Mist! Common false friends in German (English/German)
Beware of false friends in the German language - words that look the same as an English word, but mean something completely different. For example: bald - soon; Art - kind, manner, type; herb - bitter, harsh; fast - almost; Mist - manure, dung. The last word is often just as a mild swear word with Mist! also meaning 'Damn!'. So beware when you talk about the weather.
But my favourite false friend is Gift - meaning poison!
Sent by: Stefanie
Comments
I don't think I saw this in the comments, but my favorite false friend/false cognate is Become/Bekommen. Become in English means to "turn into" (eg, I'd like to become a doctor/teacher/etc when I grow up). Bekommen means "to receive, get" as in "I'd like to get a new computer for my birthday"
Also aktuell means current not actual,and Chef means boss not the head cook!
Made this mistake yesterday in the grocery store: Watch out when you are buying gummy bears! I'm from America, where you can call them "gummies". But never do this in Germany!
"
Understandably the cream liqueur "Irish Mist" had to be sold under a different name in Germany...
Germany is a beautiful country, it's about just as nice as the Czech Rep.
This anecdote happend in the 70ies. That time my wife liked chocolate with peppermint. So one day she bought a family pack of "After eight". Her granny,
who didn't understand English at all, came for a short visit and saw the pack laying on the table, studied it for a while and said:" My goodness, I've never seen such a big pack of this!"
A bit further down you can see why we laughed. Radha explained the meaning.
I like that you have chosen a panorama of Hamburg - my hometown - as the banner of your site.
Flag this comment