# Foreign Words That Look Like English, But Don’t Mean The Same **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 27, 2010, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902 "2010-05-27T02:04:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/1 "2010-05-27T02:04:13Z")
There are lots of times that words look similar in different language, but by no means does it mean the same! Here are some examples of German words that look like most people who speak English would understand, but you would be wrong - very wrong! {See below in spoiler box for what they REALLY mean in German.) Gurtel – not only for women, men and kids like them as well. Hell – most of you really like this in your room. Dick – nope, not what you think and few want this, no matter if you are male or female, Gay or Straight. Bar – yes, it can mean where you go to get a drink, but also has to do with money. Bad – no, it is a good thing, really. Fart – usually quite pleasant and does not stink. Mensa – nothing to do with geniuses. Kind – trust me, not all are kind. Puff – not the name of a magic dragon or what you do with a cigarette. Schmuck – although a Yiddish word for idiot or fool, this can be quite pricy. Gift – never, ever give this to a German or you will be imprisoned. Gurtel – means “belt”, as what you wear to hold your pants up. Hell – means “bright” or very well lit. Dick – this is the word for “fat” or “overweight”. Bar – this is the word for “cash” instead of a check or credit card. Bad – this means “bathroom” Fart – from the German verb fahren – means to “travel” or take a trip. Mensa – this is the cafeteria at a university where everyone has lunch. Kind – the word for “child” – hence “Kindergarten” is children’s garden. Puff – the word for whorehouse or bordello. Schmuck – this means “jewelry”. Gift – means “poison”, which is why Germans love having their pictures taken in front of “Gift Shops” for the amusement of friends back home. Feel free to add to the list, in German or other languages, if you know of any words that look similar to English, but have totally different meanings. ---
**Author:** ![dhkendall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/2 "2010-05-27T02:43:52Z")
When I was a kid I always liked how stoves were “four” in French. Not as funny as the above examples, but I always found it neat when I was a kid. I’m sure there’s lots of other examples, but can’t think of them now. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/3 "2010-05-27T03:23:50Z")
In high-school German, we sang a silly little song “Heim auf dem Herd” to the tune of “Home on the Range”. “Herd” means “stove”. 🙂 Franch has a lot of these; mostly, English and French have both taken a Lantinate word and gone in different directions with it. Oftentimes, French will take the same root and do… _different_ things to it. Example: when driving into Quebec from Vermont, there was a sign at the border advising the motorist of the fact that Quebec uses “signalisation metrique”: metric signs. But we wouldn’t use ‘signalisation’ in quite the same way. There are a lot of these ‘false friends’ between English and French. [Here’s one list](http://www.orbilat.com/Languages/French/Vocabulary/French-English-False_friends.html). ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/4 "2010-05-27T03:36:30Z")
In Spanish, you want to make sure your food has no _preservativos_ in it even if you’re not into health food, since _preservativo_ means condom. Women who do something embarrassing don’t want to tell everyone how _embarazada_ they are, since _embarazada_ means pregnant. ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/5 "2010-05-27T04:26:57Z")
Many years ago I was working on a job site, pushing wheelbarrow loads of concrete up a ramp. I remarked to a Norwegian colleague that I needed assistance in the form of a puller for the wheelbarrow. He implored me to never say that word around a Norwegian, but he would not tell me what it meant. Anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/6 "2010-05-27T09:46:35Z")
These are known as “false friends”: > **[False friend](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_friend)** > > In linguistics, a false friend is a word in a different language that looks or sounds similar to a word in a given language, but differs significantly in meaning. Examples of false friends include English embarrassed and Spanish embarazada 'pregnant'; English parents versus Portuguese parentes and Italian parenti (both meaning 'relatives'); English demand and French demander 'ask'; and English gift, German Gift 'poison', and Norwegian gift 'married'. > The term was introduced by a French book, Les... ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/7 "2010-05-27T09:54:37Z")
> [@Wallenstein](#): > > These are known as “false friends”: > > [False friend - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_friend) My Spanish teacher tended to lump these in with false cognates. While a linguistic person probably wouldn’t assume “embarazada” came from the same linguistic root as “embarrassed,” a lot of lay people would. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/8 "2010-05-27T10:15:57Z")
> [@movingfinger](#): > > Many years ago I was working on a job site, pushing wheelbarrow loads of concrete up a ramp. I remarked to a Norwegian colleague that I needed assistance in the form of a puller for the wheelbarrow. He implored me to never say that word around a Norwegian, but he would not tell me what it meant. > > Anyone? I don’t know a single Norwegian word, but in German, the verb _pullern_ means _to piss_. Maybe there is a connection. Slight nitpick for the OP: it’s _Gürtel_ and _Fahrt_. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/9 "2010-05-27T10:30:53Z")
