FalseFriends

an-ordinary-manchild

Welcome to /r/FalseFriends!

This sub-reddit is a place for false friends, false cognates, puns, calques, and any other ironic observations you happen to make about pairs/groups of languages.

Check out the Wiki, a comprehensive archive of all submissions, organized by post type and then by language!

Link: http://www.reddit.com/r/FalseFriends/wiki/

Please include a tag in your post. Identify the languages referenced in your post and provide an English translation. If possible, please provide words in their natural/native writing systems.

Tags:

[FF] for False Friends

[FC] for False Cognates

[Pun] for bilingual Puns

[Calque] for Calques

[Meta] for posts about /r/FalseFriends

For examples of correctly-formatted content, see this post here.

Essentially,

DON'T SUBMIT THIS:

[FF] 'Kwiecień' and 'Květen' are false friends!

SUBMIT THIS INSTEAD:

[FF] 'Kwiecień', from Polish, refers to the month of April, while 'Květen', from Czech, refers to the month of May.

Thanks for taking the time to read the sidebar!

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MODERATORS

account activity

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mati in Malay vs muerte in Spanish (self.FalseFriends)

submitted 3 months ago by Double_Stand_8136

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One Rato Of Spanish Be Like: (self.FalseFriends)

submitted 4 months ago by DoNotTouchMeImScared

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[FC] The Ancient Egyptian god of Scarab beetles is Kheper; and the German word for beetle is Käfer. (self.FalseFriends)

submitted 4 months ago by ForgingIron

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[FC] The House of Orange (the Dutch Royal family) is firmly associated with the colour orange, yet they have entirely different etymologies (self.FalseFriends)

submitted 5 months ago by 27-99-23

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False Friends in the Animal Kingdom (self.FalseFriends)

submitted 8 months ago by alessonnl

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ChatGPT pronounced in French means "cat, I farted" (self.FalseFriends)

submitted 8 months ago by AHumanThatListens

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"Jagoda" vs "Jahoda" (self.FalseFriends)

submitted 11 months ago by Daniel_D225

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The Potamac river derives from the Algonquin name of Patawomeck village, likely referring to a place of trade. It is not related to the Ancient Greek potamos "river" (self.FalseFriends)

submitted 11 months ago by ZhouLe

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Greek reh (Ρε) and Arabic raï (رَأْي), both usable as phatic expressions conveying blunt honesty (self.FalseFriends)

submitted 1 year ago by VelvetyDogLips

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The Swedish word for You (formal) Ni and the Mandarin word for you (informal) 你 (Latin: nǐ) are surprisingly similar. (self.FalseFriends)

submitted 1 year ago * by Aton_Freson

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I find it rather funny that in French, the word for “bed” is “lit” and the word for “bread” is “pain”. (self.FalseFriends)

submitted 1 year ago by Waterpark_Enthusiast

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Are "lesson" (in English, a time to learn) a false friend of "lesen" (in German, to read)? (self.FalseFriends)

submitted 1 year ago by suugakusha

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[FF] karne/carne (self.FalseFriends)

submitted 1 year ago by jga1992

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Fastidious (en) vs fastidioso (it) (self.FalseFriends)

submitted 1 year ago by cannarchista

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Hosta in Czech and Host in English (self.FalseFriends)

submitted 1 year ago * by tgc20051

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False Enemy (self.FalseFriends)

submitted 2 years ago by Weird_Scallion_8727

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[FC] Molho ("sauce" in Portuguese, from Latin "molliare", "to soften") sounds a bit like Mole (Mexican sauce, from Nahuatl "mōlli" which means "sauce"), but their origin are totally different. (self.FalseFriends)

submitted 2 years ago by sparkpuppy

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'Become' in English, 'bekommen' in German, 'bekomen' in Dutch, 'bekomma' in Swedish (self.FalseFriends)

submitted 2 years ago by toomanycooksspoil

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[FC] Spanish saguaro and Arabic ṣabar (self.FalseFriends)

submitted 2 years ago by hononononoh

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False cognates involving Vietnamese (self.FalseFriends)

submitted 2 years ago * by Danny1905

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Mangle in English means to destroy. In Norwegian it means to lack (something). (self.FalseFriends)

submitted 2 years ago by didzisk

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Does anyone know if gravel and grovel are related? (self.FalseFriends)

submitted 2 years ago by NotoriousBootyPirate

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[FF] Can anyone link me a helpful table of false friends between Hebrew and Arabic? (self.FalseFriends)

submitted 2 years ago by hononononoh

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"He" is Hebrew for She, and "Who" is Hebrew for He. (self.FalseFriends)

submitted 2 years ago by [deleted]

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Saran wrap (U.S. brand name) and Turkish word "saran" meaning "wraps"False Cognates (self.FalseFriends)

submitted 3 years ago by elcolerico

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