English false-friends for Romance speakers... [Archive] - The Apricity Forum: A European Cultural Community

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Foxy

02-17-2011, 07:31 AM

What are all the English false friends that misguide romance speakers?
I found these:

SENSITIVE: similar to ITA/ESP. "sentitivo" and FR. "sensitif", that in English mean "medium". Sensitive in English means actually ITA. "sensibile", ESP "sensible", FR. "sensible".

SENSIBLE: similar to ITA. "sensibile", ESP/FR "sensible", that in English mean "sensitive". Sensible in English means ITA "ragionevole", ESP. "razonable" and FR. "raissonable".

ACTUALLY: similar to ITA "attualmente", ESP. "actualmente" and FR. "actuellement". In English it means ITA. "in realtà", ESP. "en realidad" , FR. "en fait".

BRAVE: similar to ITA/ESP "bravo", meaning actually ITA. "coraggioso" and ESP. "valiente".

CRUDE: similar to ITA/ESP "crudo", meaning instead ITA. "grezzo", ESP "basto".

COCUMBER: similar to ITA "cocomero" but meaning instead "rock mellon" (cocomero meaning "water mellon").

DENT: similar to ITA "dente", ESP "diente", FR. "dent", meaning instead ITA "incisione", ESP. "incisiòn", FR. "incision".

FACTORY, sim. ITA "fattoria", meaning instead ITA "fabbrica".

PARENT: sim. ITA "parente", meaning instead ITA "genitore" (parente means in Engl. "relative").

Others?

Foxy

02-17-2011, 07:46 AM

INJURY: similar to ITA "ingiuria" (=insult/offence). In modern English it means ITA "ferita".

LURID: sim. ITA "lurido" (=very dirty). In English it means ITA "scandaloso/spaventoso".

LUNATIC sim. ITA "lunatico", ESP "lunàtico" (=moody). In English it means ITA "folle", ESP. "loco".

PUPIL sim. to ITA "pupilla", FR. "pupile" and ESP "pupila". Pupil means the same only in medical English, otherwise it means "schoolboy/girl".

Daos

02-17-2011, 10:34 AM

ACTUAL - means current in Romanian

ADEPT - means follower in Romanian

ADVERTISEMENT - similar to avertisment (warning)

ARM - similar to armă (weapon)

BALLOT - similar to balot (bale)

BAN - means coin in Romanian

BOX - means boxing in Romanian

BUCKET - similar to buchet (bouquet)

CAMERA - means room in Romanian

CAR - means cart in Romanian

CURVE - means whores in Romanian [from the Slavonic kurŭva]

CRIME - means murders in Romanian

EVENTUALLY - similar to eventual (possibly)

EXCITED - similar to excitat (aroused)

FABRIC - similar to fabrică (factory)

FAR - means lighthouse in Romanian

FUND - means bottom in Romanian

LACK - similar to lac (lake)

LIBRARY - similar to librărie (book-store)

MAGAZINE - similar to magazin (shop)

MARE - means big or sea in Romanian

NERVOUS - similar to nervos (angry)

NOVEL - similar to nuvelă (narrative)

PREGNANT - means obvious in Romanian

PRIZE - means outlets in Romanian

PRESERVATIVE - similar to prezervativ (condom)

PROSPECT - means leaflet in Romanian

SCHOLAR - similar to școlar (pupil)

SENSIBLE - similar to sensibil (sensitive)

SEVER - means severe in Romanian

STAMINA - means stamen in Romanian

TABLE - similar to tablă (board) [from the Slavonic tabla]

Comte Arnau

02-17-2011, 10:56 AM

Nice thread. :thumb001:

Two notes:

COCUMBER: similar to ITA "cocomero" but meaning instead "rock mellon" (cocomero meaning "water mellon").

In this case the weird one is Italian. French concombre, Catalan cogombre, Spanish cohombro and Portuguese cogombro mean the same or very similar to English cucumber.

PUPIL sim. to ITA "pupilla", FR. "pupile" and ESP "pupila". Pupil means the same only in medical English, otherwise it means "schoolboy/girl".

In Romance languages it's not a school child, but it's a boy or girl under the protection of a tutor.

Comte Arnau

02-17-2011, 11:43 AM

A few ones that are more partial and usually not so obvious:

EDUCATED

= culto, instruído (Portuguese); culto, instruido (Spanish); culte, instruït (Catalan); cultivé, instruit (French); colto, istruito (Italian)

In Romance languages, educado (Por, Spa), educat (Cat), educato (Ita) mean polite, well-mannered

CRIME

often = delito (Por, Spa); delicte (Cat); délit (Fr); delitto (Ita)

In Romance languages, crime (Por, Fr), crimen (Spa), crim (Cat), crimine (It) are usually for the serious crimes, implying murder

EVIDENCE

often = provas (Por); pruebas (Spa); proves (Cat); preuves (Fr); prove (It)

In Romance languages, evidência (Por), evidencia (Spa), evidència (Cat), évidence (Fr), evidenza (It) are more often used to mean obviousness.

