False Friends between English and Spanish | OxfordWords blog

False Friends between English and SpanishBuilding 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 friendsare more commonly known as ‘false cognates’, or words that are similar or identical in bothlanguages but which convey a different meaning. They give us a false sense of security beforeleading 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 pitfallsthat exist between English and Spanish. English is a hybrid language, with a Germanic base and alarge Latin superstructure; indeed, about half of its vocabulary is of Latin origin. So when Spanishspeakers encounter an English word with a Latin root, we tend to think that it means the same as itdoes in Spanish. Sometimes it does, but we need to remain watchful because a false cognate isnever far away, waiting to trip us up.

English-Spanish false friendsOne of our favourite false cognates listed in the dictionary is plague(http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/translate/english-spanish/plague), not to be confused withSpanish 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 didn’t they wouldn’t befalse friends – it is rare that they mean exactly the opposite. One example where they do isinhabited (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/translate/english-spanish/inhabited) (‘habitado’ inSpanish), whilst Spanish ‘inhabitado’ means uninhabited (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/translate/english-spanish/uninhabited).

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Some false cognates ought to come with a warning; not only can they lead you astray, they can besimply embarrassing: for example ‘estar constipado (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/translate/spanish-english/constipado)’ in Spanish means to have a cold; to say you’re constipated you say‘estreñido (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/translate/spanish-english/estre%C3%B1ido)’. Alearner of Spanish may find it an odd subject for the dinner table. Another classic source ofmisunderstanding 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 ‘incómodo’.

Choosing which false friends to includeWhen my colleague Francisco Hidalgo and I began compiling a Spanish-English dictionary of falsecognates, we established two selection criteria: the first, that the English word should resemble aSpanish 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 makean appearance in our dictionary, it would also have to meet a third criterion: having a commonetymology with its Spanish pair. However, we soon realized that this gave rise to two additionalproblems: firstly, not all words have clear etymologies; and secondly, some false friends can giverise to confusion even without sharing an etymology. So, we eventually abandoned the idea ofusing 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 onewhen looking at English – which can be either direct (contingent) or indirect via a Romancelanguage, 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). Butguerra has a Germanic root, not a Latin one. So we have a Germanic language borrowing a wordof 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 hadoriginally planned to distribute it amongst interpreter colleagues, but as the list of words grew wedecided to share it with a wider audience. The list is growing ever longer, thanks in part to usercontributions, 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. Sharingthe dictionary is key to its success.

False Friends is not an English dictionary or a dictionary for correct Spanish usage; our ambitionsare more modest and limited: to draw attention to potential confusion, or at least to encouragehealthy suspicion and reflection to avoid assuming that two similar words in different languagesmean the same thing. Some words may prove to be false friends, while some may be reassuringlyloyal.



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The English-Spanish False Friends Dictionary (http://www.falsefriends.eu/en) was compiled anddesigned by Francisco Hidalgo and Lourdes de Rioja.

The opinions and other information contained in OxfordWords blog posts and comments do notnecessarily reflect the opinions or positions of Oxford University Press.

Guest blogger



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Lourdes De Rioja (http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/author/lourdes-de-rioja/)Lourdes De Rioja is a professional conference interpreter working mainly for the EuropeanInstitutions, designer and producer of the SCICtrain project, a virtual library about conference



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interpretation, for the European Commission, and author of the blog A Word In Your Ear(http://lourdesderioja.com/) which has its own YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmaf1_IEFHRu3X-_yUmF5qA).

Published27 July 2015

CategoryDictionaries and lexicography (http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/category/dictionaries-and-lexicography/)

Tagsfalse 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/)

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Alfredo Hernández • 4 months ago

What a marvellous tool! Thanks for sharing, Lourdes.

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