1 False Friends: How to become a steak - Vocabulary

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What’s the first thing you think of when you hear the phrase false friend? At first, it might sound like a person who pretends to be your friend, but then goes behind your back and talks badly of you, or you could imagine someone who lies to your face. Linguistically speaking, that’s what false friends do in languages, they trick and deceive!

Let’s take the well-known example of Handy. As you know it is something that fits in the palm of your hand and which you use to make phone calls. However, the English word “handy”, not only differs in meaning, but also in function. It belongs to a different part of speech, i.e. it is an adjective and not a noun.

For clarification of what is meant, let’s imagine the following situation: A couple of old friends, a German and an American, are walking down Königstraße, because the American is visiting Germany for the first time. Suddenly, the German realizes he forgot to call someone earlier, but his cell phone’s battery is too low.

So, he asks the American, “I forgot to remind Fred to make a pasta salad for the bbq tonight. Would you mind if I borrow your handy?”

And the American replies, “My handy what?”

Did you catch that? The American is still looking for the noun, or the thing he should lend to the German, but the German is completely satisfied with his request because he is convinced he wants to borrow his friend’s mobile phone. So Handy in German is a noun, in this case the cell phone, while in English handy is an adjective meaning “practical“ or “near you”.
 
So, in a sense false friends are two-faced. They are words which can occur in two different languages and look and/or sound similar. However, they mean something different.
 
All jokes aside, false friends can be detrimental in professional situations leading to misunderstandings and confusion, and in the worst case even ruining a business relationship or deal. Knowing the difference between such false friends as actual and aktuell and eventually and eventuell is crucial to getting your message across. For example, a visiting professor may misunderstand you when you inform him/her that “the actual statistics are unknown.” Do you mean the current statistics (aktuell) or the real statistics (actual)?

Or worse… an important professional relationship could come to an end when you report that the project you are working on “will eventually be done by next month“. The reason for this is because your business partner has understood that the project, despite other work and possible setbacks, will definitely be finished by next month, even though you really meant to say that it “might be” or “will possibly be” completed by then.

When learning new words in a foreign language, whether it be by reading journal articles or books, or by practicing using flash-cards, it is vital to take the time to learn as much about the word as possible and to identify any possible false friends in order to avoid a linguistically dangerous situation.

By: Agatha Chojnacki