SYMPATHY

often = compaixão (Por); compasión (Spa); compassió (Cat); compassion (Fr); compassione (It)

In Romance languages, simpatia (Por, Cat, It), simpatía (Spa), sympathie (Fr) are more often used for friendliness or 'likeableness'

Loddfafner

02-17-2011, 01:39 PM

I knew an Australian woman who was hitching through Europe. A truckdriver picked her up and asked if she was "une fille sensible". She thought he was asking if she was a sensible girl. He was asking if she was sensuous.

Dario Argento

02-17-2011, 09:01 PM

Bigot (English) = A racist, prejudiced person.
Bigote (Spanish = Mustache.

Embarrassed (English) = Ashamed, etc.
Embarazada (Spanish) = Pregnant

Web (English)= Something a spider makes.
Huevo (Spanish) = Egg

antonio

02-17-2011, 09:12 PM

SENSIBLE: similar to ITA. "sensibile", ESP/FR "sensible", that in English mean "sensitive". Sensible in English means ITA "ragionevole", ESP. "razonable" and FR. "raissonable".

If English reasonable doesnt exist it would be reasonable to start using it, replacing senseless sensible: how hell reason could come after sense?

antonio

02-17-2011, 09:17 PM

Bigot (English) = A racist, prejudiced person.
Bigote (Spanish = Mustache.

The funny thing is that modern Spain used to link bigotes with extreme right-wing stands.:D

Embarrassed (English) = Ashamed, etc.
Embarazada (Spanish) = Pregnant

Embarrassed=embarazoso/embarazosa.
Pregnant=preñado:D/preñada.

Web (English)= Something a spider makes.
Huevo (Spanish) = Egg

Spider web = tela de araña.

Comte Arnau

02-18-2011, 12:15 AM

If English reasonable doesnt exist it would be reasonable to start using it, replacing senseless sensible: how hell reason could come after sense?

Sensato, sensatez.

Korbis

02-18-2011, 01:06 PM

Educated / spanish educado (meaning polite)

Very common mistake.

Foxy

02-18-2011, 01:18 PM

Nice thread. :thumb001:

Two notes:

In this case the weird one is Italian. French concombre, Catalan cogombre, Spanish cohombro and Portuguese cogombro mean the same or very similar to English cucumber.

In Romance languages it's not a school child, but it's a boy or girl under the protection of a tutor.

About the mellon you are right. We call water mellon in three ways in Italy, "cocomero", "anguria" e "cetrone". Cetrone originates an other false friend "citron" but it is more dialectal than correct Italian. Anguria and cocomero are perfect synonimous but the most correct word is "anguria". If you to supermarket you find that on indications, while in spoken Italian cocomero is more used.

"Pupilla" in Italian and I think also in Spanish doesn't mean "pupil" but it's a part of the eye.

ACTUAL - means current in Romanian

ADEPT - means follower in Romanian

ADVERTISEMENT - similar to avertisment (warning)

ARM - similar to armă (weapon)

BUCKET - similar to buchet (bouquet)

CAMERA - means room in Romanian

CAR - means cart in Romanian

EVENTUALLY - similar to eventual (possibly)

FABRIC - similar to fabrică (factory)

FAR - means lighthouse in Romanian

FUND - means bottom in Romanian

LIBRARY - similar to librărie (book-store)

MAGAZINE - similar to magazin (shop)

MARE - means big or sea in Romanian

NERVOUS - similar to nervos (angry)

NOVEL - similar to nuvelă (narrative)

PRIZE - means outlets in Romanian

PRESERVATIVE - similar to prezervativ (condom)

PROSPECT - means leaflet in Romanian

SCHOLAR - similar to școlar (pupil)

SENSIBLE - similar to sensibil (sensitive)

SEVER - means severe in Romanian

TABLE - similar to tablă (board) [from the Slavonic tabla]

:eek: Identical to Italian. Same meaning, but in Italian we say respectively: attuale, adepto, avvertimento, arma, bouquet (pronunced bookè), camera, carro, eventualmente, fabbrica, faro, fondo, libreria, magazzino, prezzo (but meaning price), preservativo, prospetto, scolaro, sensibile, severo, tavolo.

Tabla is not from slavonic, but from Latin "tabula" ;)

Foxy

02-18-2011, 01:36 PM

fall: similar to ITA. "fallo", meaning both "faul" and "phallus". Instead "fall" means ITA. "caduta".

ultimate: similar to ITA. "ultimato" and "ultimatum", that in English are respectively "finished" and "ultimatum". Ultimate means ITA. "supremo".

