|
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 innocent
variety includes word pairs such as: begin/beginnen, house/Haus,
garden/Garten, brown/braun, father/Vater, and summer/Sommer. There are
many of these genuine cognates, and any language learner should use
them to advantage.
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.
| Deutsch | English | Correct German Term | | bald | soon | bald = kahl
| | Billion | trillion | (US) billion = Milliarde | | Dom | cathedral | dome = Kuppel | | Gift | poison | gift, present = Geschenk | | konsequent | consistent(ly) | consequently = folglich | | Menü | today's special
(at a restaurant)
| menu = Speisekarte | | Präservativ | condom | preservative = Konservierungsmittel | | Slip | briefs, underwear | slip = Unterkleid
slip (of foot) = Fehltritt
| | winken | to wave
| to wink = blinzern, zwinkern | | | | |
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 sentences above, 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. |
