False Friends between English and Spanish

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False Friends between English and Spanish

Building a bridge between two languages is a very demanding undertaking, and false friends
(http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/false-friend) make it harder still. False friends
are more commonly known as false cognates, or words that are similar or identical in both
languages but which convey a different meaning. They give us a false sense of security before
leading us astray. Because of their seeming familiarity the rascals are notoriously difficult to spot.
Our English-Spanish False Friends Dictionary (http://www.falsefriends.eu/en) deals with the pitfalls
that exist between English and Spanish. English is a hybrid language, with a Germanic base and a
large Latin superstructure; indeed, about half of its vocabulary is of Latin origin. So when Spanish
speakers encounter an English word with a Latin root, we tend to think that it means the same as it
does in Spanish. Sometimes it does, but we need to remain watchful because a false cognate is
never far away, waiting to trip us up.

English-Spanish false friends

One of our favourite false cognates listed in the dictionary is plague
(http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/translate/english-spanish/plague), not to be confused with
Spanish plaga (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/translate/spanish-english/plaga) (pest). In fact,
the Spanish for plague is peste, thus forming a symmetrical quartet of false friends.
Although false cognates mean different things in the two languages if they didnt they wouldnt be
false friends it is rare that they mean exactly the opposite. One example where they do is
inhabited (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/translate/english-spanish/inhabited) (habitado in
1 de 7

Spanish), whilst Spanish inhabitado means uninhabited (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com

/translate/english-spanish/uninhabited).

03/12/15 8:23 a.m.

False Friends
between
English
and Spanish
blog
http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2015/07/english-spanish-false...
Some
false
cognates
ought| OxfordWords
to come with
a warning; not
only can they lead you astray, they can be
(http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/)

Blog

simply embarrassing: for example estar constipado (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/translate

(http://blog.oxfo
/spanish-english/constipado) in Spanish means to have a cold; to say youre constipated you say
estreido (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/translate/spanish-english/estre%C3%B1ido). A
learner of Spanish may find it an odd subject for the dinner table. Another classic source of
misunderstanding is embarazada (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/translate/spanish-english
/embarazada) meaning pregnant, not embarrassed. Embarrassed
(http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/translate/english-spanish/embarrassed) in Spanish is molesto
or incmodo.

Choosing which false friends to include

When my colleague Francisco Hidalgo and I began compiling a Spanish-English dictionary of false
cognates, we established two selection criteria: the first, that the English word should resemble a
Spanish word, the second that it should have a different meaning from the similar Spanish word,
thus creating the potential for confusion. We then decided that in order for a false friend to make
an appearance in our dictionary, it would also have to meet a third criterion: having a common
etymology with its Spanish pair. However, we soon realized that this gave rise to two additional
problems: firstly, not all words have clear etymologies; and secondly, some false friends can give
rise to confusion even without sharing an etymology. So, we eventually abandoned the idea of
using etymology as a criterion and returned to our original two criteria.
Of course, it is still true that in most cases a common etymology still exists usually a Latin one
when looking at English which can be either direct (contingent) or indirect via a Romance
language, mostly French (culture) and less often Spanish (desperado) or Italian (influenza).
Then there are those other oddities: the English guerrilla is guerrillero in Spanish; guerrilla
(literally small war) in Spanish is a guerrilla war or insurgency, itself derived from guerra (war). But
guerra has a Germanic root, not a Latin one. So we have a Germanic language borrowing a word
of Germanic origin from a Romance language.
A project that originally began as a short glossary has started taking on a life of its own. We had
originally planned to distribute it amongst interpreter colleagues, but as the list of words grew we
decided to share it with a wider audience. The list is growing ever longer, thanks in part to user
contributions, and by placing the dictionary online for free we can now share the material,
collaborate with others, and really put this resource to use the way we always wanted to. Sharing
the dictionary is key to its success.
False Friends is not an English dictionary or a dictionary for correct Spanish usage; our ambitions
are more modest and limited: to draw attention to potential confusion, or at least to encourage
healthy suspicion and reflection to avoid assuming that two similar words in different languages
mean the same thing. Some words may prove to be false friends, while some may be reassuringly
2 de 7

loyal.

03/12/15 8:23 a.m.

False Friends
between
English and Spanish
blog
http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2015/07/english-spanish-false...
The
English-Spanish
False| OxfordWords
Friends Dictionary
(http://www.falsefriends.eu/en)
was compiled and
(http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/)

designed by Francisco Hidalgo and Lourdes de Rioja.

Blog
(http://blog.oxfo

The opinions and other information contained in OxfordWords blog posts and comments do not
necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of Oxford University Press.

Guest blogger

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False Friends between English and Spanish

| OxfordWords blog
http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2015/07/english-spanish-false...
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Lourdes De Rioja (http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com

/author/lourdes-de-rioja/)
4 de 7

Lourdes De Rioja is a professional conference interpreter working mainly for the European03/12/15 8:23 a.m.
Institutions, designer and producer of the SCICtrain project, a virtual library about conference

False Friends between

English and
| OxfordWords
blog
http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2015/07/english-spanish-false...
interpretation,
for Spanish
the
European
Commission,
and author
of the blog A Word In Your Ear
(http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/)

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(http://lourdesderioja.com/) which has its own YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com (http://blog.oxfo

/channel/UCmaf1_IEFHRu3X-_yUmF5qA).

Published
27 July 2015
Category
Dictionaries and lexicography (http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/category/dictionariesand-lexicography/)
Tags
false cognates (http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/tag/false-cognates/), false friends
(http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/tag/false-friends/), guerra (http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com
/tag/guerra/), guerrilla (http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/tag/guerrilla/), interpreting
(http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/tag/interpreting/), plague (http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com
/tag/plague/), Spanish (http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/tag/spanish/), translation
(http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/tag/translation/)
1 Comment

FURTHER READING

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(http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2015/04/difference-interpreting-translation/)

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(http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2013/05/spanish-internet-terms/)
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False Friends between English and Spanish

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Habla usted Spanglish?

(http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2013/06/spanglish/)

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Alfredo Hernndez

4 months ago

What a marvellous tool! Thanks for sharing, Lourdes.

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