FALSE FRIENDS in Spanish and English (Part 1)

So, let's look at another topic in Spanish learning. It's called "false friends". This is important in order that natives of Spanish who you communicate with will understand you. Or else, you will be speaking nonsense and you'll sound even funny to them.

The first thing to do is to define "false friends". What are they?

False friends are words in Spanish that resemble in spelling in another language, in our case English!

For example,  the word "carpeta" in Spanish means a folder where you hide important documents, while the false friend in English is "carpet" means that textile you put on the floor to  beautify a certain room.

There are a lot of false friends in Spanish and English out there!

We'll just go over some of them in this post (or more subsequent posts later on). Ok? Ready?

False friends #1 

ASISTIR vs. ASSIST

So, as you see they almost look the same, But they really have different meaning/senses.

ASISTIR means "to attend" "to be present at", while ASSIST means "to help, aid"

Ex.  Ayer yo asistí al partido de béisbol en el estadio con unos amigos.  

       Yesterday I attended the baseball match at the stadium with some friends.

       Tommy and Jane assisted their mother in baking cupcakes.

       Tommy y Jane ayudó a su madre a cocer pastelitos.

False  friends #2

BIZARRO vs. BIZARRE

Ex.   Los soldados deberían ser siempre bizarros.

        Soldiers should always be courageous.

        In the amusement park there are some bizarre rides to try.

        En el parque de diversiones hay unos aparatos extraños que probar.

False friends # 3

CASUALIDAD vs. CASUALTY

Ex..    La semana pasada en el centro yo vi a mi enamoramiento por casualidad.

          I saw my crush by chance in downtown  last week.

          The volcanic eruption didn't lead to many casualties.

          La erupción del volcán no resultó en muchas víctimas.

False friends # 4

CHOCAR vs. CHOKE

Ex.    El camión que transportaba puercos chocó con otro camión.

         The truck that carried pigs collided with another truck.

         The girl choked on a fishbone.

         La niña atragantó con una espina de pescado.

False friends #5

CODO vs. CODE

Ex.   La señora siempre unta loción en sus codos.

        The lady always applies lotion on her elbows.

         What is the code to open this locker?

         ¿Cuál es el código para abrir este lócker?

To be continued on the next post... Stay tuned ;)