Rather than meaning deception, decepci<\/em>\u00f3n <\/em>is actually a disappointment; bizarro <\/em>is not bizarre, but brave; un \u00e9xito <\/em>is a success, not an exit; and pretender <\/em>does not mean to pretend, but to try. It may be quite embarrassing to make a mistake like this,\u00a0 but resist the urge to describe yourself as embarazada \u2013 <\/em>it actually means you\u2019re pregnant!<\/p>\n German<\/a> is just as bad. \u00a0The Chef <\/em>doesn\u2019t cook (they\u2019re the boss), someone brav <\/em>may well be a coward (brav actually means nice\/good), and, as many Brits have found out the hard way, asking for the Men\u00fc<\/em> won\u2019t get the waiter to bring you a list of available meals (they will probably bring you the day\u2019s set meal).\u00a0 If you\u2019re ordering food, also watch out for pepperoni \u2013 <\/em>I\u2019ve seen many a disappointed face when someone realises they\u2019ve ordered a little green pepper instead of a salami pizza; and expect a funny look if you ask for a Rezept <\/em>in a shop \u2013 this is a recipe not a receipt!<\/p>\n False friends, generally speaking, are words in another language that sound deceptively like a word in your language. Many a learner has found themself hazarding an (incorrect) guess as to the meaning of a word on the basis of its seeming familiarity, and sometimes when grasping for a word you can\u2019t quite remember, you end up with something that sounds right, but unfortunately isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re thinking of learning a new language though, please don\u2019t be put off<\/a> by these examples! False friends are just one of the many interesting things about learning a new language, even if they can occasionally lead to misunderstandings. There is definitely no need to be embarrassed about making a mistake, as that is the best way to learn, and most native speakers will find it funny, rather than annoying.<\/p>\n If anyone else has any weird or funny examples of false friends they\u2019ve encountered when learning another language, please share them with us!<\/p>\n Alex<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Learning a new language is a great experience: familiarising yourself with a new culture, discovering a new way to express yourself, and hopefully enabling yourself to order a beer in one more country. However, as a language-learner, you also need to be aware of the pitfalls that await you. The dreaded \u2018false friends\u2019 that lurk … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[244,3,9,97],"tags":[242,243,2,245,8],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Don't](\"https:\/\/eurotalk.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/embarrassed.jpg\" "\\"embarrassed\\"")
<\/a>Ok, I\u2019ll admit, one of the great things about learning Spanish<\/a> is how often you can put an \u2018o\u2019 or an \u2018a\u2019 on an English word and get a Spanish one \u2013 dentista<\/em>, artista<\/em>, famoso<\/em>, precioso<\/em>\u2026 However, unfortunately for us English speakers, it doesn\u2019t always work.<\/p>\n