English false friends: words that look familiar and mean something else

What a false friend is

The Cambridge Dictionary defines a false friend as a word that is often confused with a word in another language with a different meaning, because the two words look or sound similar. The name comes from French: faux amis, made popular by a 1928 book by Maxime Koessler and Jules Derocquigny about the traps of English vocabulary for French translators. Linguists also call them deceptive cognates.

False friends are a problem precisely because they feel safe. When you meet a completely new word, you look it up. When you meet a word that looks like one you already know, you assume you understand it, and you move on. That is how a Spanish speaker ends up saying “I'm embarrassed” to mean pregnant, or an Italian student reads that something will happen “eventually” and thinks it might happen, when in fact it will happen, only later.

The good news is that most similar-looking words are true friends. Information, possible, important, family and hundreds of others mean the same thing in English and in the Romance languages. The false ones are a limited group, and the most common of them come up again and again, in every class and every exam.

Why false friends exist

English is a Germanic language, but a very large part of its vocabulary came from French after the Norman Conquest of 1066, and from Latin through the language of the church, science and law. Italian, Spanish, French and Portuguese all grew out of Latin too. So English and these languages share thousands of roots, and a shared root does not guarantee a shared meaning.

Words keep moving after they are borrowed. Actual comes from the Latin actualis, connected with acting and doing. In the Romance languages it settled on the sense of “present, current”: the Treccani dictionary gives that as the everyday meaning of the Italian attuale. In English it moved towards “real, existing in fact”, which is why actually means “in fact” and not “at the moment”.

Morbid is another good example. The Latin morbidus comes from morbus, disease, and English kept that link: the Oxford Learner's Dictionaries define morbid as having a strong interest in sad or unpleasant things, especially disease or death. Italian went a different way, and morbido now means soft, as in un cuscino morbido, a soft pillow.

The false friends that catch almost everyone

Some false friends trip up speakers of all four Romance languages at once, because the same Latin word lives on in each of them with the same shift in meaning. If you learn this group first, you have covered the mistakes teachers hear most often, whatever your first language.

Two of these deserve a closer look because they come up in almost every conversation. Actually is used to add a fact, to correct someone politely or to show surprise: “Actually, I've never been to London.” If you want to say that something is true now, use currently, at the moment or nowadays: “I'm currently working in Milan.”

Eventually means that something happens in the end, usually after a long time or a lot of effort: “We eventually found the hotel at midnight.” It is never uncertain. If you mean “possibly” or “if necessary”, as the Italian eventualmente and the French éventuellement do, say if necessary, if needed or possibly: “Call me if necessary.”

One more pair belongs here because it comes up at school and at work. A lecture in English is a formal talk on a serious subject, given to a group of people, especially students, and it can also be a long, serious talk telling someone off. It is never reading, which is lettura in Italian, lectura in Spanish, lecture in French and leitura in Portuguese. “I have a lecture at nine” means you are going to listen to a talk, not to read a book.

Partial false friends

Not every false friend is completely false. Some words share one meaning with your language and differ in another, and these partial false friends are trickier than the total ones, because you are right part of the time. The English argument can be a reason that supports an idea, as in the Italian argomento, but it also means a disagreement, a row: “They had an argument about money.” The everyday Italian argomento, meanwhile, is usually a topic.

College is another one. In the US, college usually means a university where you study for a degree. In the UK, it can also mean a place where people study or train after they leave school. Neither is the place where children go to school, which is what colégio means in Brazil and colegio in Spain. Educated is partial too: an educated person has studied a lot, while the Italian educato usually means polite.

Agenda is a quieter partial friend. In English, an agenda is a list of matters to be discussed at a meeting, or a set of aims, sometimes hidden ones. In Italian and Spanish, agenda is also the little book where you write your appointments, which in English is a planner, or a diary in British English.

How to spot a false friend in a text

When you read, context usually warns you before a dictionary does. If you translate a word with the meaning you expected and the sentence suddenly sounds odd, stop and check that word. “The project was eventually approved after three years of meetings” makes no sense as “possibly approved after three years”, so the familiar-looking word must mean something else.

