Falsos Amigos o falsos cognados / 5 minutos de español / 5 minutes of Spanish

 

Good morning, good afternoon or good evening, depending on where you are or what time you listen to us.

 

First of all, thank you, thank you for your support, for being there week after week for more than a year and for the positive comments you send us about these talks.

 

In these 5 minutes of Spanish in the middle of the week we are going to talk about false friends or false cognates.

 

And what is this false friend stuff?

Have you ever had a friend who betrayed you? Or a person who you thought was your friend but really wasn't?

 

Doesn't that feel really ugly? Do you agree?

 

When you are learning a language, you may encounter words that sound similar to those in your own language. This is because languages are often related by history.

 

But sometimes those words that sound similar have a totally different meaning.

 

These are the false friends or false cognates.

 

How about looking at some of them?

 

“Actualmente”: means nowadays while actually is in fact or really.

 

Nowadays (Actualmente) texting is more popular than actually talking on the phone.

 

Today, texting is more popular than talking on the phone.

Ordinary in English translates as normal regular.

 

“Ordinario” in Spanish is of poor quality.

These shoes are ordinary, poor-quality, look how they break.

 

“Casualidad” is coincidence or chance

 

What a coincidence, look, we met again on the same day!

 

It can be confused with the English word casualty which means victim.

 

Or I have a commitment to this person so I want to finish this job.

 

It is in the sense of obligation: obligation or commitment.

It can be confused with the word compromise, which means compromise or arrangement.

 

But there are others that can leave us a little bit wrong.

 

If you feel sorry or ashamed, it is embarrassed, which can be confused with the word “embarazada” (pregnant).

 

Here you express: "I'm sorry I'm sorry or I'm embarrassed or embarrassed".

So, if for example you break something in a house and you feel very bad and you say I'm pregnant, they will probably say Congratulations for how many months?

 

And if you are a man and you say I'm pregnant .... well, it's impossible, maybe someone will think: science has advanced so much....

 

The correct expression would be: What a pity! (¡Qué pena!) I'm so sorry.

 

Another very common expression in English, especially in North America is exciting.

 

It is a cognate; in fact, it is excited. But it sounds strange because depending on the context it can be used for sexual arousal or the translation in English is horny. So, we recommend using the word “emocionado” or “emocionada”.

 

I'm excited (emocionado/a) about my Spanish classes!

 

We are excited to practice Spanish every Wednesday and we invite you to practice a lot more on our new site: SpanishUp2U.

 

Have you visited it yet?

Of course, you have! You have podcasts, videos and live workshops

Click here and join Spanish at your own pace.

 

Thank you very much for making it to the end of the fake friends podcast and if you liked this podcast share it with your real friends.

 

See you soon

 

Bye-bye.