# Examples of false friends in different languages, including Brit/US English? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 17, 2013, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162 "2013-03-17T11:22:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/141 "2013-03-22T05:55:42Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > Um, separation/partition is “mechitza”. :smack: So that’s why the only person that thought I was acting sensibly was the Orthodox whore I met in shul. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/142 "2013-03-22T06:01:40Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > No, I never heard anyone say it in real life, except as a joke. Not only is it very dated, it also seems to have been an exclusively upper class thing. It isn’t a Wodehouse invention though, Dorothy L. Sayers’ aristocratic detective character, Lord Peter Wimsey says it too. Wimsey, however, belongs to roughly the same period and social class as Bertie Wooster (Wimsey is an actual lord, Bertie is nephew to one). I’m trying to remember if it was used in Altman’s _Gosford Park._ Surely it was neither an invention of Wodehouse nor of Sayers, but was used by enough people that it could become an easy marker. Never read about Wimsey, but Uncle Dynamite is a man who I would love to be able to emulate. Just spread sweetness and light wherever I travel. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/143 "2013-03-22T17:07:03Z")
> [@digs](#): > > How does it work to use both senses of “fags” in canada? “Fag” does not mean “cigarette” in Canadian English. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/144 "2013-03-22T19:54:09Z")
> [@gracer](#): > > It still means “currently” in English too! > > [Dictionary.com](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/actual): 2. existing now; present; current: The ship’s actual position is 22 miles due east of Miami. > [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > I can think of a couple between German and English. … > _Actual_ in English means true or genuine, but in German the word _aktuell_ means “currently” or “as we speak”. AFAIK the corresponding word in most Romance or Germanic languages has the same meaning; it’s English that is the outlier here. > [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Hmmm…but this sounds more like navigational jargon. > > In everyday usage I can’t think of a context where it doesn’t mean “true”, or “real” or “not false”. The “actual news of the day”, if anyone actually–Hah! A little joke.–said it, could only mean the genuine or true news in contrast to news stories that were fabricated or embellished. This isn’t everyday usage no matter how you look at it, but it’s worth reading again: the combined double meaning of “current” in the opening of Claudius’s great “O my offense is rank” soliloquy in _Hamlet_, III:3 In the corrupted currents of this world Offence’s gilded hand may shove by justice, And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself Buys out the law: but 'tis not so above; ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/145 "2013-03-22T20:30:13Z")
> [@Mops](#): > > Three examples from the part of South German that I (a North German) have been transplanted to: > > _laufen_ vi. (standard German) = to run; _laufen_ vi. (Swabian) = to walk; Likewise, when I first started learning German I was taught that _gehen_ = “to go”, or “to walk”; but when years later I spent a university year in Göttingen I noticed the same thing you describe. Nearly everyone I met used _laufen_ to mean “to walk”, and this was much easier for us English native speakers, since we’re used to having different words for “to go” and “to walk”. Not long after that, I learned that the Dutch word _lopen_ also means “to walk”, although _to lope_ in English, presumably related to or borrowed from the Dutch word, has a somewhat different meaning. Be that as it may, we had a lot of North Germans in Göttingen, which led me to assume that using _laufen_ for “walk” was a Platt/northern thing. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/146 "2013-03-23T01:54:48Z")
> [@eclectic\_wench](#): > > Where Americans offer someone a ride, Irish people offer a lift. I grew up in northeast Ohio, and the “Irish” sense was/is used there. “I’m going to walk up to the bowling alley.” (about a fifteen-minute walk from home) “I’m heading that way – if you wait a few minutes, I’ll give you a lift.” Of course, there are a lot of people of Irish descent in Cleveland and its suburbs (our local Catholic church was St. Brendan’s), so perhaps the phrase was brought over from the “Auld Sod”. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/147 "2013-03-23T07:53:20Z")
Giving lifts to people is perfectly normal usage in the UK, too. It’s not just Irish. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/148 "2013-03-23T10:53:48Z")
I’m in the NJ/PA area and I hear “give you a lift” “give me a lift” from time to time so I’d say this usage is pretty common in the US. I think most people would understand it, even if they’d never used the term in this way themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/149 "2013-03-23T14:44:12Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > British exits are really amazing, man! They entrance. ---
