Spanish False Friends
False friends are words that seem like they should have the same meaning when they really don’t. For example, you might think that embarazada means embarrassed, but it actually means pregnant.
The TomÃsimo Blog recently started a series on these Tricky Words, which sparked my interest. I then found a couple long lists from About.com:
These words are so difficult to memorize! Does anyone know why they sound so similar to English? Is it a coincidence? A conspiracy?
April 23rd, 2007
With some of the False Friends, they were actually congnates originally (many from the same Latin roots– English got a lot of Latin via French). But although they come from the same roots, the modern meanings of the words diverge due to language change and language shift. There are also a few “trick words” that are due to coincidence, or at least I can’t find an etymological link between them. BTW, thanks for the mention of my blog