There’s a word in Danish and Swedish which means the last few days of a sale that I don’t want to google at work, but I think it’s something like “kuntspurt”. ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/10 "2010-05-27T10:38:06Z")
Beware of Italian faucets… The one marked “C”? For “Caldo”? That’s the **hot!!** water! ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/11 "2010-05-27T10:41:52Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > My Spanish teacher tended to lump these in with false cognates. While a linguistic person probably wouldn’t assume “embarazada” came from the same linguistic root as “embarrassed,” a lot of lay people would. Are you sure it doesn’t come from the same root? [This discussion thread](http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/forums/viewthread/694/) suggests it does, and I can see the connection between being pregnant and being indisposed or hindered which is a short leap away from being embarrassed. Loving the [pic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DutchEnglishfalsefriend.png) on that Wikipedia page, btw. Edit: > [@Noone Special](#): > > Beware of Italian faucets… The one marked “C”? For “Caldo”? That’s the hot!! water! And the one labelled “F” doesn’t dispense [chocolate frogs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddo_Frog), either. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/12 "2010-05-27T11:12:20Z")
> [@Noone\_Special](#): > > Beware of Italian faucets… The one marked “C”? For “Caldo”? That’s the **hot!!** water! In the Netherlands, the hot water one is marked “Warm.” ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/13 "2010-05-27T11:46:54Z")
As every English speaker learning Hebrew knows, who is he, he is she and dog is fish. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/14 "2010-05-27T11:50:05Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > There’s a word in Danish and Swedish which means the last few days of a sale that I don’t want to google at work, but I think it’s something like “kuntspurt”. Seems I made it ruder than it is. It’s [slutspurt](http://powrightbetweentheeyes.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/04/13/slutspurt.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/15 "2010-05-27T11:51:38Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > As every English speaker learning Hebrew knows, who is he, he is she and dog is fish. You forgot “Me is who.” 🙂 _Me_ is who _Who_ is he _He_ is she and _Dog_\* is a fish - Although this one really works well for a **heavy** “Ashkenazi” accent, such as I don’t think I’ve heard in Israel, in seriousness, in, literally, **decades** ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/16 "2010-05-27T12:08:22Z")
True. However, it also works if you’re the kind of American who pronounces “dog” as _dahg_. ---
**Author:** ![Negative\_Lite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Negative\_Lite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Negative_Lite)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/17 "2010-05-27T12:15:13Z")
Spanish: apescollar - surprisingly lacking in leashed monkeys mobbing - don’t call the riot squad store - nothing for sale here apescollar = to seize by the neck mobbing = workplace harassment store = a type of sunblind or awning > [@Colophon](#): > > Are you sure it doesn’t come from the same root? [This discussion thread](http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/forums/viewthread/694/) suggests it does, and I can see the connection between being pregnant and being indisposed or hindered which is a short leap away from being embarrassed.( Yes. _embarazo_ means both pregnancy and embarrassment. _emarazada_ means pregnant and _embarazoso_ means embarrassing. ---
**Author:** ![NBYodo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a9a28c/32.png) [@NBYodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NBYodo)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/18 "2010-05-27T12:32:37Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > Bad – this means “bathroom” Actually just “bath”, as in Bad Heilbrunn (a town named for the mineral spring baths there). some more in German: bekommen = to receive (not to become) (Speise)karte = menu (some of my german/english confused friends ask for the “card” in english-speaking countries) konsequent = consistent eventuell = possible isolieren = to insulate impregnieren = to waterproof treat (e.g. clothing) massiv = solid (as in made from solid wood) sympathisch = likable ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/19 "2010-05-27T12:48:40Z")
Actually in English means something like, ‘‘in fact’’ or ‘‘in reality’’ _Actualmente_ in Spanish means ‘‘nowadays.’’ Spanish has a lot of false friends. ---
**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902/20 "2010-05-27T12:58:05Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > Actually in English means something like, ‘‘in fact’’ or ‘‘in reality’’ > > _Actualmente_ in Spanish means ‘‘nowadays.’’ > > Spanish has a lot of false friends. And in French “Actuel” means “real/current time”. Actualité means “news”. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreign-words-that-look-like-english-but-don-t-mean-the-same/540902.md?page=2)