**Author:** ![Derc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dfb087/32.png) [@Derc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derc)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/150 "2013-03-23T15:12:26Z")
> [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](#): > > Just search for “pants trousers lancashire” and you’ll see Lancastrians putting people right on their claim that “pants means underwear in the UK” 😉 Or consider [this](http://nettlemere.hubpages.com/hub/Adventures-with-English-Dialects-The-Lancashire-Dialect) site on Lancashire dialect. I suppose in the South of Greater Manchester it may be different (not sure where Pilkington is from, but as he has a Manc accent I’m assuming it’s further south than me), but definitely a few miles further north “pants = trousers”. Further north the modern parlance for ‘pants’ is ‘sub standard’ and loose change is ‘shrapnel’ ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/151 "2013-03-23T15:23:41Z")
> [@Onomatopoeia](#): > > I’m in the NJ/PA area and I hear “give you a lift” “give me a lift” from time to time so I’d say this usage is pretty common in the US. I think most people would understand it, even if they’d never used the term in this way themselves. Yeah, I’m not in your part of the country but I’ve heard “give me a lift” before and it doesn’t strike me as confusing or odd. “Give me a ride” is probably more common, but I don’t think “give me a lift” seems foreign at all. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/152 "2013-03-23T19:26:36Z")
> [@lost4life](#): > > We’re gonna sink some piss at the hotel then maybe root some Sheilas, fair dinkum. Well, I had an Aussie I know translate this. She told me it always makes her smile when she reads about fans rooting for a team. It made me think of another dirty/embarrassing Brit/US thing: Are you taking a piss (out of me-- is that necessary?). Or is it: Are you taking the piss … ? Whichever it is, it certainly gave me pause the first few times I heard it in movies. It means “are you pulling my leg”–but I don’t know if you say it only when you are really angry. Little help? ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/153 "2013-03-23T20:03:10Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Well, I had an Aussie I know translate this. She told me it always makes her smile when she reads about fans rooting for a team. > > It made me think of another dirty/embarrassing Brit/US thing: > > Are you taking a piss (out of me-- is that necessary?). > Or is it: > Are you taking the piss … ? > > Whichever it is, it certainly gave me pause the first few times I heard it in movies. > > It means “are you pulling my leg”–but I don’t know if you say it only when you are really angry. > > Little help? It’s taking the piss. I’d say you’re usually a bit angry when using it as a question, but not necessarily. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/154 "2013-03-24T10:58:57Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Well, I had an Aussie I know translate this. How did her translation match up with mine (as another Australian)? ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/155 "2013-03-24T11:14:07Z")
To waffle (in Ireland, maybe UK I dunno) means to talk incessantly or nonsensically, or a bit of both. To waffle (in the US) means to say one thing then say its opposite, as far as I’ve been able to ascertain. I’ve only seen it used in the context of politicians. Correct me if I’m wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/156 "2013-03-24T13:24:28Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > To waffle (in Ireland, maybe UK I dunno) means to talk incessantly or nonsensically, or a bit of both… When I’m doing this, in my wife’s opinion, she’ll tell me to stop plappeling. She says it’s Yiddish, which she spoke growing up. The word makes me laugh so I usually knock it off. Usually. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/157 "2013-03-24T13:59:20Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > To waffle (in Ireland, maybe UK I dunno) means to talk incessantly or nonsensically, or a bit of both. > > To waffle (in the US) means to say one thing then say its opposite, as far as I’ve been able to ascertain. I’ve only seen it used in the context of politicians. Correct me if I’m wrong. In a non-political context, it can mean to be indecisive. ---
**Author:** ![sidhechaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sidhechaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sidhechaos)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/158 "2013-03-24T14:45:42Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > In Canada, at least, “pavement” refers to a hard surface. It can be stone, asphalt, concrete, or whatever. One can refer to the pavement of both roads and sidewalks, or say that they are unpaved. In Indiana our roads are so full of potholes there is no pavement left ---
**Author:** ![Derc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dfb087/32.png) [@Derc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derc)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/159 "2013-03-24T17:04:39Z")
UK roads are for vehicles, pavements are for people, oh and prams and pushcarts, wheelchairs, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/160 "2013-03-24T17:37:52Z")
So what do they use to mean what we mean by pavement. That is the stuff that makes any path whether for vehicles or pedestrians hard and smooth. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162.md?page=9)