" is said to have caused serious diplomatic incidents, if anyone has a good reference. Pol098 (talk) 16:33, 20 February 2010 (UTC)

However, false friends have caused accidents and other serious incidents. One of the best-known examples is the 1990 crash of Avianca Flight 52 in New York. The aircraft was running out of fuel because it had been waiting too long to land, so the crew asked for a "priority" landing instead of an "emergency" landing. Unlike English where "priority" is merely part of a sequence of ever-more serious grades of urgency rather than an extreme emergency, the Spanish equivalent [prioridad] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) indicates that immediate action is required. Nobody on the ground realized how serious the situation was, and the plane ran out of fuel and crashed.

There is a gray area between 100% false friends and words with overlapping sets of meanings. IMO the article needs more clarification in this respect, with references to linguistic literature. In particular, the Avianca case requires an answer: whether there is a research for "false friends" in various jargons. Lokys dar Vienas (talk) 21:51, 10 August 2010 (UTC)

Are you talking about the polysemes and the lects? JackPotte (talk) 06:42, 11 August 2010 (UTC)

Yes, I am talking about a common situation when meanings of a polysemic word in one language do not fit exactly into a polysemic word in another language, while their overall "semantic fields" approximately match. In particular, this may happen in professional jargons (as you see in this Avianca case). Is this case covered by the term "false friend"? (BTW, if you know words such as "polyseme", please take a look at page "semantic field:" it is inconsistent and generally poor. I will probably find a sec and leave a note there, but not today) Lokys dar Vienas (talk) 03:22, 12 August 2010 (UTC)

Niggardly

How about, in English, the word "niggardly", and another word I will not be so indelicate as to mention? Truly where a "false friend" makes having an enemy unnecessary! 108.1.70.95 (talk) 10:41, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

This word is rather a partial homophone of another word I think you meant, not "false friend". "False friends" are similarly looking words from different languages. Lokys dar Vienas (talk) 15:31, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

D'OH! Is there a category for homophonic confusion, (or sexual-orientation insecurity in general)?? 108.1.70.26 (talk) 01:32, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

Corn in the UK ?

"American usage is becoming dominant in the UK ?"

I don't think so ! (UK native here)
Corn redirects to Maize which says

Outside the British Isles, another common term for maize is "corn".

Corn (disambiguation) says

Corn is the name used in the United States, Canada, and Australia for the grain maize.

In much of the world, the term "corn" is a generic term for local cereal crops, such as

• Wheat
• Barley
• Oats

I'm removing 'becoming dominant ' from False friend.
--195.137.93.171 (talk) 14:55, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

2nd Thought - am I getting old ?

Google Images [corn site:gov.uk] gives about 2 Wheat to 1 Maize, excluding historical usages (corn exchange, corn bunting ...) and an explicit 'Indian corn' !

Certainly not dominant yet !

Even as a Scot, I'm not sure whether Oats or Barley would predominate over Wheat. "Corn rigs and barley rigs" - Robert Burns

--195.137.93.171 (talk) 15:17, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

3rd thought : Google Images [corn site:gov.uk OR site:co.uk OR site:org.uk -"corn exchange" -"corn bunting" -"indian corn" -"sweet corn" -"american corn"]

does tip the balance the other way, although is swamped by imported products !

Not clearly dominant, though ...

--195.137.93.171 (talk) 15:30, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

4th thought

Google Images ["corn field" site:gov.uk OR site:co.uk OR site:org.uk]

excludes imports, and reverts it to about 2 Wheat to 1 Maize !

Maybe we're at a transition stage, but I suspect we may get a divergence as in Ivanhoe where beef and pork were used by Norman consumers and cow and pig were used by Anglo-Saxon producers. (Or was that a myth ?)

--195.137.93.171 (talk) 15:36, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

cacemphaton vs cacozelia and macaroni

"Cacemphaton" has little to do with problems across languages. wikt:cacozelia, wikt:soraismus and wikt:macaronic do. Also see wikt:graecismus and wikt:Hebraism. See False friend#Implications. DCDuring (talk) 17:54, 4 March 2011 (UTC)

true classic

There should be a mention of the beurre - burro one that's very commonly misused in Spain.

butter boter , beurre often gets translated to burro when trying to speak spanish. There's even a faulty towers sketch where it's used. Burro meaning donkey.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-oH-TELcLE

83.101.79.154 (talk) 06:11, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

And for Jargon?

quote:

False friends are pairs of words or phrases in two languages or dialects (or letters in two alphabets) that look or sound similar, but differ in meaning.

