Learn about some Spanish-English false friends
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Intro |
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| Michael: What are some Spanish-English false friends? |
| Cesar: And what are some words that are often used incorrectly? |
| Michael: At SpanishPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Sasha Lee is talking about today's plans to her neighbor, Adolfo Gonzalez Borrego. She says, |
| "I have a "reading" in the afternoon." |
| Sasha Lee: Tengo una lectura en la tarde. |
| Dialogue |
| Sasha Lee: Tengo una lectura en la tarde. |
| Adolfo González Borrego: ¿Una conferencia? |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Sasha Lee: Tengo una lectura en la tarde. |
| Michael: "I have a "reading" in the afternoon." |
| Adolfo González Borrego: ¿Una conferencia? |
| Michael: "A lecture?" |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: "False friends" are words that look or sound similar in two languages, but have a different meaning for each of them. This term comes from a shortened version of "false friend of the translator" coined by French linguists in 1928. These have also been called "deceptive words", "treacherous twins" and so on, just to show how they can get us into real trouble by delivering an unintended meaning. |
| Let's check out some examples of Spanish-English false friends: |
| Cesar: balde |
| Michael: This Spanish word may be easily misunderstood by English speakers as "bald", as it looks somewhat similar to that English word. However, it's actual meaning is "bucket"! In Spanish, "bald" is: |
| Cesar: calvo |
| Michael: Another false friend example is: |
| Cesar: fábrica |
| Michael: This Spanish word may be mistakenly understood as the English "fabric", but it has a completely different meaning: "factory". To say "fabric" in Spanish, you will actually use: |
| Cesar: tejido |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Let’s take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Sasha Lee says "I have a "reading" in the afternoon?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Cesar: Tengo una lectura en la tarde. |
| Michael: In this case, the false friend is: |
| Cesar: lectura |
| Michael: Sasha Lee tried to reach out for a word in Spanish that would convey the meaning of the English word "lecture". However, the Spanish chosen word: |
| Cesar: lectura |
| Michael: actually means "reading". |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: Now, let’s take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Adolfo says "A lecture?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Cesar: ¿Una conferencia? |
| Michael: From Adolfo's reply, he understood that what Sasha Lee actually wanted to say was "lecture", which in Spanish is: |
| Cesar: conferencia |
| Michael: As you can notice, false friends can easily cause confusion, as the words may look or sound similar in Spanish and English but have a completely different meaning. Therefore, it's important to learn the most common ones and memorize them so you can avoid any situations that lead to misunderstandings while speaking Spanish. |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: Now that you’re familiar with what false friends are (words that have similar spelling and/or sound, but different meaning), let’s look at some examples. |
| One could easily think that “parents” in Spanish would be: |
| Cesar: parientes |
| Michael: However, these are false friends. Actually, “parents” in Spanish is: |
| Cesar: padres |
| Michael: And the word: |
| Cesar: parientes |
| Michael: means “relatives” in English. |
| And what about “exit”? What would it be in Spanish? Let’s not confuse it with: |
| Cesar: éxito |
| Michael: As “exit” in Spanish is actually: |
| Cesar: salida |
| Michael: And the word: |
| Cesar: éxito |
| Michael: means “success”. For example, to ask "Where's the exit?" you would actually say: |
| Cesar: ¿Dónde está la salida? |
| Expansion |
| Michael: There are, instead, words that are similar (or in some cases, even look the same) in Spanish and English and actually have the same origin, and even the same meaning. These words are called "cognates". For example, the Spanish word: |
| Cesar: chocolate |
| Michael: also means "chocolate" in English. Let's see it in a sentence: |
| Cesar: Voy a comprar algunas galletas de chocolate. |
| Michael: "I'm going to buy some chocolate biscuits." |
| Let's check out another case: |
| Cesar: celebración |
| Michael: which means "celebration". In this case, the words in Spanish and English look very similar and have the same meaning. |
| Practice Section |
| Michael: Let's review. Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud. Then, repeat after Cesar focusing on pronunciation. |
| Do you remember how Sasha Lee says "I have a "reading" in the afternoon?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Cesar: Tengo una lectura en la tarde. |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Cesar: Tengo una lectura en la tarde. |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Cesar: Tengo una lectura en la tarde. |
| Michael: And do you remember how Adolfo says "A lecture?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Cesar: ¿Una conferencia? |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Cesar: ¿Una conferencia? |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Cesar: ¿Una conferencia? |
| Cultural Insight |
| Michael: It's also common to see some English words that have been imported into Spanish nowadays. For example: |
| Cesar: play |
| Michael: as in the English verb "play" with the meaning of using a Blu-ray player, DVD player, streaming service or something similar to watch a video, or using a music player to listen to a song. For example: |
| Cesar: Ponle play a la película, por favor. |
| Michael: "Play the movie, please." |
| Another example is the English word "internet", which is used in Spanish in the same way: |
| Cesar: internet |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Cesar: ¡Hasta la próxima! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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