false friend

false friend

noun

A word or phrase in one language that is similar in appearance to a word or phrase in another language but has a different meaning, as French actuel, “current,” and English actual, “real.”

Origin of false friend

Translation of French faux ami faux false ami friend

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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"false friend." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 14 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/false-friend>.

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false friend. (n.d.). Retrieved January 14th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/false-friend

Noun

(plural false friends)

(linguistics, idiomatic) A word in a foreign language that bears a deceptive resemblance to a word in one's own language, but has a different meaning.

Usage notes

Examples:
1. The French nous demandons means "we ask", but to English-speakers it sounds like "we demand", which can turn negotiation into confrontation.
2. The Spanish word embarazada means "pregnant", not "embarrassed" "” "Estoy embarazada" means "I am pregnant", not "I am embarrassed".
3. The German word will (want) is not a future tense marker "” "Ich will gehen" means "I want to go", not "I will go".
  1. Same for Dutch and Afrikaans, "Ik wil gaan" and "Ek wil gaan" mean "I want to go".
4. The Italian word triviale (vulgar) does not mean trivial, though the two words do share a common Latin root (trivium that in Latin means crossroad) "Questo Ã¨ triviale" means "This is in bad taste", not "This is obvious".
5. The Danish (also Swedish) word gift does not mean gift as in present, but can mean a verb form of to marry; Han er gift means He is married. The word for gift is gave, which is close to the past tense of the verb giver. If du gav en gave, you gave a gift. Likewise, if du gav en gift, you actually gave poison.

Adjective

false-friend

attributive form of false friend, noun.
The false-friend status of the phrase was lost on him.

English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.

Link/Cite

Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"false friend." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 14 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/false-friend>.

APA Style

false friend. (n.d.). Retrieved January 14th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/false-friend

false friend

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false friend

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