We hope you found last month’s forum lesson interesting and informative. This month we’re tackling a translator favorite: faux amis!
A friend by any other name
Because English is part of the Germanic family of languages, German<>English translators are faced with a particularly high number of false cognates, i.e. words in one language that are identical or nearly identical to words in another language, but do not mean the same thing. We affectionately call them faux amis, false friends, or falsche Freunde.
A few examples:
- aktuell/actual
- bekommen/become
- Labor/labor
- Rat/rat
- so /also
As any web search will demonstrate, the list goes on and on…
The best advice for dealing with these “friends” is to be aware of them, know them, watch for them. Along the lines of: “Keep your friends close, but your false friends closer.”
Can you identify the correct translation for the false cognates below?
| 1. das Gift | A. maybe, possibly |
| 2. mobben | B. to touch |
| 3. tasten | C. label |
| 4. der Smoking | D. up-to-date |
| 5. fast | E. dinner jacket, tux |
| 6. hissen | F. to harass, bully |
| 7. aktuell | G. brothel |
| 8. eventuell | H. almost |
| 9. das Etikett | I. poison |
| 10. der Puff | J. to hoist |
Don’t let all this falseness fool you; there are also a great number of true cognates:
- Activ/active
- Diskussion/discussion
- Hunger/hunger
- Modern/modern
- Populär/popular
to name a few.
Have you encountered any false cognates lately? Can you think of any particularly tricky ones? Share them with us here!
2 comments
Thank you, Ulrike!
I just want to point out a couple of typos: "actual vs. aktuell" (with "ll") - and Puff is definitely a brothel and not a brother! :-)
Unfortunantely, I haven't had much time for Gengo lately, hope this will change. And there weren't many jobs on the Standard level either.
Gisela.
Thanks for your comments, Gisela! You are, of course, completely correct on both counts. A second pair of eyes is always helpful. I hope we can find a few more jobs for you in the future.
Regards,
Ulrike