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ESL forum >
Grammar and Linguistics > Are false friends the same to all of us ?
Are false friends the same to all of us ?
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florimago
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Are false friends the same to all of us ?
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Hi , my dear friends : I �ve been thinking of making a new worksheet about false friends and I have the silliest question in the world for you : Are false friends the same to all languages ? For example, a really good one for Spanish students is "I am constipated" that they usually translate as "I have a cold" . Please , leave your comments Flori
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26 Feb 2013
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rhman
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hi, false friends that i know is the same pronunciation in two languages .For example the word ( feel ) is the same pronunciation of the arabic word(فيل)which means elephant in English. |
26 Feb 2013
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EstherLee76
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I have the same understanding of false friends as you do, Florimago. Here are some I found English/Spanish (the hard way if you know what I mean) embarassed is not embarazada (pregnant) actually (really) is not actualmente (currently) usually is not usualmente "mas o menos" is not really "more or less" mostly it should be something like "sort of" or "kind of" And so on and so on, Esther |
26 Feb 2013
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douglas
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No, false friends are very different, not just because of different pronunciations, but because in one language there may be multiple meanings for a single word that do not exist in the other language.
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26 Feb 2013
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florimago
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that�s what I thought . Thanks for your comments Flori |
26 Feb 2013
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yanogator
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Esther, I think you �re confused about "more or less" in English. To us it also means "kind of" or "sort of". I �m guessing that you think it is literal, meaning something like "approximately" in a measurement sense. It doesn �t. So, we could say that "mas o menos" and "more or less" are more or less the same. If we want the numerical sense, we usually say "plus or minus". One funny example I learned from a Brazilian student is that the Portuguese word for "pull" is pronounced like "push" (which I think is spelled "pux" in Portuguese). It causes confusion when they come to a door here. Bruce |
26 Feb 2013
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MarionG
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In Hebrew the word "pot" means vagina, so everytime we teach food/cooking we have giggles all around.......
and I had a laugh when I realized the religious teacher was actually serious when he suggested we don �t teach them the word!!!!
I explained to him that in Dutch the Hebrew word for Hilltop (pisgat) means �a hole to pee in � so maybe we also shouldn �t mention the name of his neighborhood.....
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26 Feb 2013
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spinney
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Hi Florimago! I don �t want to blow my own trumpet but I did these with false friends in mind for Spanish students:
This is, of course, an evil plot to get more points!  |
26 Feb 2013
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ELOJOLIE274
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when I started teaching I used the expression "a little bit" a lot until I realized that my teenaged pupils had the giggles every time I said that... because "bite" (same pronunciation) in French is slang for penis... needless to say that I �ve stopped using that expression in class :)
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26 Feb 2013
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florimago
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Wow but what�s happening here? I �m surprised with the fact that most of you know Spanish . Well, I �m laughing a lot with all your comments (a little bit, pot ...) . By the way, Spinney, I won�t get angry with you and what�s more I �m going to download your wonderful worksheets on the topic. Thanks all of you for your help and I think I won�t make a worksheet on false friends because obviously it�s not going to be useful for everybody.  Flori |
26 Feb 2013
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MoodyMoody
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florimago, don �t let that stop you! If it is useful to you, it is likely to be useful to someone else. One reason I don �t have a lot of points (other than being lazy and untalented graphically) is that I work with adults. Most of my worksheets are no good for a primary school teacher. We all have different needs; this is not a one-size-fits-all site.
As far as false friends go, I am always amused by an English gift (a present) and German Gift (poison). |
26 Feb 2013
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