What's the linguistic terminology for jargon? Is that a dialect? And what is sound-alike jargon such as economist's "rent," rent, and natural scientist's "proof" Vs. lawyer's and other's?...long list. (Loosely, "proof" is for lawyers, laymen and math, not science. Science uses "unfalsified.")

Sound-alike jargon (particularly with similar-meaning, like "rent" and "proof",) unlike regular jargon is highly dangerous and sometimes destructive. Economics in particular has a long list of these ....linguistic abuses.
--68.127.80.84 (talk) 00:24, 20 October 2011 (UTC)Doug Bashford

Crossed False Friends - Just learned from the article that Finnish etelä = Estonian lõunais; Finnish lounas = Estonian edel. I call this “crossed false friends”. Is there an official name for this class? My present collection includes only 3 examples: English / German: where = wo who = wer; English / Portuguese: poison = veneno venom = peçonha; German / Portuguese: Inder = indiano Indianer = índio. 1947rogs (talk) 16:47, 6 December 2011 (UTC)

How old is this term.

Where and when did the term "false friends" originate? Is it technically accepted by linguists (jargon) or is it slang? Nitpyck (talk) 19:31, 15 July 2012 (UTC)

Too many.

Isn't the list of examples a bit too long? I could but lots more English/Spanish ones in but it wouldn't help as there would seem to be far too many already. It's just a list.--Bob Mudford (talk) 11:23, 18 November 2012 (UTC)

Ordinary vulgar: true friends

A Portuguese/English double false friend is for example the English word "ordinary" (which has the roughly the same meaning as "normal" or "regular") in Portuguese means "vulgar". The English word "vulgar" (something vile, rude, crude or disgusting) has the rough translation of "ordinário/a" in Portuguese, which is also used as an adjective to insult people: "Seu ordinário!" meaning "You are a vulgar!". Similar in German with "ordinär" (while a real equivalent for "ordinary" can be, especially in administrative or legal language, "ordentlich", which however also means "decent" and "tidy").

ordinary (adj.) early 15c., "belonging to the usual order or course," from Old French ordinarie "ordinary, usual" and directly from Latin ordinarius "customary, regular, usual, orderly," from ordo (genitive ordinis) "order" (see order (n.))....——Online Etymology Dictionary —— the other OED

vulgar n. late 14c., "common, ordinary," from Latin vulgaris "of or pertaining to the common people, common, vulgar," from vulgus "the common people, multitude, crowd, throng," from PIE root *wel- "to crowd, throng" (cf. Sanskrit vargah "division, group," Greek eilein "to press, throng," Middle Breton gwal'ch "abundance," Welsh gwala "sufficiency, enough"). Meaning "coarse, low, ill-bred" is first recorded 1640s, probably from earlier use (with reference to people) with meaning "belonging to the ordinary class" (1530). ——the other OED

—Pawyilee (talk) 15:24, 2 March 2013 (UTC)

Example farm

This largely unreferenced article turned into an example farm magnet. Therefore I trimmed it severely. There are whole dictionaries of false friends. Please do not add more examples, unless they illustrate some new phenomenon with false friends. Please do not add nonnotable examples. Nearly every word of greek or latin root generated false friends. Staszek Lem (talk) 17:24, 4 March 2013 (UTC)

Good!--Bob Mudford (talk) 07:31, 14 March 2013 (UTC)

A Possible Connection in the Meanings of "Embarrassed" and "Pregnant"

The words "embarrassed" and "pregnant" do not appear to have a connection in meaning, but does not mean that they do not have any connections. Did pregnancy use to be mistaken as a sign of embarrassment? Cbsteffen (talk) 21:59, 6 July 2013 (UTC)

Wrong example: lima / lime.

I corrected a wrong example of false friends using the Spanish word lima. The wrong example stated that lima, the fruit, is an equivalent of the the English lemon. This is not correct as you can see in the Wikipedia Spanish article about Citrus aurantifolia. The Spanish lima (the fruit) is lime in English. The English lemon (Citrus lemon) is limón in Spanish.
The other wrong assertion was about an eventual meaning of lima as calcium-based material, and as such, equivalent to the English lime. This is not correct, the Spanish word lima does not have such meaning: lima. The word cal is used instead.
I think I succeeded in keeping the Spanish lima in the example by introducing some changes and corrections.JetDriver (talk) 02:34, 23 November 2013 (UTC)