# 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:** 9
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/161 "2013-03-24T17:50:17Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > 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. Road. ---
**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, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/162 "2013-03-24T18:06:00Z")
I think the answer is road surfacing or paving, non? ---
**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, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/163 "2013-03-24T18:12:11Z")
> [@Derc](#): > > UK roads are for vehicles, pavements are for people, oh and prams and pushcarts, wheelchairs, etc. This is for US also. Although both can be paved, whence this little discussion, perhaps. I think that that’s what they call it when the fix up a pavement, and you want to write your name in the cement. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/164 "2013-03-24T22:51:13Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > 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. :smack: Sorry, get what you mean now. Tarmac is still quite widely used as the name for the actual material used for roads. ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/165 "2013-03-25T00:00:21Z")
There’s also Asphalt, Concrete, and Macadam, although I rarely hear anyone younger than about 60 using that last one. ---
**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 25, 2013, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/166 "2013-03-25T00:15:34Z")
> [@Lasciel](#): > > There’s also Asphalt, Concrete, and Macadam, although I rarely hear anyone younger than about 60 using that last one. Tar macadam is a perfectly cromulent term. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/167 "2013-03-25T08:54:57Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > … which led me to assume that using _laufen_ for “walk” was a Platt/northern thing. Hmm, Swedish has borrowed a large part of its vocabulary from Plattdeutch and here it means to run. On the other hand it can have changed meaning in Northern Germany after it was exported. ---
**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 25, 2013, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/168 "2013-03-25T09:03:03Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > :smack: Sorry, get what you mean now. Tarmac is still quite widely used as the name for the actual material used for roads. I’ve always associated “tarmac” with large areas–runways, etc.–in military contexts. But that might be just me. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/169 "2013-03-25T12:09:54Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > This is for US also. Although both can be paved, whence this little discussion, perhaps. I think that that’s what they call it when the fix up a pavement, and you want to write your name in the cement. Right, but just to be clear (I know this was already mentioned), UK folks tend to use “pavement” when US folks would say “sidewalk.” ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/170 "2013-03-25T12:12:55Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > Apparently, when people in Newfoundland, or at least in this one town in Newfoundland, say “porch,” they are referring to what we in the U.S. (or at least in the Northeast) would call a “mud room.” Mud room ??? ---
**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 25, 2013, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/171 "2013-03-25T13:30:24Z")
A little alcove by the back door when you first come in to stomp the mud off your overboots and take them off if you need to. ---
**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 25, 2013, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/172 "2013-03-25T13:30:51Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > Mud room ??? A mud room is a small anteroom intended for leaving wet or muddy boots or shoes. It might be adjacent to a back or side entrance, to the kitchen, to the garage, or to the front entrance. They’re not very common in modern houses or in crowded cities. ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/173 "2013-03-25T14:13:48Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > From upthread, “loon” meaning “boy” is a north-east Scotland usage, basically Aberdeen and around that area. It’s not used outside that area, although most will know what it means. The equivalent for “girl” is “quine”. Have just noticed this post. I learned of these words on holiday a good many years ago – in a different part of Scotland, but my landlady was from the north-east. She elaborated that the standard greeting in those parts, is “Fit like, loon / quine?” I at first parsed that as meaning “[Are you feeling] fit [and well], like?”; but she explained that actual significance is, “What (=‘fit’) [is life] like [for you today]?” I do gather that the speech of folk in rural north-east Scotland, is English, but of a kind hardly recognisable or comprehensible to anyone else in the Anglosphere ! ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/174 "2013-03-25T14:25:35Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Around here, agua fresca means cold water with cold fresh fruit juice, in every case I’ve seen watermelon. You’ll see a stand for limonada (which weirdly is a lime-coconut drink) and agua fresca. > > Maybe it’s a Puerto Rican thing. The “limonada” matter – brings to mind a thread on another board, which I was reading lately. Started with a post to the effect that in Latin American Spanish, the words for “lemon” and “lime” were, so to speak, reversed vis-a-vis English: a lemon was “lima”, and a lime was “limon”. Other posters from various countries in the region chimed in, with their different versions of limes / lemons / variations thereon; and the end result was, rather, chaos and confusion. Any thoughts on the matter, from folk here acquainted with Spanish-speaking countries (including metropolitan Spain) would be received with interest. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/175 "2013-03-25T14:33:40Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > “Quite” can mean either “to a small degree”, “to a large degree”, or “completely” - the meaning is only clear from context, if at all, so it must be very baffling to non-English speakers. > > […] > > “I’m quite certain” = I’m totally certain. Indeed confusing. I’ve been using and reading “quite certain” for a long time, and never suspected it meant “totally” certain. I assumed it meant “almost certain” or something like that, that it expressed a doubt. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/176 "2013-03-25T15:53:25Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > Indeed confusing. I’ve been using and reading “quite certain” for a long time, and never suspected it meant “totally” certain. I assumed it meant “almost certain” or something like that, that it expressed a doubt. Actually i think it is even less straightforward than **Colophon** suggests. If said with emphasis on the _quite_, “quite certain” might indeed express a doubt, and be more of less equivalent to “fairly certain”; if the emphasis is on the _certain_, or there is no particular stress, it does indeed mean “absolutely certain”. When written, however, unless the _quite_ is italicized, you can be reasonably certain that it means “absolutely certain”. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/177 "2013-03-25T16:22:20Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > They’re not very common in modern houses or in crowded cities. They aren’t? Standard part of any house or flat where I live if I understood your description of them. > [@vontsira](#): > > I do gather that the speech of folk in rural north-east Scotland, is English, but of a kind hardly recognisable or comprehensible to anyone else in the Anglosphere ! I was once asked by a Scottish friend if I really did understand what T. from Elgin was saying as she didn’t. The thing is that M., who is from Glasgow, also has a very heavy accent, so I, who is not a native speaker, had to concentrate hard on understanding both of them. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/178 "2013-03-25T16:25:25Z")
I’ve never seen an apartment with a mudroom. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/179 "2013-03-25T16:31:03Z")
> [@Floater](#): > > They aren’t? Standard part of any house or flat where I live if I understood your description of them. > > I was once asked by a Scottish friend if I really did understand what T. from Elgin was saying as she didn’t. The thing is that M., who is from Glasgow, also has a very heavy accent, so I, who is not a native speaker, had to concentrate hard on understanding both of them. I’ve only seen them in manor houses and one fairly ordinary house where they’re referred to as a boot room but are the exact room you describe. ---
**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 25, 2013, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162/180 "2013-03-25T16:33:31Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > A mud room is a small anteroom intended for leaving wet or muddy boots or shoes. It might be adjacent to a back or side entrance, to the kitchen, to the garage, or to the front entrance. They’re not very common in modern houses or in crowded cities. > [@Floater](#): > > They aren’t? Standard part of any house or flat where I live if I understood your description of them. A mudroom isn’t just the entrance to a house. Most houses and apartments around here have some kind of space around the entrance, but not a mud room. Especially, in an apartment, where space is at a premium, it would be unusual to have a mud room. If you’re talking about a modern house, if someone mentions having a mud room, I would assume that it’s the residence of a fairly wealthy person. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-false-friends-in-different-languages-including-brit-us-english/653162.md?page=10)