Adverbs are the most frequent troublemakers, because they are short, they come up in almost every paragraph and they rarely change the grammar of the sentence around them. Actually, eventually and the Spanish and Portuguese actualmente and atualmente slip by without making a sentence look wrong. Adjectives that describe people, such as sensible, sympathetic and educated, come next: in English, a sympathetic friend is one who understands and cares about your problems, not simply a nice one, which in French would be sympathique.

If your language is Italian

Italian speakers meet the general group above, plus some of their own. Camera is a room, while an English camera is a macchina fotografica. Parenti are relatives, and your parents are i genitori. Libreria is a bookshop, or a bookcase at home, and the place where you borrow books is a biblioteca, which is the English library.

Fattoria is a farm, so it has nothing to do with the English factory, which is a fabbrica. Morbido means soft, while morbid describes an unhealthy interest in death and disease. Annoiare is to bore, while to annoy means to irritate, which is infastidire. Sensibile is sensitive, and a sensible decision is una decisione sensata.

If your language is Spanish

The most famous Spanish false friend is embarazada, which means pregnant. If you feel awkward or ashamed, you are embarrassed, which is avergonzado or “me da vergüenza”. Constipado is another one: in Spain it usually means you have a cold, while constipated in English means only one thing, and the Spanish word for it is estreñido.

Carpeta is a folder, while a carpet is a floor covering, an alfombra or a moqueta. Actual in Spanish means current, present, so “the actual government” in English would be the real government, not el gobierno actual, which is the current government. Éxito is success, while exit is salida. Realizar is to carry out, while to realize means to understand something, often suddenly: darse cuenta.

If your language is French

French speakers share actuellement, éventuellement, sensible and librairie with the general group. Actuellement means currently, so “actually” is en fait. Éventuellement means possibly, so “eventually” is finalement. Sensible is sensitive, so sensible in English is raisonnable or sensé. Librairie is a bookshop, and library is bibliothèque.

A few more are worth knowing. Assister à means to attend, and to assist is to help. Location is a rental, while an English location is a place or position. Large means wide, while large in English means big. Raisin means grape, while an English raisin is a dried grape, a raisin sec. Coin is a corner, while a coin in English is money, une pièce.

If your language is Portuguese

Brazilian learners know the trap on doors: puxe means pull, and push is empurre. Pretender means to intend, so “eu pretendo viajar” is “I intend to travel”, while to pretend is fingir. Esquisito means strange, odd, while exquisite is very beautiful and delicate, requintado or primoroso.

Parentes are relatives, and your parents are seus pais. Colégio is a school, while college is faculdade or universidade. Pasta is a folder or a briefcase, while pasta in English is massa. Atualmente means currently, and eventualmente means occasionally, so neither one matches actually or eventually. Costume is a habit, while a costume in English is what you wear in a play or at a party, a fantasia.

Common mistakes

These sentences are typical of what teachers hear at A2 and B1, and each one uses a false friend from this article.

A word that looks familiar is not always a word you know.

How to learn false friends

The first habit is to learn them in pairs, the English word next to the word in your language that looks like it, with the right meaning of each. Writing “actually = in fact; attualmente = currently” on one card works better than learning the two words on different days, because the confusion itself is what you need to correct.

The second habit is to learn every false friend inside a full sentence. A single word is easy to mix up again; “We eventually found the hotel at midnight” is a little story, and stories stick. Say the sentence aloud a few times. Your mouth needs practice as much as your memory, because false friends tend to slip out when you speak quickly.

Third, be suspicious of any word that looks exactly like your own, especially an adverb or an adjective. If a sentence does not quite make sense with the meaning you expected, check a learner's dictionary such as Cambridge or Oxford. A quick game helps too: Alimun's false friends game puts several of the words in this article on cards, and you guess what each one really means before you flip it.

Finally, practice with people who will notice the mistake. False friends rarely stop a conversation, so nobody corrects them, and they become habits. At Alimun, your teacher corrects your homework and you meet the same small group in live classes every week, and the words from your classes come back as flashcards after each lesson, so a false friend you mixed up once is one you review until it sticks.

Questions people ask

Sources: Cambridge Dictionary: false friend, Oxford Learner's Dictionaries: actually, Oxford Learner's Dictionaries: eventually, Oxford Learner's Dictionaries: sensible, Cambridge Spanish-English Dictionary: embarazada, Treccani: attuale.