{"id":7762,"date":"2014-02-13T14:31:18","date_gmt":"2014-02-13T19:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/?p=7762"},"modified":"2017-05-19T08:43:31","modified_gmt":"2017-05-19T12:43:31","slug":"spanish-false-friends-beware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/spanish-false-friends-beware\/","title":{"rendered":"Spanish false friends… Beware!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Learning vocabulary can be very easy (I\u00b4m sure you remember the \u201cSimilar words in English and Spanish\u201d<\/a> post) because Spanish and English have lots of cognates, words with the same etymology and similar meaning. However, it can also be confusing because in both languages there are words with similar spelling or pronunciation, but quite different meaning: the so called in English \u201cfalse friends\u201d. Let\u00b4s begin.<\/p>\n

Actual vs. Actual<\/strong>
\nActual in Spanish means current<\/em>, contemporary, nothing to do with the real<\/em> or truly<\/em> meaning in English.
\n– Mi situaci\u00f3n laboral actual es terrible.
\n– My current work situation is terrible.<\/p>\n

Carpet vs. Carpeta<\/strong>
\nA carpeta<\/em> for us is a file folder<\/em>, either physically or in a computer, something very different from your carpet<\/em> or alfombra<\/em>, which is the piece of cloth people put on their floor as decoration.
\n– Guardo todos mis documentos personales en una carpeta.
\n– I keep all my personal documents in a folder.<\/p>\n

Deception vs. Decepci\u00f3n<\/strong>
\nTalking about decepci\u00f3n<\/em> is our way to express our disappointment<\/em> because things are not the way we wanted or expected them, whereas deception<\/em> for Spanish people is enga\u00f1o<\/em>.
\n– Sufrimos una gran decepci\u00f3n cuando se cancel\u00f3 la fiesta.
\n– We were very disappointed when the party was cancelled.<\/p>\n

Exit vs. \u00c9xito<\/strong>
\nThe exit<\/em> is the salida<\/em>, nothing to with the success<\/em> that our \u00e9xito<\/em> implies.
\n– \u00a1Esta canci\u00f3n es un \u00e9xito!
\n– This song is a hit!<\/p>\n

Molest vs. Molestar<\/strong>
\nIn this case, the Spanish cognate maintains the original meaning of bother or annoy, without the negative sexual implications.
\n– No molestes a tu hermano mientras est\u00e1 estudiando.
\n– Don\u00b4t bother your brother while he\u00b4s studying.<\/p>\n

Nude vs. Nudo<\/strong>
\nTo be desnudo<\/em> is to be nude<\/em>, naked. Just in case you are wearing a tie, you will have a nudo<\/em> (knot<\/em>) on it.
\n– \u00bfSabes hacer el nudo a la corbata?
\n– Do you know how to make a knot?<\/p>\n

Once vs. Once<\/strong>
\nThe Spanish translation of once<\/em> is \u201cuna vez<\/em>\u201d, so our fairy tales don\u00b4t begin \u201cOnce<\/em> upon a time there were eleven <\/em>dwarves\u2026 \u201d but \u201cHab\u00eda una vez once<\/em> enanitos\u2026\u201d. And as you have probably noticed, once<\/em> is our eleventh number<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Pie vs. Pie<\/strong>
\nYou cannot eat a pie in Spain because you\u00b4ll be considered a cannibal: you\u00b4ll be eating a foot, not a delicious pastel lol.
\n– Me duele el pie con estas botas.
\n– My foot hurts with these boots.<\/p>\n

Rope vs. ropa<\/strong>
\nAlthough they look very similar, a rope<\/em> is something very uncomfortable to wear, nothing to do with the ropa<\/em> or clothes<\/em>. We\u00b4d better use a cuerda<\/em> or soga<\/em> () to tie things together.
\n– \u00a1Necesito comparme ropa nueva!
\n– I need to buy new clothes!<\/p>\n

\"8565336<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Learning vocabulary can be very easy (I\u00b4m sure you remember the \u201cSimilar words in English and Spanish\u201d post) because Spanish and English have lots of cognates, words with the same etymology and similar meaning. However, it can also be confusing because in both languages there are words with similar spelling or pronunciation, but quite different…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":7764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[61202,13],"tags":[264,82,358369],"class_list":["post-7762","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-learning-2","category-vocabulary","tag-false-friends","tag-idioms","tag-vocabulary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7762"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10634,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7762\/revisions\/10634"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}