Accident. I am sure 90% of Italians use it in the wrong way. Similar to ITA. "accidente" (=damn), it means on the contrary ITA. "incidente".

educate similar ITA "educato" (polite). Educate is ITA. "erudito".

pork similar to ITA. "porco", meaning both "pig" and "a dirty person/a perv". In English it indicated the meat of the pig, what in Italian is called "suino" (compare ENG. "swine").

bell, similar to ITA. "bel/bello" (=beautiful). The Italian equivalent of bell is instead "campanello".

cold, similar to ITA: "caldo" (=warm/hot). Cold in English means the opposite and its Italian equivalent is "freddo" (compare ENG. "freeze" and "frost").

Gymnasium, ITA: "ginnasio". The word is an ancient Greek word indicating "gym". In English it mantains the old meaning, while in Italian it is the first to years of the Classical High School, called this way becouse they work as a mental gym for the following 3 years of Lyceum.

Familiar, ITA "familiare" (=relative/of the same family). ENG. "well known/ben conosciuto".

Firm, ITA "firma" (=signature). ENG ="business/ditta".

Cute, ITA "cute" (=skin), ENG. = "nice/carino".

Sahson

02-18-2011, 02:09 PM

Wyn

02-18-2011, 02:12 PM

ARM - similar to armă (weapon)

Arm does indeed mean (among other things) 'weapon' in English. Hence 'armed robbery' etc.

SCHOLAR - similar to școlar (pupil)

Scholar means (among other things) 'pupil' in English, too.

Foxy

02-19-2011, 12:21 PM

EnglishGermanic - What
SwedishGermanic - Vad

EnlgishGermanic - Mardy (from the word Marred; Old English - Mierran)
Icelandic - Merja
Old High German - Merren

EnglishGermanic - You
SwedishGermanic - Du

EnglishGermanic - Where
SwedishGermanic - Var

EnglishGermanic - How
SwedishGermanic - Hur

EnglishGermanic - Are
SwedishGermanic - Mår

EnglishGermanic - All
SwedishGermanic - Alla

EnglishGermanic - Life
SwedishGermanic - Live

EnglishGermanic - Death
SwedishGermanic - Död

- Okay it doesn't look exactly the same, but this is East Norse compared to Anglo-Frisian/Ignaevonic language. Lets have a look at other examples...

W. FrisianGermanic(Anglo-Frisian) - Dead
DutchGermanic(Istvaeonic) - Dood
IcelandicGermanic(West Norse) - Dauða (the eth here, is pronounced Th.)

Yes we know that English is a germanic language. This thread is for romance speakers (French, Italians, Spaniards, Portugueses, Romanians and Moldavians) to help us in understanding the right meaning of some loans of romance origin that in English changed meaning.
In other words, some English words from Latin, Italian, French changed meaning with the time. Often English conserves the old meaning, while in modern romance languages the meaning has changed, so when we use these words we often mean an other thing, so a romance speaker means something but the English speaker understands an other thing.
This thread is also about some English words which look similar to romance words but have germanic origins and an other meaning. If an Italian reads "arm", the first thing we think of is "weapon" (in Italiana "arma"), same for "army" (in Italian "esercito").
Army is from Latin-> "armata", which effectively means "army", but today "armata" in modern Italian refers more to a sea army/a float or to many troops of warriors, so to an ancient or medieval army.
We call these words "false-friends" becouse apparently they help us (they look similar to our words) but actually they have an other meaning and mistake us.

Comte Arnau

02-19-2011, 03:33 PM

This thread is for romance speakers (French, Italians, Spaniards, Portugueses, Romanians and Moldavians)

Hey, and Belgians, Swiss, Andorrans, Monegasque and Sanmarinese? :mad:

SwordoftheVistula

02-20-2011, 10:04 AM

COCUMBER: similar to ITA "cocomero" but meaning instead "rock mellon" (cocomero meaning "water mellon").

That's 'Cucumber'

Army is from Latin-> "armata", which effectively means "army", but today "armata" in modern Italian refers more to a sea army/a float or to many troops of warriors, so to an ancient or medieval army.

'Armada' is used in English for a large sea army/a float, coming from the 'Spanish Armada', 'Fleet' is the more native/common name for such.

You might also add 'liberale' (It) vs 'liberal' (Eng). 'Liberal' (Eng) generally refers to socialdemocratici.

Foxy

02-20-2011, 10:25 AM

Hey, and Belgians, Swiss, Andorrans, Monegasque and Sanmarinese? :mad:

No they are not allowed. :p Especially Sanmarineses... Let's include also Vatican then...

That's 'Cucumber'

'Armada' is used in English for a large sea army/a float, coming from the 'Spanish Armada', 'Fleet' is the more native/common name for such.

You might also add 'liberale' (It) vs 'liberal' (Eng). 'Liberal' (Eng) generally refers to socialdemocratici.

Liberale also in Italian refers to a right oriented political party of the XIX century.